Are trainees truly wannabe solicitors or just bona fide dogsbodies for firms?

Now in the final seat of my training contract,
I have been looking back at my time as a trainee solicitor, and considering
how typical my experience
has been. In particular, I’ve thought about how my
peers in other firms are
treated and how that ultimately affects the calibre
of their training contract.

To what lengths are desperate young people willing to go? Crucially, to what extent are employers willing to take advantage of such clear desperation? And how will
this situation affect the
future careers of trainees?

It’s a point pertinent to trainee solicitors, who may
well find that although a training contract gives you the foot in the door to a potential job, it does not automatically mean it will provide you with the calibre of training you need.

I often hear horror stories about trainees/interns who are effectively no more than a glorified tea-maker or who spend 90 per cent of their
two years’ training fused to a photocopier in their bid to secure a job; the most amusing ‘tasks’ include being asked to untie a tricky knot and locate a phone charger for a partner.

That said, as a trainee, there
is a real advantage in being involved in the ‘basics’, as long as that isn’t all you are doing.
It affords you an invaluable working knowledge of your firm, something that often more senior solicitors lack.

Similarly, the interpersonal and networking skills derived from playing the role of catering staff at our numerous marketing events are extremely beneficial.

While there have been a few occasions where the trainees
at my firm have had to form
the manpower behind a large document-proofing task, I can count the ‘menial’ jobs I have been given on one hand.

Throughout my training contract, I have been given
real responsibility in each department. I have been actively encouraged, not
just allowed, to run files and conduct client meetings
with little supervision.

Almost all my personal and professional development has been directly linked to the level of responsibility that I have been trusted with. This has built my confidence in terms of my general ‘solicitor skills’.

My first supervisor actually chastised me for offering to make him a cup of tea, telling me that I needed to remember that I was here to train to be
a solicitor and not to make
the drinks.

Ultimately, the question has to be: should you seek to secure a training contract at any cost? Is a training contract where all you do is photocopy and make tea (or similar) really worth it? The accolade of being a trainee with a Magic Circle firm may, on closer inspection, transpire to be only a badge with no
real substance.

Prospective trainees should be encouraged to remember that a training contract is meant to be a symbiotic relationship between trainee and firm, and not a one-way street sometimes akin to slave labour.

It is hard to remember, in
such a competitive arena, that you need to get the most out
of your training contract. SJ

Pippa Allsop is a trainee at Michelmores