Standing out from the thousands

Despite entry into the legal profession being highly competitive, it doesn’t stop there. As of March 2014 there were 128,425 practising solicitors registered with the Solicitors Regulation Authority: a wealth of choice
for those looking to instruct
a lawyer.

Firms often claim that future trainees have a significant lack of commercial awareness, preventing them from having the potential to stand out in such a cut-throat environment. Is this criticism unfairly wielded?

A decade ago, it was not unusual to commence a training contract directly after studies. However, with the current intense competition of obtaining one, many future trainees will have worked as paralegals or similar prior to their training contract.

They are now, in general, far better equipped to grapple with the commercial needs of clients than ever before.

If firms consider that a lack of commercial awareness is a vital issue, it is their duty to persuade the SRA that it be a mandatory module on the LPC.

Some larger firms have taken this onboard and have created
a bespoke LPC for incoming trainees that incorporates mandatory business modules.

Yet the remainder of LPC students will undertake the general LPC, criticised for providing insufficient commercial awareness in its syllabus.

The SRA values skills such as drafting, research and legal writing as these subjects are mandatory for all LPC students. These skills can be far more important as many trainees will be using them at an early stage
in their career. For example, a trainee may be asked to draft a contract in the first week of their training contract.

Commercial awareness is a skill more valuable at a later stage in a lawyer’s career where there is an increased responsibility in advising clients. It is considered invaluable because it is often the one skill that clients pick out as differentiating an excellent lawyer from a good one.

Considering the technological advancements in billing, the recession and a less loyal approach towards firms, clients scrutinise bills and the standard of service they receive more carefully. This results in extra pressure on lawyers to produce advice adequately tailored to the commercial needs of the client.

That pressure is reflected at recruitment stage, where it seems that there is too much pressure on trainees to arrive at a law firm commercially astute.

Criticism that future lawyers
are not sufficiently commercially aware is surprising as an increasing number now arrive
at training contract interviews and on their first day with practical experience.

Commercial awareness is persistently cited by graduate recruiters, yet has not been adopted as a mandatory module on the LPC, GDL or LLB.

Is commercial awareness really that an important skill for trainees to possess?

Or is it simply a modern buzzword (almost impossible to define and clearly not very high on the SRA’s agenda) floated about to make it conveniently easier to distinguish a particular candidate against the backdrop of thousands, who are all chasing the same dream? SJ

Natasza Slater is a trainee solicitor at HowardKennedyFsi