Trainee - Real Estate/Commercial Property - Gunraj Arora

Careers in Law can be very different depending on the type you practice and the size of the firm you join. Solicitors tend to be the first port of call for legal matters whether personal or corporate and they liaise with clients to try and resolve their problems or provide a legal framework for something they want to achieve.

Barristers are called in by solicitors for their expertise in a particular area of the law or to argue a case in court. That said, the distinction between the two is narrowing slightly due to the increasing scope for solicitors to conduct their own litigation.

Like many of the professions, law offers a great deal of flexibility in terms of where you practice so you don’t have to be in the centre of a large city to have a successful career. You can practice in large firms servicing business, within the businesses themselves as an in-house lawyer or at a high street practice overseeing the matters of private individuals.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the type of firm and specialty of law you practice will have a huge impact on what your daily life is like. A private equity solicitor in a magic circle firm is going to be spending a lot more time in the office than a high street solicitor. Commercial barristers were one of the biggest shocks to us. We hadn’t quite grasped just how individual the job is and the huge hours it demands. A 6 day working week appears very standard.

Law is well known as a lucrative industry and many firms seem to have coped with the credit crunch well. As a guide, if you’re a solicitor in a top 50 city firm then on your first rotation expect a salary in the £35-40,000 range. Newly qualified's will be in the sixties and three year post qualified can be anywhere from £80-110K. Salaries in the smaller high-street firms are quite a bit lower. Barristers are self-employed so their income can vary hugely but the industry stars could give David Beckham a run for his money.

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Gunraj Arora, i'm a trainee solicitor here at a firm called Nabarro.

What is The Law?

In terms of a practical scope it’s really about protecting people’s interests and limiting people’s liabilities. If I give an example of that in the property sector for example, if someone is looking to buy a particular property you want to ensure that they are able to get that property and they are able to do what they want with that property. So if that’s converting it into a commercial premises it’s ensuring that they’re able to do that so they’re interest is converting it into a business premises, can they do that and we have to make sure they can do that. It’s also limiting their liability as well because they don’t want to have something of which they can be exposed to potential claims for so if you’re buying something of which you don’t have the right to build on it you’re effectively exposing your client to something they shouldn’t be exposed to.

What attracted you to this career?

It was really the fact that it was so varied. There are various different sectors within the legal profession and that variety mixed with my general interest in the profession really led me to pursue it.

What does your job involve?

As I said, I’m a trainee solicitor so it effectively means I’m learning, I’m really learning the ropes, so when it comes to a daily basis it’s really just working out what the associates or a particular person working on a matter really feels is relevant for my particular level and particular skills set and even when I’m undertaking work everything I do and produce is checked through because obviously I’m learning and mistakes may well occur so they will check through everything before it goes out.

What does a solicitor do?

Effectively we are taking any issues which a client will come to us with so at the moment I am in property so that may well be them wanting to acquire a particular piece of land or property to develop for various needs and as a solicitor you would effectively ensure that occurs by checking through that property meets everything the client wants. There’s nothing on that property that may well hinder what they want to do, so if they want to develop it into an office block for example, is it ok for them to get planning permission to do that, we would undertake all the due diligence to make sure they can do that.

What do you do on a typical day?

When I come in, I try and get in around 8.30, 8.45, check all my emails, see what correspondence I have in relation to various matters and I have a task list of work that I have to get done that day and if we’re doing a purchase of a property for a client that may well be having to ring up the seller’s solicitors enquiring where we are on the matter, how it’s progressing, what other aspects we want to do, the client may well ring in and want a progress on where the matters are or even change things, so I’m on the telephone as well liaising with various persons in order to get a matter done. We’d have to draft certain documents in order to ensure that things would go through they way we want them, so as I gave the example of us having to purchase a property we would have to enter into an agreement with the seller to say, yes, we will buy the property and yes, they will sell the property. So you have to formulate a document that effectively states that and states it very clearly under the terms of which that will occur. At trainee solicitor level we will have the opportunity to draft that which will then get checked after we have formulated what we think is the correct document.

Describe the process of your work?

As a trainee solicitor the tasks are varied, but one specific tasks that I have been doing in property for example, I gave the example of clients buying some property, developing various things and once they have that property it could be a commercial property for example with various different units so it could be a retail park for example with various different shops. Now you’ll have a client there that may be a shoe shop for example but then wants to change it into a sports shop or something different. You can’t just change it; you have to get the permission of the landlord, if you’re the tenant. If we’re acting as the landlord we have to draft a document that says you can change it from a shoe shop to a sports shop, and at my level that’s something I’d get given. I’d be told the client wants to change it from a shoe shop to a sports shop, can you draft a document that effectively allows them to do that, and that’s what I’d do. So I’d draft that document, I’d speak to the client, check exactly what they want to do, speak to the tenant and ask if they were happy that this was the way they can do things, and that’s effectively what I’d do.

Why did you choose to train in a Law practice rather than in Industry?

For me, I’d always wanted to come into a legal practice as it were as opposed to going in house, just because here for example you get to do six different departments in your 2 year training contract so it really gives me the variety to do various sectors and gain that experience. Going in-house I think you become very specialised very early on so you don’t really have that opportunity to develop your range and develop your understanding of the legal world in a general scope and that was really the attraction for me to come to a firm like this.

What are the speicialisms within your industry?

Within the legal industry it’s very varied, there’s banking, property, what they call commercial litigation which is if companies have disputes it’s trying to either settle those disputes or if you have to you might have to go to court over it, there’s insolvency, so if companies are going into liquidation there are various legalities that have to be sorted out from there. There is property litigation which is effectively similar to commercial litigation but within the property sector. There are various different corporate departments so that would mean working on various requirements of the business, whether that be buying a business, selling a business. There is also corporate real estate which is the same sort of business buying and selling but in the real estate sector so within the property sector. That also deals with various property funds and then buying various different property portfolios for their companies. There is also construction so obviously if you’re building a specific premises or particular project there is a legal sector within there. There is a projects sector we have within this firm, both public and private so public sector projects building schools, housing estates and things like that and sort of private sectors linked with that as well. That’s the overview of what you will find.

What are the best bits about your job?

I think it’s taking real situations – I gave the example of buying or acquiring a piece of land – it’s being responsible for that occurring and even at my level you are involved fully in the process and it’s seeing that develop from the early stages of getting the instructions of, we want to do this, to the final end of, we have done this, and that’s really the crux and the most value and enjoyment I receive from it.

What are the worst bits about your job?

In every industry there are good bits and bad bits. From a legal perspective there is quite a lot of documentation that has to be filled in, a lot of filing, they’re fairly mundane procedures but they have to be done and done correctly. That’s the only real thing that I find is a little bit of a drag but on the whole if you’re organised you can get these things done pretty quickly and they don’t entail too much of your time during the day.

What has been your greatest achievement?

As I am fairly junior there’s not been a huge amount for me to draw on but in my last sector I was in banking and we had about £26 million loan that our client wanted to acquire and it was in a very short space of time, and at the time there were a few people that were away on holiday so I was given quite a lot of responsibility to ensure that this occurred on a specific date and I think at my level I was pretty proud that I managed to get these things done because had I not done what I had to do we wouldn’t have got the transaction done on time so I think that’s up to date probably my greatest achievement.

Any regrets?

I think coming into this job as a trainee solicitor in such a large firm I felt that there was a lot I had to prove and do to say I deserve to be here. But the thing you have to understand is that at my level you are a trainee solicitor and they really don’t expect you to know things straight away and in my position I think early on I should have tried to ask more questions, and just get a bit more comfortable with the environment. I came into it and I was, I need to know this, I need to know that, but you’re very junior and people expect you to be asking questions and to be finding out more about what you’re doing rather than heading straight into it blind as it were and in some cases I tied doing that and would spend hours on end working out something out whereas I could have spent 5 minutes asking someone more qualified and would have known the answer. So definitely at my level for those entering the profession, don’t worry about asking questions, even if they’re basic, people will understand that.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

We’re in the city so the pay is pretty good and you get private health cover. At this particular firm there is corporate reduced rate gym membership and a firm pension scheme that’s run as well so there are plenty of perks, no doubt about that.

How long is a working day and do you have to work out of hours?

My general working hours vary from department to department. My first sector that I was working in was banking and the hours can get out of your regular 9 to 5 as it were because it is dependent on the work and when the deadlines are and they are often very short spans, so 2 or 3 works you have to get this work completed. So I was at some points working midnight, gone midnight but it wasn’t that regular and it was just simply for the deal. Now I’ve moved departments and I’m now in property where things are a lot more steady, you have larger time frames to complete matters. I wouldn’t say it’s a 9-5 day, it’s more like a 9-7 but for the city I’d say it’s pretty regular.

Is there much in the way of travel?

At my level I haven’t actually been anywhere as such, I’ve been focused in the office. I’m hoping as I progress that I’ll be able to go to various client meetings externally. I do know other associates in my position that have managed to go to development sites etc but we just haven’t had that come up at the moment but I’m sure if there was an opportunity I would be able to but at the moment it’s pretty much focused in the office.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

The firms vary; they’re all across the country, smaller regional firms, even high street practices which have less than 10 people so you can practice anywhere, it all depends on what your particular interest is.

What is the working environment like?

It’s quite formal. You have to wear business attire from Monday to Thursday. On a Friday we have a dress down policy day where we can wear smart trousers with a shirt but you don’t have to wear a jacket or suit as such. In terms of the working environment, the people are quite mixed. You have my level, trainee solicitor level, up to partners so quite a mixture of age groups and in terms of male to female ratio that’s also very mixed. I think even as far as to say 50/50 so it’s quite a nice diverse range of people within the office and we have what they call an open door policy which means that everyone’s office is always open so you can go into other people’s offices to ask questions and vice versa, people can come into your office as well.

How did you get into your job?

I did a law degree at university and in my first year in the summer I developed a real interest for going into the profession so I got some local work experience with a firm and that developed into my second year, this firm actually came to my university to do a careers fair so I spoke to them at length about what their job involved and the various requirements and then applied for the internship in my second year at university, managed to get that after doing an assessment day and at the end of my internship there was another formal interview for this position, trainee solicitor position, which I managed to attain but because I had done it at the end of my second year at university I still had one year to go, so it was a conditional offer on me acquiring a 2.1 which I managed to do and then following university you had to do one year’s legal practice course and then following that I’ve begun my employment here at Nabarro.

What's the application process like?

They have two ways of getting in, either my way of doing an internship and through there they have an interview at the end of that, there’s no actual formal application process, you just do the internship and then you apply by just having an interview. Or you can make a formal application for the trainee solicitor role itself. It’s a similar procedure, they’re both online applications, as I said the one you go through, and you just have the internship and the other one you just apply straight for the job as if you were applying for my position.

What are the key skills required for your job?

I think in this sector you have to be very good at communication, you’re working with different people so you have to be able to get your point across and be able to understand different people’s points. That ties in with having good interpersonal skills so being able to interact with different people. You also have to have very good business acumen, a general understanding of business because all your clients are business orientated clients so it’s quite important to have that general understanding. I think those are the key skills that I would pull out from what you need in my industry. Specifically for the legal sector you have to be very good at analysing and analysing what can be very complicated legal requirements for a client but being able to provide practical business solutions for that client because in a lot of these contexts you are going to be dealing with clients that have absolutely no knowledge of the law, no knowledge of the legal sector and they’re just coming to you to say, I want to do this, please can you do it for me, and in a lot of cases that might be quite a complicated legal requirement that you need to do. So it’s being able to take that complicated legal requirement and being able to provide them with a practical business solution that suits their specific requirements. Another specific skill that is required in our industry sector is attention to detail. When you’re drafting various documents you have to be sure that what you’re drafting is clear and specifically meets the needs of your client. If it doesn’t it can later get picked up on and you will see in a lot of media cases that there are various companies suing other companies and a lot of it is on the back of the fact that the drafting hasn’t been specifically to what is required and they’ve missed out various, what may be very subtle elements but can be very crucial so to be good at what you do you have to be very clear in what you write.

What's your top tip for breaking into your industry?

I would say if you are at all interested, just try to get yourself some work experience. There are firms all over the country in various areas so you don’t have to come into the city, if you live outside of the cities, if you live in different areas, just ring up your local solicitors firm or write them a letter and say, I’m at this stage of my career, I think something in law may be interesting, would you mind if I came in for a week. You might not get paid for it but it will give you that experience and that exposure on your CV to show that you’ve made a step in looking whether you are interested in doing it and that looks very favourably when it comes to applying formally.

What's the career progress and how quickly can you move up the career ladder?

I am a trainee solicitor so for 2 years I’m a trainee. After those 2 years once I qualify I am classified as a qualified solicitor. Following that the next formal stage is at partnership and at this sort of firm it would take you 5 or 6 years minimum to get to that level. In the intervening period your salary and workload will change according to your experience so once I’m qualified what they call a junior solicitor and as you get more qualified you build up your qualification level so your salary will adjust accordingly and the work you get will adjust and you will get more complicated and complex work as you progress.

Where do you see the industry going?

I think a lot of the work that solicitors do is obviously focused on the firm and where the specialist areas are. Nabarro has traditionally been well known for its property and still has the strongest property department but are trying to push other areas according to where the work is going. Obviously as a city law firm you’re driven by the business and economy and how that is being driven and accordingly the legal sector will adjust to that. In terms of generally in the future, a lot of top end clients and looking for legal teams to become specifically specialised in various sectors, so I gave the example of a company acquiring land and developing, those developing companies are specifically now looking to have their legal teams specialised in those industry sectors to cater specifically for what they need and what they require.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

I think that the skills you acquire during your time as a legal personnel are very easily transferable in any particular sector that you want to go into. From my brief understanding and brief interaction of this world and the actual working environment I see a lot of people go into what they kind of term “in-house” legal departments so they will go to various large organisations and work in their legal teams. In terms of moving outside of the legal sector, from my personal experience I haven’t known of a lot of people that do tend to do that. I think that once they go into the profession they tend to stay in it in some capacity and I’m sure if that was something somebody wanted to do they would be able to do that easily with the skills they possess.

What are the industry resources that someone interested in joining must know about?

One of the biggest magazines we get here is called the Lawyer which has various articles on the legal sector generally. As well as that we get a Law Gazette supplement which is read quite regularly. In terms of online resources I tend to use the same as the magazines that we read, I think they are the standard trade ones that go around.

If you weren't in this career, what would you be doing?

I think it would still be something business orientated – business, marketing or sales – I’ve always had that business blood from family so it would be something along those lines.