What do trainee solicitors do?

Candidates often don't give enough thought to the nature of the role that they're applying for, which can be problematic. Especially if an interviewer asks something to the effect of "what does a commercial lawyer do?" or - more specifically - "what does a trainee solicitor do?".

How can you credibly claim that you want to carry out a role if you’re unable to explain what the role will involve? Even common trainee tasks?

You should make sure you are able to deliver a solid answer to this question, as it’s designed to assess whether you have truly thought about the career, and test whether your motivations are credible.?

With this in mind, this newsletter explains some of the key common tasks carried out by trainee solicitors in a commercial setting.

But first...

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The role of trainee solicitors

So, what do trainees solicitors do? The truth is, there is no definitive answer to this question. The reality is that being a trainee is probably rather less glamorous than you think/hope.?

Now don’t get me wrong, some of the work can be very interesting and depending on where you train, much of it high profile. However, a training contract is a learning process and nobody starts at the top!

Trainees will typically be involved in a number of administrative/less interesting tasks, but these types of tasks can give you invaluable exposure to the types of documents/processes you will be handling as an associate.

Common trainee solicitor client tasks

“Fee earning” (or billable/chargeable/client) tasks are tasks which relate directly to client?matters and therefore tasks for which clients are paying. Explanations of typical trainee client tasks are set out below.

• Bundling: this refers to producing hard copy and/or electronic folders of documents, usually in connection with court proceedings or investigations.?
• Bibling: once a deal has completed, trainees are usually asked to create a “transaction bible”, which will contains all (or at least the main) deal documents.
• Document review: when contentious teams are working on litigation matters or carrying out investigations, they will typically need to review thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of the client’s/the other side’s/third parties’ documents to ascertain what has been going on and to try to find evidence to support the arguments, claims or defences that they wish to raise. Trainees are usually involved in the early stages of the review and are typically responsible for coordinating other reviewers (e.g. paralegals) and identifying the documents which are/might be relevant
• Due diligence:?due diligence is typically carried out by transactional (including specialist) teams. It refers to the process under which a company (typically a prospective buyer) and its advisers carry out an in-depth investigation into a variety of aspects of a company, to gain a solid understanding of that company’s business and/or market and to check for any existing or potential issues that could impact upon the deal.?

• Project management: trainees will typically be responsible for coordinating a range of client-related workstreams. On a day-to-day basis, this can involve chasing internal teams for input/advice; answering questions from other teams and advisers or clients; coordinating paralegals and PAs; keeping records; engaging and liaising with barristers, local counsel (i.e. law firms based in other jurisdictions) and specialist law firms; and project managing deal signings/closings (which can involve ensuring that all the relevant documents are signed correctly).?
• Drafting:?drafting and/or amending documents, including engagement letters, non-disclosure agreements, board minutes and corporate authorisations, powers of attorney, and a range of practice area-specific documents.?
• Other transactional tasks:?in transactional teams, trainees may also get involved in: drafting Companies House forms; incorporating or dissolving companies; carrying out regulatory/court filings; carrying out company searches (via Companies House), intellectual property-related searches (i.e. searching for information on a company’s patents), real estate searches etc.; and preparing legal step plans (setting out the processes that should be followed as a deal progresses) and structure diagrams (which set out the current structure of a company group and/or the proposed structure of a company group after a deal has completed).
• Research:?research is one of the more interesting tasks you will be asked to carry out during your training contract. This can include: research into a specific point of law (including how the courts have applied the law in certain contexts); research into a company (including its shareholders, the business it carries out, the legal filings it has made etc.); research into legal processes/procedures (including court procedures, deadlines for court filings, the documents required to give effect to certain courses of action etc.); and research into regulator guidance/proposed legal updates.
• Proofreading:?this can involve, for example, checking the spelling, grammar, format and structure of documents produced by others; ensuring defined terms have been used consistently throughout documents; ensuring cross-references within documents are accurate; sense-checking documents (e.g. reading them to make sure they make sense and the points are presented logically); ensuring handwritten comments have been accurately typed into a document; and comparing documents to ensure information has been accurately copied between them.?

Typical trainee “non-chargeable” tasks

In reality, you will likely have periods where you have no “chargeable” work to do, for instance if your team is not particularly busy or you are waiting to receive back comments on a particular piece of work.

For such periods, there are a number of opportunities to get involved in “non-client” (or “non-chargeable”) work and some firms as part of their bonus/incentive policies even require their lawyers to work a certain number of “non-client” hours. This kind of work can be equally as (or even more) interesting and can help to fill downtime.

Such non-client work can include business development, knowledge management, graduate recruitment, corporate social responsibilities, training, and so on.

For more detail on the work carried out by commercial lawyers and trainee solicitors more specifically, check out our Introduction to commercial law and Law firm practice areas courses.

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