Trainee - Projects - Sima Dad

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 Sima Dad, I’m a trainee solicitor at Nabarros. I am in my fifth and final seat in the banking department at the moment but I will be qualifying in September into Projects.

What is The Law?

The law is a set of principles and rules which govern the way we live our lives, not necessarily just government based, it’s what society deems as acceptable and it governs what you can and can’t do.

What attracted you to this career?

I was never one of the children who grew up thinking, I want to be a lawyer, but when I was choosing what degree to do, law appealed to me because of all the clichés, truth, justice, honour, saving the world, and also the academic side of the law degree. From what I had heard it’s quite analytical, critical thinking and that sounded really interesting so I did a law degree, really enjoyed it and then I para-legalled for a while before I did the LPC to decide whether it was the profession for me and I decided it was, so I applied for training contracts.

What does your job involve?

It involves lots of different things. I can’t say it involves just one thing because each department is so different and as a trainee we rotate into lots of different departments, we do lots of different things. I’d say the common strands of the job are probably advising clients on what the law is, what their rights are and what they can and can’t do, drafting documents and also negotiating documents as well, so getting the best deal for your client.

What do you do on a typical day?

The first thing I will do is switch on my computer and check my emails and then think what it is I need to do today, so I have a “to-do” list and I go through that. Generally, even though we are trainees, we do have our own workload that we are responsible for which is quite good so it’s just managing your work. Because everything is so electronic a lot of the work is done via the computer and it’s so easy just to not pick up the phone and call a client, but they do really encourage you to call a client as opposed to just sending them emails all day, so it’s a bit of everything really and there’s a lot of client meetings as well so you get to meet them face to face which is always nice.

Describe the process of your work?

If you’re in a property department you’ll be dealing with the clients first hand so you will have your own files which you will have to manage totally by yourself, so it’s up to you to open the file, and think, what is it that I need to do on this file, do I need to speak to the solicitor, do I need to take instructions from the client, do I need to draft a document on this file, so in that department you are totally responsible and whatever the work process is it’s up to you to decide what you need to do and speak to the client and from thereon take action. In a department like projects, where they only have two or three big projects on at any one time, so your supervisor will give you bits of work. They will give you a clause and they will say, look at this clause, does it work? And you will have to draft that clause or reword it and then look up precedents and think what will work for your client, what’s in the client’s best interests and then redraft the document in order to get that result.

What kind of stuff does the projects department do?

It’s one of those areas which is quite hard to describe. It’s PPP and PFI work, so it’s government initiatives with private funding. You might have heard of Building Schools for the Future, where they built the Academies, so it’s the project work for that, lots of contracts, designing and building of the schools, the finance and construction, so it’s everything really and it’s involved in lots of different sectors. At the moment the two big sectors are energy and waste so those are the areas I will be looking to specialise in once I qualify. So with energy it’s so up and coming at the moment, lots of different things, climate change, everyone is trying to implement things to be more green, so it's helping developers put those initiatives so that they can have zero carbon developments.

What are the speicialisms within your industry?

So many. You could go into technology, intellectual property, construction, litigation – with litigation it branches out into so many different areas, like in this firm we have commercial, insolvency, property, construction, and technology litigation so there are so many types of litigation areas you can go into. Corporate is also divided into public and private companies so that’s quite different. Also banking and projects. Projects is divided into different sectors, so you have health, education, energy, waste, housing (which is quite interesting), property and even the type of property you do can be divided into different things so you have residential and commercial property and then you have corporate real estate.

How does someone decide which area to specialise in?

I think the main thing is just talking to other people who have done seats and especially as a trainee, we are always talking to other trainees about their seats, what they like, what they don’t like. I think that has the biggest impact on the departments that are popular. There are always going to be some departments that sound glamorous, for example, intellectual property, that one’s quite popular because it’s IEP, it sounds quite cool. I think it’s determined by external factors, what you read in the press and also by what people tell you about the department who have already done it, and because we get to do 6 seats as opposed to 4 you get to do a lot more departments and you kind of just get a feel. I think just be opened minded before you start your training contract because I thought I wanted to be a property lawyer and then I did property and knew it just wasn’t for me and that happened to so many people where they’ve thought before they’ve started that yes, they definitely wanted to qualify into this area but once they go there it’s just not for them and then they go into a department they didn’t want to do and they absolutely love it. So just be open minded.

What are the best bits about your job?

I think the most exciting parts are completions. When you actually see everything you’ve worked on finished, there’s a real buzz coming up to completion so no matter what department you’re in the completion is always the best part because it’s seeing everything you’ve done finished and everyone’s really happy so there’s a lot of satisfaction there.

What are the worst bits about your job?

I really like my job! I know it’s cheesy but it’s true! Every day I enjoy coming into work because it’s so different and no two days are the same, it’s not mundane. Sometimes the post-completion bits are a bit mundane because once the deal’s been done it’s less exciting putting the documents together and filing them. But as a trainee you’ve got so much responsibility that you’re not really doing mundane tasks like photo-copying or bibling or scheduling, which is quite nice. You are given quite a lot of responsibility from the outset which is great.

What has been your greatest achievement?

Qualifying, the fact that I’ve actually been offered a job to stay here is probably the thing I’m most proud of. Especially because I’ve worked in the department and the fact that they want me to come back and qualify here is probably my best achievement.

Any regrets?

Probably take some more time out before you start, so if you can do a gap year and go travelling, definitely do that and enjoy being a student while it lasts because once you start working then that’s it really, so take as much time out as you can before while you have the opportunity.

What is the pay like and are there any perks?

The pay is great, you can’t complain. It’s very competitive. I think with the legal profession, generally there is a standard of pay, definitely amongst the city firms and they all mirror each other so you never feel as if you’re being underpaid because everyone is being paid the same which is quite good and you know how much you should be being paid as well. The pay is good, the perks are good. We have a subsidised canteen, health insurance, subsidised gym membership which is more than we need, so it’s all good.

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

It depends again, you’re not always working long hours but there will be times when you have to work long hours. Coming up to completion usually it’s quite busy, there is a deadline you have to meet, you have to work to get the stuff done. But then that’s not that common either. There’s definitely a good work-life balance, they don’t expect you to stay here all hours, but then again it’s not a 9-5 job because it depends on the demands of the business so it depends how busy it is and what deadlines you have really. But you can manage your own workload so that if you're busy one day and perhaps have to work late one night you can leave early the next or something like that.

Is there much in the way of travel?

Internationally not so much but around England yes. I’m going sailing on Friday for the weekend. We’re going to Cowes for a sailing competition with the clients which is nice. The weekend before that we went to Grantham – very exotic! So it’s not international travelling but we travel around England, especially with projects, because a lot of our clients are not based in London so we travel to their offices.

Do you have to be based anywhere in particular?

You can do it in both, it depends what you want. I probably wouldn’t want to be a solicitor in the regions because I like the pace of city life and being a city solicitor and also the work that I enjoy isn’t practised as much in the regions. But I think there are benefits of being in the regions and it’s one of those professions that’s very transferable and a lot of people I know chose to be a solicitor because they can go and pack up and move out of London and it’s something they can continue to do.

What is the working environment like?

There’s lots of women, it’s mainly a firm with lots of women. In my summer scheme intake there were 17 girls and 3 boys and I think that’s a trend in the law at the moment in that there’s a lot more women coming through which is great. In terms of it being formal: there are two people to one office and they’re generally quite big, you have your own desk with your own computer and you share an office with your supervisior or someone else. At the moment I am sharing an office with a partner who is also a supervisor. Outside the office are bays which are open plan which is where the secretaries sit so usually you have your secretary sitting just outside the office which is quite good. Generally the atmosphere in the office is not formal, everyone is joking and laughing and it depends what team you’re in but most of the teams are quite friendly. In terms of dress, Monday to Thursday its business dress so suits, but Friday is “dress-down” which is always a good start to the weekend and everyone comes in casual so that’s good.

How did you get into your job?

In terms of universities everyone, especially with this firm, everyone comes from lots of different universities, there is definitely no bias towards one particular university. I definitely think that most people have a 2.1 or a first, I don’t know anyone who has got a 2.2 but I do know people in other city law firms that have got a 2.2 so it’s not unheard of. But generally we don’t talk about our academics, it’s kind of a given that everyone’s got the same academic achievement. I did a law degree but lots of people, I’d say 50/60% of my intake haven’t done law degrees so you don’t have to have a law degree, it’s not a prerequisite. I did work experience before I did the LPC which is the legal practice course which you have to do before you can start to train and I think that definitely put me in good stead when applying for training contracts because I already had that work experience on my CV and it showed I was serious about being a lawyer and that I had that real work experience which would help me once I was training.

What's the application process like?

The application process is online; most of the applications are online. It’s tailored (done by CV Mel UK) so you don’t have to put in your address or academics in each time you do it which is great because if you’ve ever filled in an online application form they just take forever to fill out so it’s definitely a benefit. The questions, I think, they change every year but generally they are quite specific to the firm. I think that’s quite important because lots of people generally have generic answers and they put them into each form so I think it’s important to make sure you tailor your questions to the form. So it’s an online application process and once you've sent that off you hear back quite quickly, 2 or 3 weeks after the deadline has passed, and then you are invited to an assessment day. I actually applied for a training contract and there was only one space for the training contract and it was given to someone else and they said that they really liked me so if they wanted me to come to the summer scheme next year I didn’t have to go through the whole application process so I kind of did it slightly different to everyone else. Although I applied for a training contract I got taken for a summer scheme which was also a great way to see what the firm was about and to work here for a few weeks and see if this was the type of firm I wanted to qualify in.

What are the key skills required for your job?

I think enthusiastic probably and willing to learn because there is so much to learn that you’ll never know everything so I think just that eagerness and willingness to learn and if you have that you can go into any department and do well.

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

I think work experience actually. I know it sounds obvious but you need to show that you have a real commitment to the law and you want to be a lawyer so I think it’s quite important to have that work experience and to show that you’ve worked in a law firm and that it is the profession for you.

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

The thing about law is that it’s quite a clearly defined career process so it’s two years trainee solicitor, then you qualify, then 0-2 years post-qualification you’re considered to be newly qualified and again all of these roles have quite clearly defined pay brackets. You’re considered to be newly qualified for about 2 years and then you become a middle solicitor so that’s 3-5 years after you qualify and then once you’ve been a solicitor for about 5 years you become a senior associate which is over 6 years and it’s once you hit that point that you can be considered to be a partner so it’s quite clearly defined. The role changes in terms of the intensity of the work that you do and how difficult it is and also how much you delegate and I think what probably changes over time is your knowledge of your practice area so you just know a lot more and become an expert in your field.

Where do you see the industry going?

Energy and waste are two big areas which are really growing and it’s something which a lot of firms are focusing on, being more green. Also with waste there are specific waste targets which have been set up at European level which all the countries in the EU will have comply with and there’s not that many people who know about waste law. It sounds really boring but it’s actually really interesting and it’s one of those things which is only going to get bigger.

Is there scope for movement during or after this career?

A lot of the projects lawyers used to be construction lawyers and now they are projects lawyers and they’ve changed, so it is possible. One of the laywers in our projects department used to be a property lawyer and now he’s a projects lawyer. So it does change. There is definitely scope but I do think it would be quite difficult and it would have to be quite a new and emerging practice area which no-one is really qualified in for you to go and fill in the gaps. In terms of doing other things as being a solicitor, I think being a solicitor it’s very easy to move to other law firms, and doing other things, there is probably scope to do consultant type work, working in-house in a legal team, becoming a professional skills lawyer working as a “know-how” lawyer for law firms, not as a fee-earner but working to provide the know-how for those firms. Those are quite common professions that people go into after qualifying.

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

Roll-on-Friday is quite a good website to read, it’s quite funny and I think anyone who works in a law firm appreciates the wit. We subscribe to The Gazette which is always quite interesting to read. Things I used to read before I qualified were Law Careers, I found really quite a helpful website, and what I really liked and still do is the Chambers and Partners student guide just to get the firm profile, which is quite interesting.

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

I really wanted to be a journalist because it sounds quite exciting and glamorous but in reality it’s probably not.