Administration

As part of being a Trainee, not all jobs are that grand. Yes, most of the time you are carrying out the duties of a Solicitor under supervision but sometimes the dull tasks have to be done, and it's you that'll have to do them.

This week was one of those weeks. I've spent a lot of my time reading and spell checking documents created by third parties. Long documents, too.

As tiresome and tedious this may be, you have to look at the positives. I learnt a lot about the case and the current stage of the case by reading this document. So it did actually get me up to speed with everything.

As there are many court dates in litigious departments, as a Trainee you will also find yourself doing a lot of copying. Bundles need to be made, and these bundles can be HUGE. I'm talking numerous lever arch files, not just one! Furthermore, 99.9% chance you'll need to create at least around 4-5 copies of that bundle.

So there's a lot of standing around, organising and flipping through pieces of paper, but this is all part of being a Trainee Solicitor. I embrace the variety, and appreciate that I'm able to contribute towards a case in some form of way.

Some may say a photocopier is a Trainee's best friend!

Time for another Appraisal...

I'm pretty sure the further your get into your training contract the quicker it goes, I cannot believe I've just had my mid-seat appraisal in Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury. Those three months have gone so quick I'm not really sure how I feel about that to be honest!

So as this was a mid-seat appraisal the whole point of the meeting was to see how I was getting on, see what areas I need to improve and see if there is anything else that I need to get stuck into.

I was pleased to see that there were no concerns on my appraisal form, so that was a big relief. I was able to discuss with my team leader my aims for the next three months. We agreed that I would get stuck into more work that I haven't seen much of since I started, that way I get the full experience of a claims process.

Now that I have the relief of jumping over that hurdle, it's back to more Clinical Negligence and Personal Injury work.

Talk Talk Talk

Recently, a lecturer of mine who taught me on my LLB course invited me to give a presentation to the law students at the London School of Business and Management. I was delighted to be asked so of course, I obliged.

I wanted to speak to the students about how I obtained a training contr act, the options I had through my studies and also, the reality of how hard it can be.

As well as talking about myself, I thought that I would give the students the various options that are available for their specific circumstances. I also gave the students tips and advice on obtaining a contract, what to do in their applications and also in interview.

Doing this talk actually made me feel pretty proud of myself because I remember looking up to a Trainee who did a talk when I was at University, so now people were doing the same to me!

I hope that I was able to open the students eyes to the process of applying for training contracts and I hope they found the talk beneficial.

For me, not only was I happy to talk to people, but the talk also helped my confidence of speaking in front of crowds massively!

That's one challenge accomplished for this year, on to the next one!