Once a qualified solicitor, following the two-year training contract in a commercial law firm, your professional future looks very bright. Read on to find out more.
Set now with excellent training and a diverse range of experience, in the many aspects of commercial law your firm practices, it becomes a question of deciding where to specialise. You will need to think about this both in terms of meeting the firm's business requirements, as well as where your interests and skills particularly lie.
Your responsibilities will grow as you progress through your training contract, but from the word go you will be viewed as an integral part of your team.
If you get this right, the chances are that your career trajectory post qualification will see you working as an associate, a senior associate and then as a partner, in a specific business area such as company, competition, contract, employment, intellectual property, energy, property, procurement or the sales of goods/services.
Now for some additional detail of your role at each stage. As a trainee in the commercial department, you will be expected to draft documents, such as a company's standard terms of business, yourself. While you should be prepared for your initial attempts to be heavily amended by your supervisor, the sense of achievement in having produced the finished product yourself will reward perseverance.
The work will often involve plenty of research; for example, you could be asked to research how new legislation will affect a client's business or how employment law applies to an outsourcing arrangement that a client wishes to enter into. Your responsibilities will grow as you progress through your training contract, but from the word go you will be viewed as an integral part of your team.
Later as, let us say, a banking associate, possibly some four years after qualification, you will find yourself still working within large teams but with a significantly higher degree of autonomy, responsibility and direct client exposure.
You may find yourself running your own transactions, being the main client contact, supervising trainees, drafting documents and negotiating with other lawyers. Your work will be supervised by a partner, who will also provide you with support and guidance along the way.
As a partner, which is likely to be at least eight to ten years into your career, in, let us this time say, the corporate team, you may be directly responsible for delivering client transactions, working on high-profile deals, keeping your team in line with tight deadlines and steering their work round incredibly complex legal issues.
The opportunities in commercial law once you have completed your training are vast. You might sidestep into a business in a regional or general counsel (chief legal officer) role, or you might move out of law completely into a more management and solely business focused role.
The training you receive can set you up for life. It's just up to you to work out in which direction you'd like to head.