How to Choose your Training Contract Seats

There are a number of benefits to training contracts, including building a professional network, gaining practical legal knowledge and, ultimately, qualifying as a solicitor. However, one of the biggest advantages is the opportunity to gain a broad understanding of several areas of law. There are multiple crossovers between areas of law once you are working as a qualified solicitor, so having exposure to different areas before qualifying is crucial. This also provides you with the invaluable opportunity to work directly within multiple departments and gain hands-on experience in each area of law, allowing you to make an informed decision before committing to a specific practice area upon qualification.

While there are a number of benefits that come with training contract seats, it is important to make the most of this opportunity and to think carefully about what seats to choose, as these decisions can shape your experience and influence your future career. Here are a few things to consider when choosing your seats.

Consider your long term goals

If you don’t know what area of law you want to specialise in yet, don’t panic! The whole point of the training contract is to give you the opportunity to experience a variety of different practice areas so that you can decide what is the best option for you. However, if you know that you want to specialise in a certain area, it is important to try to secure this placement as early on in your training contract as possible. All firms allocate trainees to seats differently, but some trainees will find that they don’t end up getting all of their choices across their two-year training contract, so always make sure you have highlighted your first choice early on, so that if you don’t get it, you still have plenty of opportunity to secure this seat later down the line.

Research what seats your firm offers

Most firms will have more popular seat choices that a lot of trainees opt for, which can often lead to disappointment for those who don’t get their first choice. Before deciding on your seat preferences, look at all of the different practice areas that your firm offers, and do some further research on each of these areas. You might find that areas you hadn’t initially thought about appeal to you more than some of the more popular choices, plus these are likely to be easier seats to get if there is less competition, so it’s important to do extensive research before making any decisions.

Diversify your options

If the majority of your seat choices are likely to be focused around corporate and finance, why not consider a seat in shipping or entertainment and media? While it is great to have a clear vision for the type of lawyer you want to be, until you have spent time working in the role, you cannot be certain that this is the best path for you, so it is important to pick a variety of seats so that you can work out what type of law is best suited to you. Diverse seat choices will also allow you to gain a broad range of skills and experiences, making you more adaptable and better equipped to handle various legal challenges throughout your future career.

Consider international secondments

If your firm offers international secondment, this is a great opportunity for you to experience the culture of the firm in an overseas office. The majority of firms with international secondments will offer a six month placement in a selection of their overseas offices to trainees, allowing you to become more globally minded and to experience a whole new city for six months. The locations offered will vary from firm to firm, but can range from European placements such as Paris or Brussels, to international placements like New York, Singapore and Dubai. There is often a lot of competition for international secondments, so make sure you have considered your preferred locations early on to avoid disappointment.

Consider client secondments

Similar to the international secondments, your firm may offer the chance to do a client secondment for one of your seats. Client secondments involve working at a client's organisation to provide support from within their business. This type of secondment offers unique insights into the client’s business, and allows you the opportunity to enhance your understanding of their needs, and strengthen your client relationships. It also offers you a deeper perspective on how legal advice is applied in a real-world context, and can be a great way to build connections if you make a positive impression on the client. Again, client secondments can often be a very popular choice, so be sure to research the secondments that your firm offers early on to avoid disappointment.

Contentious vs non contentious

Contentious seats involve working on disputes and litigation, while non-contentious seats focus more on advisory work and are often transactional. If you have an interest in attending court and working on large cases, contentious work may be a great fit for you. Some firms will require you to sit a certain number of contentious and non-contentious seats, so it is important to check this before making your choices. Both types of seats will allow you to develop a well-rounded legal skill set, and to understand different aspects of legal practice, so it is important to choose seats in both to give you the chance to determine what skill set is better suited to you.

Assess your interests

Consider the exposure that you have had to legal work up until this point: you may have previous paralegal or legal assistant work experience, or you may have gained experience in legal writing, drafting and advocacy through your SQE/LPC exams. Consider what type of work interests you most, and think about the types of cases you would be most interested in working on. If you enjoy legal drafting and have an interest in property, then maybe real estate is a good option for you to consider. If you enjoyed advocacy while studying and have an interest in court cases, it is worth opting for a few contentious seats. Each of the choices you make will require you to work in that department for six months, so think carefully about what your interests are before making your decisions.

Go into each seat with an open mind

For the majority of trainees, there is a good chance that at least one - if not more - of the seats allocated to you won’t have been your top choice. With a large number of students often opting for the same seat choices, there is likely to be disappointment, so it is important to deal with your frustrations in the right way to avoid it ruining the seat for you. While you may not have received your first choice seat, think about all of the invaluable experience that you can gain from sitting in a seat that you had not considered up until now. You will often find that the work may be much more exciting than you’d first thought, or that the type of work you are doing is completely different to what you had expected, so try not to go into it with a preconceived idea of how it will go. Try to view each seat as a fresh opportunity to learn something new - going into each new practice area with an open mind will mean that you are far more likely to come away from it having enjoyed it or at least learnt something new and gained practical experience that will help you later in your career. Try not to overthink things, and enjoy the experience.