Trainee Stories

Want to know what it’s really like to be a trainee in our firm? Hear it direct from our trainees.

A Seat in Dispute Resolution

"Whatever you may get to do, there’s an enormous range of experience to be gained from Commercial Litigation – and as someone who originally didn’t think Litigation was for them, I had my mind entirely changed by my seat in Dispute Resolution!"

The Dispute Resolution team are a tight-knit group based across the London and Cardiff offices. There’s usually only one or two Trainees, which means you can get involved with lots of cases on different subject matters with various different team members; they’ll often be in different courts across a wide variety of industries.

- Bella Lamplough Shields, Trainee Solicitor

"Even though completing a training diary likely doesn’t feature in anyone’s rose-tinted daydreams of life as a Trainee Solicitor, keeping it up to date is vital to your qualification process."

While day-to-day life as a Trainee mostly involves developing your legal skills and learning more about your department, it is underpinned by some very key admin tasks. Even though completing a training diary likely doesn’t feature in anyone’s rose-tinted daydreams of life as a Trainee Solicitor, keeping it up to date is vital to your qualification process.

- Bronte Cullum, Trainee Solicitor

"You can often be working on several cases, all at different stages involving different IP rights, you get to experience a lot during six months. You’ll also get to work with different types of clients across several industries including retail, hospitality and advertising."

The Intellectual Property Disputes team is a great seat option for Trainees at Lewis Silkin. This LPG forms part of the larger Intellectual Property Legal Practice Group (LPG), which also includes the firm’s Trade Mark and Patent practices. I sat in the Intellectual Property (IP) LPG for six months during my third seat.

- Amy Earnshaw, Trainee Solicitor

"During a typical training contract at Lewis Silkin, a Trainee will experience a variety of LPGs by rotating between them during the two years. This allows you to gain as much experience as possible, and helps you decide which area of law you might like to qualify into at the end of your training contract."

You will likely hear a lot about “seats” when applying for training contracts. This just means the Legal Practice Group (LPG) you will be “sitting in” for a period of time.

- Amy Earnshaw, Trainee Solicitor

"An Employment seat at Lewis Silkin is a fantastic opportunity to explore many varied and interesting areas of Employment law, gaining the opportunity to work on cutting-edge issues and cases."

Employment is Lewis Silkin’s largest practice area by headcount, with over 150 lawyers in the team across our seven offices. The team handles a wide variety of exciting and cutting-edge employment work, and there’s plenty to get involved with!

- Samuel Gibb, Trainee Solicitor

"I loved being able to advise on some big names, not only in the real estate or construction sectors, but also working with fashion or hospitality clients to help them create retail or office spaces which reflect their brands."

Life as a Trainee in the Real Estate Department is extremely varied. The team covers Property Litigation, General Real Estate, Development, Construction, Corporate Transactions and Planning. The team is split between London, Cardiff, and Oxford, with the Cardiff team specialising in Corporate Real Estate transactions and the Construction team being based between Oxford and London. Despite the geographical distance, they are one big team – with a trip to the Cardiff office on the cards!

- Annabel Lindsay, Associate

"The Corporate team is a really friendly group with teams based across the London, Cardiff and Belfast offices. As they tend to only have one or two Trainees, you’ll have the opportunity to work on a variety of deals and understand how (and why) businesses make key decisions, whether they’re just starting out or looking to grow."

Our corporate team is consistently top-ranked for corporate M&A, particularly for mid-size deals involving advertising and marketing businesses. We are ranked Tier 1 by Legal 500 and Band 2 by Chambers & Partners and have now maintained these rankings for some time.

- Ella Nawaro, Trainee Solicitor

"The approach to CSR at Lewis Silkin is one that truly reflects the firm’s values of bravery and kindness, and takes a variety of forms. As a trainee, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved in from day one!"

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

One of the many CSR objectives of the firm, is to promote visibility and representation across Lewis Silkin and this is done through our diversity groups. Trainees are welcome and encouraged to join any of the diversity groups, which include: Gender, Race and Ethnicity, Social Mobility, Lewis SilkOut, Disability and Wellbeing, Interfaith and Age.

- Pearl Aggrey, Trainee Solicitor

"Networking is a great opportunity for you to gain an insight into a firm's culture, build connections and find out more about what it's like to work at a firm."

Networking events may be held in-person or virtually and will be incredibly beneficial in helping you decide whether or not it’s the firm for you.

Before attending an event it's wise to take some time researching the firm, so that you have an understanding of their culture and values and also that you have some pre-prepared questions to ask. After all, where you decide to apply to undertake your Training Contract is an important decision and will help shape your career as a Lawyer.

- Megan Spring, Recruitment Officer

"At Lewis Silkin, trainees are offered a range of client secondment opportunities. As we mostly work for creative businesses, there is often an opportunity to be seconded to businesses in industries like tech, film, media, and fashion."

Whilst searching for the firm to pursue your training contract at, you may have come across firms enticing you in with the promise of a glamorous and exciting client secondment, but what does it actually mean, is it worth doing one, and how does it work in practice? Hopefully I can help to answer some of the burning questions you may have when it comes to secondments. If you are on the fence on whether to volunteer for a secondment, or if you just want a bit more information about the client secondment opportunities at Lewis Silkin, then please keep reading.

- Anna Whaley, Trainee Solicitor

"When it comes to working habits, start as you mean to go on and get into a good routine."

1. Get to know your fellow trainees

At Lewis Silkin, all trainees are enrolled in the Professional Skills Course (‘PSC’) in the weeks prior to the start of the training contract. This was a great way for us to get to know each other before starting at the firm. I encourage you to get to know your fellow trainees early on. In my first week, we all leant on each other for support - asking each other questions about IT, time recording and more generally about the office.

- Sarah Feneck, Trainee Solicitor

"Where you complete your training contract will be the most important decision of your journey so far as it will form the foundation of your legal career and will shape the type of solicitor you become."

Beginning your career at a firm which doesn't feel like home to you, could put you off a practice area you would otherwise have really enjoyed and could negatively affect your wider career aspirations. It's therefore important that you focus on applying to a maximum of ten firms, all of which you really feel you would be able to flourish at.

What is important to you?

The core element of finding the firm for you is establishing what is actually important to you. This can include important aspects of your training as well as your career more broadly, including for example:

strength in particular practice areas;
strong responsible business and diversity & inclusion initiatives;
size of the trainee intake;
a good work life balance; and/or
good retention prospects on qualification.

- Sam Berriman, Trainee Solicitor

Working in our Belfast Office

In the Belfast office, the trainee intake is small which means there is a greater emphasis on you and fantastic opportunities for significant responsibility. You can expect to work alongside Partners on a daily basis.

Lewis Silkin (N.I) LLP became an official entity in August 2021, after Lewis Silkin merged with Jones Cassidy Brett Solicitors, Northern Ireland's leading employment law firm. Forde Campbell LLC merged later, in January 2022, bringing expertise in the creative sphere, with particular focus in Intellectual Property, Dispute Resolution, Defamation, Reputation Management, and Commercial and Corporate law. Since August 2021, the practice has more than doubled in size and the desks are quickly filling up.

New office, new ideas and new colleagues with extensive and diverse knowledge and expertise, the Belfast office combines the sense of fresh possibility you might expect from a start-up company, with the confidence and advantage of decades of industry experience. It's a very exciting time to be a part of the team.

- Megan Kerr & Sarah Mohan, Trainee Solicitors

Working in our Cardiff Office

Our team in Cardiff really exemplify the firm's ethos of bravery and kindness - we both have felt supported throughout our time here, and have had the opportunity to take responsibility for interesting and challenging work.

We have both worked in the Cardiff office for over four years, transitioning from Paralegals to Trainee Solicitors and it has been a great experience. Tara is currently in her first seat, working with the Employment team, whilst Cory is on a client secondment working predominantly on Commercial contracts. Our colleagues have always been very supportive and given us lots of opportunities to develop key skills. Our team in Cardiff really exemplify the firm's ethos of bravery and kindness - we both have felt supported throughout our time here, and have had the opportunity to take responsibility for interesting and challenging work.

In the Cardiff office we have several different legal departments (including Employment, Immigration, , Real Estate, Corporate and Dispute Resolution) working together in an open plan office ,. This gives us the opportunity to easily get to know everyone in the office, mingle with colleagues at all levels of seniority and across different legal disciplines. This makes it easier when you have questions about work or what is going on in the firm more generally. While on the face of it the firm's structure looks quite traditional, with Partners, Associates etc., our community here means everyone is approachable and happy to help with any concerns or queries regardless of the department they're in.

- Tara Sayer & Cory Lyons, Trainee Solicitors

"Knowing where to start on your application can be the hardest part. You may be wondering how you’ll ever condense years’ of study, experience and research into a few text boxes."

Where to start?

You know how you work best, so try not to doubt yourself as you go through the application process. Here’s a few tips I think are useful to get the ball rolling.

Put your thoughts to paper. You may find it easier to initially work in a notebook or a Word document rather than within the ‘constraints’ of the online form.
Use the application questions as a guide, but try not to focus on crafting the perfect answer straight away. Consider your studies, work experience, personal interests and your commercial awareness.
Bullet points are great, or you could also create a table, or get creative and draw a mind map. This will highlight your strengths as well as any possible gaps, and really give you the opportunity to demonstrate that you’re a well-rounded candidate.

- Ella Nawaro, Trainee Solicitor

"Although experience of working as a Paralegal is not a requirement when applying for a training contract, it helped me to showcase the relevant skills I had developed and understand the wider context within which the Training Contract application form questions were asked."

Having gone through many years of Training Contract rejection I used to look at my time as a Paralegal in a negative way, as it reminded me that I was unsuccessful in achieving my main goal of becoming a lawyer, but I have since realised that had it not been for my Paralegal experience I would not be sitting where I am today (pardon the pun).

How being a Paralegal helped me when applying for my Training Contract

Perhaps the most obvious example of how being a Paralegal helped me to secure a Training Contract, is that it allowed me to gain a greater understanding of how a firm operates, how a firm’s culture impacts the clients it works for and the way in which they conduct the corresponding work. I gained first-hand experience of the challenges and opportunities facing law firms and how the role of a trainee can play a part in achieving success.

- Daniel Smith, Trainee Solicitor

A Seat in Dispute Resolution

04 August 2023

Navigating your first week as a trainee

20 February 2023

The first week of any new role can be daunting at the best of times, so it’s natural to feel nervous about starting your training contract. Here are some reflections on my first week as a trainee and some practical tips to help you navigate yours!

Skills to take you from a Paralegal to Trainee

15 December 2022

Although experience of working as a Paralegal is not a requirement when applying for a training contract, it helped me to showcase the relevant skills I had developed and understand the wider context within which the Training Contract application form questions were asked.

Top tips for applying for a training contract

15 December 2022

Knowing where to start on your application can be the hardest part. You may be wondering how you’ll ever condense years’ of study, experience and research into a few text boxes.

Trainee Stories

Want to know what it’s really like to be a trainee in our firm? Hear it direct from our trainees.

Related items

A Seat in Dispute Resolution

Navigating your first week as a trainee

Skills to take you from a Paralegal to Trainee

Top tips for applying for a training contract