A seat in Immigration

The Immigration team sits alongside our Employment and Reward teams in the people-focused part of Lewis Silkin’s offering. The team advises on all aspects of UK Immigration law, with a focus on business immigration, and works with an exciting and wide range of clients and sectors, including tech, sport, professional services, and various creative industries. It’s a great option for a Trainee seat due to the high degree of responsibility, ownership of work, and client contact that Trainees experience in this seat.

The team

The team currently comprises around 30 members across our UK, Ireland, and Hong Kong offices. As a Trainee, you will work with most of the Partners and Associates in the team, depending on the team workload. There are weekly team meetings, which give you the opportunity to catch up with the rest of the team and get up to speed with the latest immigration updates. You will receive internal training from our Practice Development Lawyers (PDLs) and will have the opportunity to attend various external training sessions delivered by other practitioners, such as immigration barristers.

Types of Trainee tasks

The tasks you will typically get involved with as a Trainee in the Immigration team can include, but will not be limited to:

1) Preparing immigration applications: you will be assisting the fee-earners to assess clients’ and applicants’ eligibility for immigration applications, gather the relevant information and documents, draft and submit the application forms, and prepare advice notes to guide clients and applicants through the application process. You will also often be involved in advising businesses on obtaining sponsor licences to hire non-UK/Irish employees. These tasks will often involve liaising closely with clients and applicants directly.

2) Researching the immigration rules and guidance: you will be asked to research and present your findings on certain immigration matters and/or contact the Home Office’s UK Visas & Immigration department for clarification on matters that arise in the course of advising our clients or to assist with preparing articles for publication on our website.

3) Drafting advice emails: you will be asked to prepare first drafts of advice notes to clients on their sponsorship duties, right to work processes, visa options, eligibility for certain routes, and the various different application processes, among others.

4) Writing articles: immigration is a fast-paced area, with regular changes to the rules often making headlines. You will be involved with assisting our Practice Development Lawyers with researching and writing articles that cover updates to the immigration rules and what these mean for our clients.

5) Business development: you will also have the opportunity to attend calls with prospective clients and assist in the organisation of our various external immigration events.

Trainee responsibility

Even though you will be working closely with the fee-earner responsible for each matter, during your seat you will notice the higher degree of responsibility that comes with liaising with clients and applicants directly. As you gain more experience within the seat and become more confident in your immigration knowledge, your responsibility will grow and you will be performing certain tasks independently. Even if you decide not to qualify within this area of law, the client communication skills you will develop will prove valuable for the early stages of your career in whichever area of law you choose to qualify.

Overall, this is an enjoyable and exciting seat, which normally takes one Trainee at a time so you will benefit from great visibility. You will work with top-ranked practitioners and be challenged to develop vital skills required for a career in law and private practice.