Our aim is to give our trainees the technical and interpersonal skills and expertise necessary for professional success and personal development.
Our ethos is about supporting development and helping you to excel. If you join our firm as a trainee you will participate in professional training and skills courses delivered through our dedicated training programme.
The Orientation Programme
This week long programme introduces trainees to the firm and specifically to our IT, Library and Information Systems. Trainees also attend workshops and seminars in core foundation skills.
The Trainee Programme
This consists of a regular and comprehensive series of workshops and lectures covering the following areas: legal topics and practice development; lawyering skills including work management, communications, presentation, drafting and negotiation; legal research skills. The emphasis is always on the practical application of skills and knowledge.
Trainee Placements
Our trainee rotation system ensures that trainees spend periods in three or four departments during their training contract. Some trainees will spend part of their training working in our London or Brussels offices or on secondment in clients’ legal offices or business organisations. Ann Marie Carroll, our HR Manager for Trainees, manages the Trainee rotation system so that our trainees gain a broad range of experience.
Personal and Professional Development
Trainees receive regular feedback and reviews throughout their training period. As well as directing, managing and contributing to their training programme, Raphael King, our Director of Training, monitors all of our trainees’ progress throughout their training contract. As their mentor, she gets to know each and every one of them personally. Her previous experience as a practising lawyer in a corporate law firm means that she knows exactly what it’s like. According to Raphael, having been there herself, it makes it all the more satisfying to witness each trainee’s progress, to help them with any difficulties that might arise along the way and to share and enjoy their many achievements.
Your Career
This year’s retention rate of newly qualified solicitors is 100% - a total of 35 solicitors, 11 of whom qualified in January and a further 24 in July 2011. This is testament to the success of not only our recruitment process but the appeal of the firm. Your training doesn’t end when you finish your trainee programme, in fact it is just beginning. To meet our objective of delivering legal services of the highest quality to our clients we ensure that our practitioners are in a position to keep up to date with the latest in legal developments and are given opportunities to develop and enhance their skills. This includes lectures dealing with developments in areas such as new case law, new legislation, EU law, new practice and procedures. We also run workshops, Away Days, presentations and attendance at relevant conferences and seminars is encouraged.
Technology is key to meeting our business needs and we have made a considerable investment in our information systems. We are constantly reviewing, renewing and updating our technology systems to keep pace with technological change so that the firm and its people are best placed to provide a top quality service to our clients.