Career Guidance

Every junior lawyer wants to make a great first impression so it can be soul destroying when you make a silly mistake early on in your career at a new firm that shows you in a bad light. We asked Katherine Cousins, associate at Addleshaw Goddard and author of “Successful Solicitor: Get Ahead of the Game as a Junior Corporate Lawyer”, for her tips on the errors to avoid.

1. Typos

This was number one on the list of stupid mistakes cited when I asked (very scientifically) all my lawyer friends what most annoyed them about instructing trainees and recent NQs. The general gist of the complaint was, “Why put in all the effort to do the work well and then mess it up by not taking five minutes to proof read it?” I get it. You’re on a deadline and you’ve read it through what feels like a thousand times and you just want to send the thing and go home. Don’t. Print it out. Make yourself a tea and then take it somewhere other than your desk (the library, the secretaries bar, wherever) and go through it with a red pen.

You will be surprised how many glaring spelling errors you’ll spot or phrases that sound unclear now you’re reading them again. Try reading the document aloud, or in a funny accent. Again, it’s simply a silly way to trick your brain into seeing it fresh again. It might take another ten minutes, but better ten minutes late and correct than on time and full of careless errors.

2. Drafting memos like they’re law school essays

A memo of advice for a client is not a law school essay. Make it clear. Keep it as simple as possible. Complex language is tempting when you feel unsure of yourself. The best advice I received about this is to think about it like you’re trying to explain the problem and the solution to your Nan (unless your Nan is a Supreme Court judge). Basically, someone with no legal knowledge or background. Always include a summary of your findings and conclusions at the top that the in-house counsel or business manager can easily forward on to their colleagues. Often no one will really care about the complex analysis, they’ll just want to know the ‘answer’.

One partner I worked for used questions as sub-headings. Not everyone will like this style, but it did help to keep the client’s needs at the forefront of my mind while drafting our response. If you’re drafting a research memo for a senior associate/partner, then you can be more technical. But you should still be clear and concise. Keep a record of what sources you consulted and how you arrived at your conclusions. You need to be able to tell them where you looked and what you found in each place so that they can make themselves comfortable you haven’t missed anything vital.

3. Misjudging your workload

This is a tricky one. Really you should aim to say yes to everything. But at the same time, you do not want to end up in the situation where you have too much to do and are either late with everything or do everything badly because you don’t have time to do it well.

Better to have the one person you had to turn away annoyed with you than the multiple people whose work is late or rubbish. It is ok to say to someone who asks you to take on a task when you’re already stretched, “What is the priority here?” Explain that you have x, y, z for so and so and you’re happy to help them but only if it is ok with that other partner. Often the instructing lawyer will realise you really are busy and find someone else, or they’ll support you when you ask for leeway from the other people for whom you’re working.

That said, don’t be the idiot who turns down work but skips out the door at 7:30pm. It doesn’t make the best impression, especially if your colleagues are drowning. If you’re at a loose end, send a short email to the partners and senior associates in your team letting them know you have capacity. They may or may not have anything, but you will look brilliantly keen nonetheless.

4. Working in a vacuum

I confess, I still struggle with this one when it’s not my matter, particularly if it’s a matter you did not have the good fortune to join from the start. You’re given a task, seemingly discrete – a piece of research or a quick piece of drafting – that you complete to the best of your abilities but somehow it’s not what the instructing lawyer wanted. You know what you’re missing? Context. How can you answer the question when you don’t know where your work fits in the grand scheme of the deal?

It seems like this should be very obvious to the person instructing you, but as soon as you’re the one giving instructions you will realise that it’s much harder than you thought to explain the necessary background. So go after it yourself. Help your seniors out by asking questions: who is the client? What are they trying to achieve? How do they usually work/what style do they like their advice in? If it’s research, what specific facts do you need to know to be able to distinguish useful precedent from irrelevant?

I promise, you are not being annoying by asking for extra details. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard more senior lawyers complain that trainees just don’t seem to appreciate the context of their work (I honestly think this is a little unfair – I mean how do you know the context till you’ve done it a few times? But anyway…). They’ll be grateful because your questions will help them shape their instructions. And your work product will be greatly improved to boot! Win.

5. Being entitled

When this came up in our ‘Welcome to the Firm’ presentation back when I was a trainee, I was surprised. Surely no one actually thought they were too good to photocopy things and be polite to the secretaries? How naive I was! A friend of mine told me about asking a trainee to help her with drafting a short letter only for him to pipe back, yes but it’d be much faster if you just did it. Because he didn’t want to miss his dinner plans. She had to explain to him that the client wouldn’t pay her rates to do something so simple, and would he mind just getting the hell on with it.

I recently had dealings with an intern who wouldn’t help me and a senior associate prepare the meeting room for a client meeting because, ‘That’s a secretary’s job.’ Outrageous behaviour. You’re never too good to pitch in. Remember that.

Katherine is an associate at Addleshaw Goddard. This article is adapted from Katherine’s book, ‘Successful Solicitor: Get Ahead of the Game as a Junior Corporate Lawyer‘.

LinkedIn has become an essential networking tool for business people and professionals alike. We asked our guest blogger, LinkedIn trainer Emily Miller, for her tips on how NQs can use LinkedIn to build their profile and grow their network.

Networking is invaluable at all levels of the legal profession and this is no different for newly qualified solicitors. It is never too soon to start building your network and making connections, and LinkedIn is a great way to do this.

Here are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions I receive that will help you use LinkedIn to your maximum advantage:

I’m a newly qualified, why do I need LinkedIn?

As with all things, you should start as you mean to go on. Making connections with fellow NQs and colleagues in your firm, as well as joining (and contributing to) LinkedIn groups is a great habit to get into. This will help you build a presence within the legal community and grow your professional network. LinkedIn is also an extremely valuable tool for showcasing your experience and the extent of your network to prospective employers.

Who should I be connecting with on LinkedIn?

Knowing who to connect with on LinkedIn is partly strategic, partly common sense. As you will probably know by now the practice area you want to specialise in, research businesses or organisations you are interested in, find their key players and see if you have any shared connections. If you do, then why not call your connection and find out more about the person you’d like to meet and, if appropriate, ask for an introduction? Find a handful of active law-focused LinkedIn groups and get involved in conversations a couple of times a week. This is a great way to grow your personal brand and start building new relationships with other group members.

Is it OK to connect with someone that I don’t know?

LinkedIn does not encourage connecting with people you don’t know; your LinkedIn network will be undermined if it is full of strangers. However, if you’ve had an online conversation via a LinkedIn group or other social media platform with someone you haven’t met in person, or if a shared connection has introduced you to them, do send them an invitation to connect. It’s best not to use the invitation template LinkedIn provides. Rather, make an effort to write them a nice note that reminds them of how you’ve met or why you want to connect. Your invitation is your first opportunity to start building a professional relationship with a contact so don’t waste it.

If you’ve received an invitation from someone you don’t know, have a look at their profile. Do you have shared connections? If so, you may want to connect and then send them an email via LinkedIn thanking them for the invitation and begin building the relationship further.

What should my tone of voice be on LinkedIn?

This varies from industry to industry, but for NQ solicitors it is important that you sound professional yet approachable. Make sure that the content in your ‘Summary’ and ‘Experience’ sections flows well and includes key words, but don’t fill them with too much jargon (no one likes that – not even lawyers!). A good way of testing for flow is to read it out loud.

Should my profile photo be fun or serious?

Ultimately, you want to look professional, especially given the career that you are pursuing, but also approachable. Get a good head and shoulders shot with a decent background (not a pub), look smartly dressed and, above all, smile. No Facebook photos of you on the beach or with your partner, please.

Before I wrap up, here are two common myths that I’d like to demystify about LinkedIn:

1. You have to spend lots of time on LinkedIn every day for it to make a difference

LinkedIn can be as time consuming, or not, as you make it. As with most activities, the more you put in, the more you will get out. My advice is that you should set goals for your LinkedIn activities (not just scroll through ‘People You May Know’ for hours) and focus on meeting those goals.

2. It’s just about making connections for the sake of it

There is little point in having a large network if you are not going to build and develop these relationships. LinkedIn is great for online networking (especially for newly qualified solicitors for whom time is at a premium), strengthening current professional relationships and developing new ones, but this is of limited value if these relationships stay online. You should take these relationships offline for them to be of maximum benefit.

Emily Miller is the founder of, and a LinkedIn coach at, Marshall Walker.

Not many people enjoy being interviewed. But if you are planning to move firms as an NQ or junior solicitor you’ll need to embrace the interview process. Competition for jobs at NQ to 2 PQE is fierce and giving the right impression at interview is obviously critical to your chances.

You could wing it of course, but we wouldn’t advise it. The team at NQSolicitors has placed hundreds of candidates over the years and listened to feedback on thousands of interviews. So, we reckon we have a pretty good idea of what does and doesn’t work during interviews.

Here are our seven top tips for giving a killer interview:

1. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your CV is so stellar that the interview is a mere formality.

You may be rightly proud of your CV and your achievements to date but lots of people have impressive CVs. Your CV and academic record have simply got you through the door. Now it’s down to you. Your goal is to impress the interviewer in person, not on paper.

2. That’s not to say your CV is irrelevant.

Interviewers will look at it closely so be ready to talk about anything you mention, from your three months working in a Cambodian orphanage to your grade 8 in clarinet.

3. Don’t stress if your training hasn’t given you all the experience you think you need for the job.

At NQ stage, law firms are generally thinking much more about what you can do for them in the future rather than your experience to date. They are hiring your potential and know that experience varies dramatically between candidates who have trained in different environments. It’s possible that the six months you spent as a tiny cog in a huge debt restructuring deal at a magic circle firm is of no future practical use. But you will have gained valuable skills. Focus on these. These skills are more important in the long run and of far more interest to your potential new firm.

4. Do lots of research on the firm you are interviewing with and ask plenty of questions.

Employers love enthusiasm. You can even take a notebook into the interview with you, so that you can jot down interesting points. Remember, an interview is a two-way street. You need to decide if the firm is a fit for you as well as the other way round. As long as it doesn’t look like you’re interviewing them, the firm will respect you for trying to assess whether they’re right for you.

5. Be ready to answer the obvious questions

“Why are you moving?”, “What’s the most difficult task you carried out in your training contract and how did you handle it?”. Also be prepared to respond to the demand: “Tell us about yourself”. When replying to this and answering questions, the crucial thing is to be highly specific. Give concrete examples. Tell stories. Make sure the interviewer can picture what you are talking about. This will give you credibility and allow the interviewer to visualise you doing your job and how you go about things.

6. If you make a good first impression, in the vast majority of cases you will be asked to attend a second interview. The temptation at this stage may be to play it safe.

After all, they liked you enough to ask you back, surely more of the same is all that’s required? This is a mistake. Approach the second stage just as you did the first, and go all out to impress. You will most likely be meeting new people at the second stage, and with them you’ll be starting from scratch, so be prepared to wow them all over again.

7. Make an emotional investment.

I’ve lost count of the times I have broken it to a candidate that they haven’t got a job only to be told that they “weren’t sure about it anyway” or “didn’t really want it”. If you want the job, put your heart into it. “Faint heart never won fair lady” is as true in job hunting as it is in love. If you want the position, make sure the firm is in no doubt about it. They’re keen to employ people who are excited to work for them.

Last of all, good luck!

Going from trainee to newly qualified solicitor overnight is one of the biggest challenges a solicitor faces in their career. NQSolicitors spoke to Veale Wasbrough Vizards’ Vanina Wittenburg to find out how she is enjoying life as a newly qualified solicitor at the firm and what tips she can pass on to trainees approaching qualification.

How did you find the transition from trainee to newly qualified solicitor and what were your biggest challenges?

The full workload of a qualified solicitor is entirely different from that of a trainee, and this has taken some adjustment in the first few months. Organisational skills have become key, and I have found that I need to take more time out of my day to make sure I prioritise the right tasks, and deal with matters in a timely manner. What this has meant though is that I’ve been treated as a proper fee earner from day one, with the level of trust that entails, which has been a great motivator. The variety of work is also vast by comparison, and as a newly qualified solicitor you feel like you should know it all (from one day to the next). So I think it’s important to stop and realise that to choose a career as a solicitor is to choose a lifetime of learning and professional development. Training doesn’t stop when you qualify, and clients will always surprise you with questions you’ve never been asked before.

How well did the firm and your time as a trainee prepare you for the step up to life as a newly qualified solicitor?

I feel that my training contract has prepared me really well for qualification. Throughout my time as a trainee I was given a high level of responsibility, and often had ownership of my own matters, so in that sense the transition wasn’t too scary. It also means that as a trainee I never felt like “the junior” in any of the teams I spent time with – my opinion was always valued. That’s given me a lot of confidence in my skills and abilities, which has served me well since qualification.

Obviously, you chose to stay at VWV post qualification. What advice would you give to trainees when making the decision whether to stay or leave?

Before ever considering becoming a lawyer, it was clear to me that I enjoy learning and dealing with intellectual challenges – I dabbled in academia for a few years before deciding on law – so it was really important to me to be in an environment where my own interests, learning and ambitions were given proper weight. I found this at VWV, and this is one of the key reasons I wanted to stay with the firm.

I always felt as a trainee that the people I worked for wanted me to learn and hone my craft just as much as they wanted me to do good work for our clients. I don’t think this kind of supportive environment is a given in the legal world. Ultimately it means I enjoy my work and am excited to go into the office every day – which to me seems like the most important thing about choosing any job. So, my advice would be to really consider whether the area of law you have chosen will hold your interest in the long term, and whether your firm provides the environment where you can excel in that area of law. This really boils down to: will the firm be supportive of your training and learning, and do you feel like it cares about your career development?

At what stage of your training did you decide you wanted to specialise in private client work? How difficult was this decision?

My very first seat as a trainee was in Private Client, and I had an inkling before I started that I would really enjoy it, having taken a Private Client elective during the LPC. I very quickly realised I’d been right, and so Private Client became the seat to which I compared all other seats. Some came close – I considered Commercial Property for some time, as I dealt with really interesting matters and clients, but Private Client won out fairly early in the process. I didn’t find it that difficult to make the decision, as I took a fairly objective approach. I really thought about what it was that I enjoyed on a day-to-day basis (client contact, plenty of drafting, and a mixture of technical knowledge and creative thinking), and Private Client felt like the best fit for me.

What do you enjoy about being a private client solicitor?

Private Client has a really good mix of intellectually challenging work, and what I call the “human element”. My clients are individuals and families, and I often interact with them at tough times in their lives. I have to find out about my clients’ lives so that I can identify appropriate solutions to their problems, or strategies to achieve what they want.

Understanding people’s motivations is key, and often this means it’s not about doing what might seem like the most logical thing, but rather what needs to be done to get to the client’s desired end result. This, coupled with having to think creatively about how to achieve the clients’ objectives, makes every day different and interesting.

What are your ambitions as a lawyer and do you feel you will be able to fulfil them at VWV?

From the moment I decided I wanted to become a solicitor, my aim has always been to find a career that keeps me interested day in and day out, and that involves working with people. I really think I have found that at VWV. Even as a junior fee earner, I have plenty of interesting work and client contact, and I work in a very supportive and friendly team. This means that I enjoy my work, as well as my time at work, and I feel like I provide an excellent service to our clients. These to me are huge positives, and part of the reason why I think being at VWV will allow me to do really well in my career.

How would you describe VWV to someone applying to the firm either as a trainee or as a newly qualified solicitor?

VWV has a very long history (Charles Dickens worked for one of the previous incarnations of the firm), yet it is a thoroughly modern firm. It has a varied and fascinating client list including settled estates, educational institutions, small business owners, wealthy individuals and everything in between.

The firm has one of the friendliest environments that I have worked in; an environment where everybody has respect for one another and where everybody takes great pride in their work.

Veale Wasbrough Vizards’ website is available at https://www.vwv.co.uk/

As a recruitment consultant and non-lawyer, I am always amazed when people tell me they became a lawyer by mistake. Or, more accurately, because they couldn’t think of anything else to do and it seemed like a good idea at the time. You would be shocked how often I hear that.

Knowing that, you will be less surprised by how many newly qualified solicitors I speak to who have career doubts once they qualify. Many do, and if you are one of them you are not alone.

In fact, you are in good company. Ex-lawyers who left the profession for pastures new include no lesser figures than Fidel Castro, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. Political leanings aside, they didn’t do too badly – if changing the world to a greater or lesser extent is your thing.

Apparently, Gandhi’s epiphany that he was not cut out for law came when he returned to Bombay to practice after qualifying in England and realised he was too shy to speak loudly in court.

Whenever I talk to a wavering NQ, the first question I ask is what they like about the job.

Some get a kick out of the status of being a lawyer, others enjoy the intellectual challenge and for a few, money is the motivating factor. People also mention the team environment, the desire to help people and the variety of daily challenges the job throws up, plus having acquired the special skills needed to deal with them.

The next question is obvious: what don’t they like about it?

Gripes could fill a volume of law reports but typical ones are the stress, the long hours and the impact on other areas of their life.

One lawyer turned teacher Emily Wilson says that law didn’t give her the contact with people she was expecting: “When I started working at the law firm, it wasn’t what I had expected at all, it was sitting at a desk all day and any interaction with clients would mostly be through email. That wasn’t really what I was looking for in a career.”

This gets to the nub of the issue. Are you questioning your career in law because the job doesn’t suit your personality or is it just a blip? In other words, are you in the right job but in the wrong field or the wrong firm? Would you be better suited to working in house, than in private practice?

Some NQs feel uncertain on qualification because training has dented their confidence. They want to run away because it feels they will never acquire the professional adeptness shown by the partners in their firm. This flight syndrome is understandable and may indicate that the firm is not right for them because it hasn’t nurtured them properly. In these cases, a move rather than a career change may be the answer.

The best advice I’ve heard on the topic of career change is from a partner in a large City law firm – someone who climbed to the top of the slippery partnership pole. She told me that doubts were natural at any stage of your career and a good sign you are taking yourself and your career seriously.

“The important thing is to know yourself,” she told me. “Work out what you really want from your life and your career.” This means understanding your values and talents, and thinking about the environment you want to work in and the types of people you want to spend your daily life with.

Added to this are lifestyle decisions. It’s true leaving law may give you more time to get fit or go on holiday but can you afford to change careers financially? It may seem shallow to worry about this but practical considerations should play a part.

The advice I give to uncertain candidates is to take their time. NQs often feel an urgency to make a decision soon after qualification but this isn’t necessary. It may be the most important decision of their life so they need to think about it carefully. Find out if the grass really is greener. The only way they can know with any certainty is to carry out detailed research and network with people in the industry they want to move into. In short, do all the research they should have done before they stuck their finger in the air as a teenager and said, “I suppose it’s law then”.

“Specialisation is for insects,” according to American science-fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein. In today’s legal world, it is also for lawyers.

Long gone are the days when a practitioner, certainly in one of the big firms, would find themselves in court in the morning and completing the sale of a company in the afternoon. If you tried to do that nowadays in a leading firm you wouldn’t be taken seriously.

Newly Qualified Solicitors now choose their field of specialisation as soon as their training contract ends. Unfortunately, they either don’t always make the right choice, or don’t secure the role they asked for.

“Candidates come to us looking to change practice areas for all sorts of reasons,” says NQ Solicitors’ Managing Director Ian Roberts. “It may be because they find the work boring, they feel like they are trapped in a dead-end practice area or the work simply doesn’t suit their personality.”

The important thing to remember is that you haven’t made an irreversible mistake. It is possible to change path at any time during your legal career, although the earlier you do it the better.

“NQ Solicitors have a window of about six to 12 months post-qualification when they can move quite easily into a new practice area,” says Ian. “Usually this will be to one of the seats they trained in, but it is also possible to move into a fresh practice area.”

If you are an NQ Solicitor and thinking about moving into a new practice area, what steps should you be taking?

1. Be honest with yourself

It is important to identify what it is you dislike about your current role, as well as what you enjoy. You also need to honestly appraise your strengths and weaknesses. Are you more suited to highly technical legal work or are you someone who craves close involvement with the client and other team members?

Think about what your ideal working life would be in terms of the types of clients you deal with, what your job involves day to day and what area will continue to inspire you in the months and years ahead.

By assessing these things, you should unmask your real motivation. Do you really want to move or is the problem just a minor blip in terms of a particular partner you are working for or case you are managing.

2. Do detailed research

Even if you are pretty certain you want to move into a practice area that you gained exposure to during your training contract, spend time on research.

Speak to as many people working in the field as possible, across all age ranges and levels of seniority, and on both sides of the client/lawyer fence. Ideally, try to find someone who is willing to act as your mentor.

Next, establish if your interest in the relevant field is likely to sustain you for the foreseeable future. Read relevant legal publications and go on courses and seminars. Many barristers’ chambers put on seminars that are free to attend for solicitors. These are excellent networking opportunities too.

3. Work out the practicalities

If you are moving say from banking or capital markets to private client or immigration, you have to be realistic and accept that you will probably end up taking a pay cut. Similarly, if you are moving from, say, employment law to corporate finance you will have to consider what that will mean in terms of time commitment and the knock-on effect on your social or family life.

Longer term, assess whether your chosen field will affect your partnership prospects.

Also, will a change into a different practice area mean a move to a regional firm from a central London firm or vice versa? If so, what will be the effect over the longer term to your commute and lifestyle?

4. Find out what retraining you will need to do

This will be especially relevant if you want to move into a field that you didn’t cover during your training contract. The Law Society sometimes offer courses for lawyers who are retraining and it is worth going on one of these even if you are only a couple of years out of law school. This will ensure you are completely up to date and give you an accreditation you can put on your CV.

As well as this, study the field in your own time. Read the relevant textbooks and recent cases so you can at least prove to any potential employer that you are up to speed and committed.

5. Sell yourself on your skills

Don’t over-estimate the importance of your lack of practical experience in a particular area. Employers, especially ones recruiting relatively junior staff, will be more interested in what skills you have and how these can be applied towards your new field. Negotiating skills are as valuable in divorce as they are in litigation. The ability to draft is as important in property as it is in employment. Commercial awareness is necessary across the board. Focus on these and similar attributes, as well as your drive and enthusiasm to learn and progress.

“The most important thing is to think long term,” says Ian Roberts. “Make sure you are moving for the right reasons in terms of your career as a whole and not just because the grass seems greener. Do your research and once you have made up your mind, go for it.”

To discuss how NQ Solicitors can help you move jobs and in to a new specialist field, call us on 020 3709 9165 or email us at info@nqsolicitors.com