Guest post by Tom Proverbs-Garbett, whose book, Being a Trainee Solicitor: How to Survive and Thrive [1], is published by Legal Futures Associate Bath Publishing [2]
Proverbs-Garbett: If you’re invited to a social event, go
In my last blog [3], I talked about the importance as a trainee or an apprentice of getting involved in the life of your firm – yes, even under the pressure of discovering how to navigate professional life and now the demands of the SQE. With party season looming, let’s revisit that idea.
In a law firm, all committees and activities focusing on volunteer and social matters will be open to every grade of employee in whatever field they work, so you’re immediately widening your circle of contacts (and dare I say it, friends) by getting involved.
Also, you’re likely to be welcomed because, and let’s be honest, organising anything in a work environment can be a thankless task.
You help to organise a wonderful occasion for colleagues to meet, talk and enjoy themselves, yet still one or two of them bowl over with ‘tips’ for how to improve it or criticisms of the arrangements (“Not this place…”). This is par for the course but, and this is my point, the benefits far outweigh such frustrations.
So, what are we talking about?
Social activities
Social activities can mean drinks organised in your department to celebrate a project completing or the firm-wide Christmas party or a leaving lunch for someone in the team or a baby shower.
If you’re invited, go. There will be times when you have conflicting plans – life doesn’t stop because you’ve joined a law firm – but by attending these things you see your colleagues in more relaxed surroundings. You get to know them.
With a greater dose of altruism, there will be corporate social responsibility (CSR) or responsible business events you can join in with. These are the umbrella names given to firm activities intended to benefit wider society: attending tree-planting days, volunteering as a school governor, reading at primary schools and so on.
Let’s pause on school support/governorship for a moment. Many of the skills developed by trainees and apprentices, such as a close attention to detail, the ability to write, the capacity to communicate to a variety of stakeholders, are transferable. A particular site for use of those skills is education.
Many firms acknowledge this and as part of their CSR programmes (by whatever name) encourage lawyers to engage with schools in a variety of ways – taking reading classes with children, running CV workshops, taking on mentorship roles with older children, etc.
For the same reasons, lawyers and those with legal training are in a prime position to assist schools by taking a governing role.
The modern school governor sits on a board of governors that is very close to the board of a company. For those who have been through a corporate seat, the structure and roles of governors and the decisions made about, for example, policies, curriculum and staffing matters will be familiar.
For those who haven’t been through a corporate seat, that’s no bar – as I say, your skills are transferable especially as governors are becoming increasingly professional.
In return, involvement in a school will allow you to develop your client-handling skills and encourage you to think independently and critically. You’ll also get the chance to engage with students via discussions with and presentations by school council (or equivalent), shaping the minds of tomorrow.
Pro bono work
Linked is legal pro bono work. Many firms will participate in, or even run, a free legal advice service in one form or another. Some firms take on clients directly; others participate in clinics run and supervised by an external not-for-profit body.
If you’re sitting in a contentious team – such as litigation – you may have the opportunity to work on international projects via charities such as Amicus. Other clinics may be less high-profile but equally worthwhile. Disputes about utility bills or other small claims cause deep concern and upset, and you can help to steer those individuals in a legally informed direction.
I’m reliably informed by those working in this area that over the last decade the status of pro bono work has grown rapidly in large firms, a consequence of wider legal aid cuts.
The consequence of this has been that pro bono activities have become formalised programmes in which trainees and apprentices play an important role. You will be able to count some or all of your volunteered time against your targets; indeed, in the largest firms there is often some kind of standalone pro bono target.
It may be that your firm offers a secondment to a pro bono client, a charity or a law centre, for example. Firms are keen to support this activity. It develops your independence as an advisor and management will have their eye on the various comparative surveys and rankings available which track pro bono opportunities and contributions made by firms.
And it’s not just the large operators: smaller firms often provide specific pro bono offers to key clients in the not-for-profit sector or, if a boutique firm, within their specialism.
For those of you whose training is (or may be) at a large corporate firm, this could be the first direct client contact you achieve, and the impact on both you, as the adviser, and the individual you advise shouldn’t be underestimated.
The person you’re assisting, who tells you they’ve barely slept for a week for worrying about how they will deal with an unexpected and unwarranted £400 electricity bill, will be truly grateful you listen to and appreciate their concerns.
That’s before you even get to advice, which may be as simple as writing down their concerns in an email or a letter and finding the right team or person to contact.
In doing this, you’re practising all of the skills you need for the day job – interviewing clients, synthesising what they tell you in order to undertake legal analysis and communicating your conclusions in terms appropriate for that client.
You’ll also get the satisfaction of making a positive contribution in someone’s moment of difficulty and to their experience of lawyers.
Sport
Wherever you practice (geographically), I can guarantee there will be a healthy inter-firm sports scene. For those interested, various leagues give rise to (largely) playful rivalry with other firms and provide a good forum for getting to know other lawyers in your area.
Don’t underestimate the benefit of knowing other lawyers. The legal world is a small one, meaning you will come up against these people time and again and it is useful to be on good terms. Much like university, there is often funding available to support and encourage sports participation of all kinds (at least in the larger firms).
These are some of the specifics, but there will be any number of special interest groups. Law firms, staffed by a bright and high-achieving workforce, generate lots of pet projects that run just for the fun of it.
Music is often high on the agenda – choirs, bands, acapella groups – along with drama groups, book clubs and the like. Consider creating your own group if you have a particular interest; I guarantee there will be someone likeminded.
What about contributing to a newsletter? Every firm will have some sort of written all-staff communication, even if it only takes the form of shared online workspace. The largest will likely have an employee magazine (now available through a cloud-based app, of course).
This is the perfect forum for seeing what your colleagues are involved in and/or publicising the groups you attempt to start yourself. If you enjoy writing creatively, this is also a great place to try reportage or, if you’re so inclined, to submit travel writing, poetry or anything you can get past the editorial team!
Lawyers (generally) love people – that’s why the role is so interesting. Part of your motivation in training will (or should) be to embrace relationships with your colleagues.
There are reciprocal benefits to engaging. For the firm to learn, in an organisational sense, it requires interaction from its people, the left hand letting the right know what it’s doing. Your contribution will help the firm develop for the better. For you, it allows you to meet many more people in your organisation than through work alone.
Most importantly, it’s something different to legal work – and change, as they say, is as good as a rest.