As someone with no background in agriculture, going into my first seat as a Trainee Solicitor in Michelmores’ team of leading agricultural lawyers was a daunting prospect.
I had heard positive things about the agricultural team and was intrigued to learn more about the rural community and agri-businesses serviced by the team as well as the wide-ranging areas of law, from traditional agricultural disputes to natural capital.
I am now three months into the agriculture seat, and it has been a great experience filled with eye opening client work, a dedicated and friendly team and a marked expansion of some of my skills in legal research, legal drafting and legal writing.
A major positive of my first three months as an agriculture trainee has been how much I have been able to attend important client meetings and hearings to give me a real first-hand experience of what working as a lawyer in the agriculture sector is like.
During my first few weeks, I accompanied a solicitor on a visit to a farm to obtain a witness statement about a historic right of access. Taking an attendance note in a barn was certainly a unique experience and it allowed me to experience what it was like to represent Michelmores and conduct legal work outside of the office in the real world of agriculture.
In my first three months, I was also given the opportunity to attend a trial in Plymouth County Court. This was a full day that involved travelling to the trial, meeting with the client and counsel to discuss strategy, attending the trial itself and taking an attendance note, a debrief with the client afterward and traveling home. It was a great experience to see the work of the team come to fruition and result in a good outcome for our client.
As a first seat trainee, there is no expectation to be perfect at everything from day one. As an agriculture trainee, however, I have been given several tasks which have allowed me to take responsibility for my learning and to develop several key legal skills with the appropriate level of supervision and support from the wider team.
An important moment in my first three months was when I was asked to present an update on recent case law to the agriculture team, including a number of partners. This was a daunting task, but I was helped by several other members of the team who pointed me in the direction of recent court decisions that they thought would be of interest and gave me tips on how to speak and present the update. This really helped to improve my legal research and public presentation skills, and it was encouraging to receive positive feedback on my presentation from a number of team members after the session.
Another key task that I have been involved with was assisting with drafting a briefing note to a client covering the law around possession cases and how to seek prohibitive injunctions. This task required a lot of focused research on the law and, when writing the note, I had to focus not only on getting the legal advice correct, but also ensuring that this was communicated in a client friendly way, using non legal terms and taking the client’s commercial and business considerations into account. It gave me a sense of pride seeing a piece of writing, which I assisted with, get sent to a major client and receive positive feedback on this from the partners in the team.
As an agriculture trainee, I have also had a lot of exposure to clients and third parties virtually. The partners in the team have been keen to get me involved in client meetings and conferences with counsel over teams, which really helps to bring the cases to life. These meetings have been about a range of legal topics, including property, business, probate and environmental law. Whilst this variety has been a learning curve, it also feels exciting to be involved with and no two days in the agriculture seat have felt the same.
As well as the work that I have done within the agriculture team, my first three months as a trainee have involved several extra events and socials which have been great for involving myself more in the Michelmores culture and developing relationships with my fellow trainees.
Within my first two weeks at the firm, I took part in the Michelmores annual 5k charity run in Exeter. This is a great occasion organised by the firm for both internal Michelmores employees and external runners to raise money for charity. This was a great icebreaker as a new trainee, and it was a great experience to run such a scenic route and raise money for charity in the process.
I have also had the opportunity to attend two law careers fairs on behalf of Michelmores, at the University of Cardiff and the University of Birmingham. It was great to speak to students at these events, to tell them about what makes the culture at Michelmores special and to share some of my own experiences as an agriculture trainee so far. The students were very interested in hearing about the firm and were surprised to hear about the variety of work that a member of the agriculture team was involved in.
These experiences were a great way to network with people inside and outside of the firm, and attending these events has improved my personal skills in public speaking and presenting to others.
My first three months as an agriculture trainee have given me several opportunities to expand my skills, and to develop my knowledge about a sector which I previously did not know much about. It has been a pleasure to work with the wider agriculture team who have been friendly, supportive and helpful throughout my time in the team.
I am looking forward to seeing what new experiences my remaining three months as an agriculture trainee have in store for me, and how these will further develop my legal skills which I can take with me to my second seat.
