Career Advice - Trainee Solicitor

law.student

I have a number of traineeship options with firms which are different in terms of areas of practice.

I'm really not sure as to what area I would like to specialise in in the future.

Therefore I'm wondering if a solicitor's future career options are based heavily on the type of firm you train in. Is it difficult to move away from the areas that you train in. e.g. to switch from commercial to general practice or personal injury after qualification. Or are you pigeon holed based on the type of firm you train in.

I'm leaning towards commercial but would training in a mid-tier commercial firm in Dublin make it difficult for me to obtain a job in a country practice outside of Dublin in the future? I'm sure I would get very good training etc. which could be applied to other areas of practice but would solicitors in a smaller country practice only be interested in candidates who have obtained experience in areas like personal injury litigation, probate, conveyancing, family law etc.

Peregrinus

Moves from a traineeship/early years in practice in large commercial firms to smaller more general firms are not uncommon. Traineeship is largely about acquiring basic legal skills, preferably through exposure to a variety of practice areas, but once you have the skills they are readily transferrable. Plus, a traineeship in a bigger and more commercial firm will generally involve structured rotation between different practice areas. You're very unlikely to come out of a traineeship in a commercial firm having done nothing but insolvency, for example, or nothing but commercial litigation. And while you may not have done much probate, you'll have a acquired a solid grounding basic skills that can should enable you to get up to speed in probate practice fairly quickly. Smaller firms will be interested in you. Or, at least, they won't be turned off by the fact that you trained in a big firm.

Mr. Incognito

Any mid tier commercial firm in Dublin will likely have all those practice areas also

Big Firms have those practice areas they are just more specialised.

I would always advise people to train in a mid tier firm. You can just be a photocopying drone in the bigger firms.

Peregrinus

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Any mid tier commercial firm in Dublin will likely have all those practice areas also

Big Firms have those practice areas they are just more specialised.

I would always advise people to train in a mid tier firm. You can just be a photocopying drone in the bigger firms.

I don't know any big firm which treats its trainees as photocopying drones. They put a lot of effort into selecting them; they see them as the likely source for many of their future partners; they invest heavily in training them and enhancing their experience

law.student

Thanks for the responses, that's reassuring!

As well as the commercial firm, I also have offers from a medical negligence firm and an insurance defence litigation firm.

Just wondering if you have any insights into what it's like working/training in these areas?

Many thanks.

law.student

law.student wrote: »

Thanks for the responses, that's reassuring!

As well as the commercial firm, I also have offers from a medical negligence firm and an insurance defence litigation firm.

Just wondering if you have any insights into what it's like working/training in these areas?

Many thanks.

Not to give very vague advice but the most important part of a training contract (imo) is how you get on with your training solicitor and how capable they are of teaching you. I have heard (many, many) horror stories from big and small firms so the question is very hard to answer.

The second most important thing is how good you are at learning for yourself, and self directing your own learning. (I was very bad at this, and often missed obvious answers because I didn't actually ask myself, "how do I find the answer to this?" I actually cringe at how clueless I was in retrospect.) Whatever problem you face, the answer is there somewhere.