Profile

I chose Lovells because I wanted to work in an environment that was genuinely supportive and where teamwork was more than just a buzzword. At Lovells, you are encouraged to draw on the firm’s resources and the considerable collective experience of those around you and, in turn, to make your own contributions. This approach of pooling knowledge applies to everyone from partners to trainees, and is not only efficient but also forms the basis for a great working environment. My supervisor, a senior associate, is often consulted by more junior lawyers in the department for advice on how to handle a particular situation, and with his years of experience he can give them information far more valuable than anything they could have found after hours of searching through textbooks. He too will happily go to other lawyers, both senior and junior, to draw on their experience in areas he is less familiar with. This is not a place of closed doors, and you will never be looked down upon for going to others for help.

I have now trained at Lovells for a year, with the first six months in arbitration and the second six months in real estate. The quality of the work and supervision I have been given has far exceeded my expectations, and I have learnt and developed more in this last year than I could have imagined. In both departments, I have been treated like a valuable member of the team - not “just” a trainee - and the level of guidance and feedback I have been given has been invaluable. In arbitration, I wrote advice notes that were discussed with my supervisor before being sent to the client, I was given the first cut of our client’s statement of case, and I was taught to be commercially aware and to always consider issues from the client’s perspective and not merely an academic one. In real estate, I handle a dozen of my own files as well as assisting my supervisor on his, and I have been shown how to draft and negotiate contracts all by myself. I am constantly on the phone with clients and with lawyers on the other side, and one of the main reasons I can be assertive in the advice I give and in my negotiations is that I have discussed the issues with my supervisor (or another lawyer if he is unavailable) and am confident of the reasons for the points I am making. It has been a steep learning curve but the rewards have been enormous.

Trainees often talk about the importance of being given responsibility and challenges, and I agree that this is a crucial part of good training. But responsibility and challenges on their own do not enable you to develop – you also need the lawyers around you to guide you and to be willing to pass on their experience to you. This is what gives you the tools and the confidence to face those challenges and make the most of your opportunities. I could not have asked for better training than the training I have received in this last year, and the benefits I have gained from it will be with me in everything I do in the future.