A common source of worry for students is interviews. They can be scary things when you have never done one!

We incorporate interviews into our work experience process. We often hear that this is great experience for students who may well have limited experience of interviews, especially for legal work experience placements which are highly competitive.

There are some things to remember and some ways you can prepare for work experience interviews at Lanyon Bowdler:

1. Try to stay relaxed

Our interviews are informal and designed to give us a chance to get to know each other. We know you might be nervous and that’s ok! The interview isn’t there to catch you out or put you on the spot. We know interviews can be daunting and we have all been there so we know exactly how you feel. Do your best to relax and remember it’s your opportunity to get to know us too!

2. Be prepared to talk about yourself

We like to hear about you. If you have something interesting on your CV, we will definitely ask about it – we love hearing about your hobbies and interests and what you’re studying. You are the absolute best authority on you, so this is a real time to shine and enjoy telling us about yourself.

3. Make a note of any questions you have

You will always have the opportunity to ask questions, and there is no such thing as a silly question. It is easy to forget what you wanted to ask in the moment though, so a note of a few key things you want to know can be really helpful to have available.

We also have a podcast episode on work experience for anyone who would like to learn more!

Who are we?

Both Miriam and Eleanor are trainees at Lanyon Bowdler Solicitors and started in September 2021.

Miriam is in the Private Client department and works with Wills and dealing with estates.

Eleanor is in the Court of Protection department which deals with people who are applying to the Court for an Order that will allow them to make decisions on behalf of someone who lacks the mental capacity to make that decision, as well as the ongoing management of the property and affairs of people with professional Deputies.

Why are English skills important in your workplace?

There are numerous English skills that are applicable to everyday life including in the workplace and especially in a legal environment. These can include communication, accurate writing, proof reading and listening.

Accurate Writing

Private Client involves a great deal of drafting, such as drafting Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and letters to clients, beneficiaries, and other bodies. It is important that you use the correct letter format. You also have to adjust your writing style and tone depending on who you are writing to. You need to be able to communicate quite complex concepts to clients in a way that they can understand. Particularly in Private Client, some things are quite tricky like inheritance tax or trusts. It’s important to us to communicate in clear English, not legalese, but if you’re writing to banks or other bodies you can use more formal and complex language.

In Court of Protection we spend a lot of time talking to people who have Deputies appointed. Those people have a really wide range of comprehension ability, and often things like reading lengthy letters or emails is just not possible for them, even though they would be able to understand the concepts. We therefore have to select the most effective methods of communication before we even start thinking about what we say and how. Because we are regularly involved in looking after very complex financial affairs, there can often be a lot of formal documents and letters involved, all of which have to be drafted completely accurately so as to ensure we are looking after the best interests of our clients. The Court is also very specific, quite rightly, and therefore all our communication must be exact and precise which requires top level English skills.

Proof Reading

Proof reading is key. One of the things I learned very early on in my time as a trainee is the importance of attention to detail and good proof reading. Even if you make small mistakes that seem insignificant, there is no room for anything that could make you seem unprofessional. I have been asked to reprint letters for reasons such as a one word had a capital letter when it shouldn’t have.

The smallest details in law can have the biggest impact, so attention to detail and proof reading is essential to avoid any potential discrepancies. This leads on to why listening is also a key skill to utilise.

Listening

Listening carefully to your supervisor, and others who are giving you work to do, enables you to do the work to a good standard and also to learn and improve in the future.

Listening is crucial when meeting with clients. If you didn’t really listen to clients and assumed that you knew what they wanted, this could lead to mistakes and unhappy clients – it’s one of the reasons why we make sure our services are all really bespoke and all about listening carefully to our clients and providing the very best tailored service. Clients have often been through a difficult time and appreciate having someone to talk to and being listened to. We all want to know we are really being listened to.

When we attend meetings with clients we must prepare detailed notes to record everything that was discussed so, if necessary, it can be referred back to. Again, these notes need to be detailed but also comprehensible so others who may need to rely on your notes can understand exactly what happened.

We always thought that with the technology we now have, a lot of the English skills we learn in school would not be applicable to day to day life. We were wrong! Every day we write letters, emails, and other forms of correspondence which we would not know how to do correctly without being taught the correct English skills. Even day to day general conversations with clients and colleagues require a high level of English language skills to ensure communication is effective.

Why did we choose a legal career?

Miriam:

For me, my decision to do law was, to be honest, a process of elimination rather than thinking for a long time that I definitely wanted to do law. Up until about year 11, I thought I wanted to do medicine or veterinary medicine, but I realised I actually really didn’t like chemistry. This made me completely re-think what I wanted to do. I knew I wanted to do a degree that had a specific vocation attached to it, so I started thinking about law. I did it as an A Level and I really enjoyed it. I felt I was studying something that was actually so relevant to everyday life and I found it exciting that law is an ever changing subject. So I decided to study it at university. I know that law was definitely the right subject for me.

Eleanor:

Law was something that was always of interest but I never really considered going into it as a career, mainly because there is a perception that it takes years and years. It does, that is true, but the few years you spend qualifying fly by and should not be off-putting. I also studied law at A level, purely because I always found the typical TV shows really interesting. I then took two years out of education and worked various jobs to really get a feel for what I did and did not like, and eventually came back to law.

I think what appealed to me in the long term was that there are so many paths you can take in law: it is not just the criminal side you see on TV, but there are many different areas of law you can work and specialise in. Most people will need a lawyer at some point in their life for a number of reasons and that keeps the job interesting, because it is applicable to everyone at various stages in life. In short, no two days are the same and there is always something interesting (sometimes dramatic) happening.

I have been a trainee solicitor in the private client department at Lanyon Bowdler since the beginning of September. Before joining the department, I had never really thought that private client would be an area that I would like to practise in as I have always been drawn to more contentious areas of law. My preconceptions about private client were that it would largely be about tax and that it would be difficult working in an area involving death. In fact, it has been very different to how I anticipated.

What does your role involve?

My role is actually incredibly varied, much more so than I expected. Some of the more typical tasks I do include preparing pricing documentation and attendance notes, drafting Wills and Lasting Powers of Attorneys (LPAs) and writing letters to clients, beneficiaries and other bodies such as banks.

Most days involve some client contact, whether that is speaking to clients over the phone or attending client meetings. Clients themselves are all different and each require a different approach which is one of the things that makes private client so interesting. I have attended meetings with clients with large estates who want help with inheritance tax planning, and clients who are losing capacity and who wish to enter into LPAs.

Some of the more unexpected tasks I have been asked to do relate to the practical side of estate administrations. For example, I have visited a deceased person’s property to take meter readings and to get an idea as to the condition of the property. This has made me realise that there is so much more to private client than just the legal side.

What have you found the most rewarding about being in private client?

Dealing with estate administrations for clients is something I have found particularly rewarding. Our clients have usually been through a difficult time with losing a loved one, so it is fulfilling to feel that we are taking a weight off their shoulders. One of my most rewarding moments so far was when I was finally able to contact a beneficiary who we had been trying to track down for nearly two months, in relation to a complex intestacy estate. I was able to reassure our client that the estate administration would now be much more straightforward.

Preparing Wills and LPAs for clients is also a rewarding process. These are important documents to have in place, but often clients don’t want to think about what happens once they pass away, or if they lose capacity. One of our clients, who I met during my first week as a trainee, was anxious to have a Will as soon as possible, but she was struggling to make decisions about who to benefit and she didn’t really want to think about it. I had an extra meeting with her to discuss this and I clarified some aspects of the draft Will that she had been worried about. She was so relieved at the end of the meeting and said that she now had peace of mind about the whole thing.

As private client involves dealing with some complex concepts and documents, another aspect of the role that I find satisfying is when I am able to complete difficult tasks, such as the first time I completed an IHT400, and when I have drafted trusts documents and more complicated Wills. These milestones have made me realise how much progress I have made and how much I have learned in the last two months.

Overall I have really enjoyed my time so far as a trainee solicitor in the private client department and it has definitely exceeded my expectations. I feel so fortunate to be working in such a great team of people. I can’t wait to see what the next three and a half months hold!

After all the late nights, coffee and frantic searches of your workshop notes trying to recall the cost consequences of failing to beat a defendant’s Part 36 offer, the obligatory LinkedIn graduation posts, you finally wave farewell to the academic period of your legal career. Then, if you’re anything like me, the search to secure your training contract begins.

You hunt for the upcoming application deadlines, subscribe to all the latest commercial awareness newsletters you can find and join the ranks of your fellow graduates in the search to find the golden ticket that is your training contract.

The Application

When I began applying to firms, I soon found it was the norm to be subjected to abstract assessments concocted by Messrs Watson Glaser. I was presented with endless multiple choices to assess my verbal and logical reasoning, each one an attempt to obliquely determine my suitability through a series of ones and zeroes. I began to see my career in law as a never ending list of lettered and numbered choices and my future employers as statisticians, reviewing every remark I made and running it through a system which processed my character and whether it was ‘optimal’, according to current industry trends.

That was until I applied to Lanyon Bowdler. For the first time in my search for a training contract I found a firm that was interested in me. Rather than being asked what order I would respond to events in a hypothetical situation, they wanted to know who I was and what I could do. I sat down and, for what felt like the first time, prepared my application based on my background and skillset.

The Interview

To my excitement, I received an invitation for an interview. I say ‘interview’ but the whole process felt like a chat with genuine people who wanted to get to know you. I was fortunate enough to be asked back for a second interview where my practical knowledge of the law was assessed, although not through abstract scenarios which were run through an algorithm and scored as a percentage – as had been my experience before – but through talking about a case study with real lawyers who had years of experience and who understood there was more than one answer to a situation.

As a mature candidate, having completed my LPC at 32 years old, I had a great deal of practical experience on my CV, which the interviewing partners were keen to discuss and which would not necessarily have translated through the impersonal approach adopted by a majority of firms.

Lanyon Bowdler’s Approach

The personal approach that LB takes in selecting its trainees is its greatest strength. You meet the partners early on; they talk to you, on a personal level, and see what sort of candidate you are for themselves. I remember, during my first interview, being told the reason the firm takes this approach is because they aren’t picking faceless trainees who just check boxes and don’t have any stake in the work they perform, they’re choosing future associates and partners.

I’ve found this ethos to be true in the work I had the privilege of completing during my training period. From my first seat I was involved in high level work which, admittedly, at first was daunting but I always had a direct line to my supervising partner and other experienced solicitors, so I was never put in a situation where I was out of my depth.

The team at LB wants to develop you to be the best solicitor you can. I found, during my training, that I was exposed to all aspects of life in practice; I was encouraged to take part in networking and business development early on and discovered that life in practice is more than just drafting, note taking and research. I was taught about the importance of making connections with clients and seeking out new business; not to just rest on your laurels and expect work to come to you.

At every point in my training I felt as if I were put at the centre of decisions, I was able to meet with partners regularly and have a say in which department I would gain experience in next. I felt I was able to shape my training to suit the career I wanted, and was actively encouraged by the firm to do so.

After all the time, effort and care which had gone into my training I felt I was ready to take on life as a newly qualified solicitor and was delighted to be given the opportunity to do so as a dispute resolution solicitor at Lanyon Bowdler.

For more information, please visit our training contracts page.

While applying for training contracts you’re often asked what new challenges will law firms face in the future. For the most part, in recent times, this would have incited a discussion concerning Brexit and the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union. Less likely to be considered are the ramifications of a pandemic on the legal sector and the country as a whole.

As a trainee with Lanyon Bowdler, I had just started my second seat with the personal injury department when restrictions in the United Kingdom were yet to be put in place. I, like many of the other trainees, had only just begun to settle into my new role within the department.

At an early stage, Lanyon Bowdler started taking steps to actively manage the ever evolving situation, both in terms of meeting the needs of its clients and of its employees. I happened to be in the position where I was both an employee and a client of the firm; having only just recently completed on my property purchase.

A client’s perspective

From a client perspective, this included the residential property department liaising with me throughout the process, updating me as to any issues that might arise and generally assisting with my concerns. Whether this was regarding the effect this situation might have on exchange of contracts and completion, or just the normal everyday concerns.

A trainee’s perspective

Within my own department, the thing I noticed most, was despite the fact each individual had their own matters and concerns everyone took time to ensure that others could meet the changing demands of the situation. The firm as a whole has also come together with individuals taking on roles and assisting wherever they can, even if this is just by lending someone a spare laptop that can be used to work remotely or stopping to listen to another colleague’s concerns. My team has taken every step to ensure that my experience within the seat and my training contract will not be hampered and that I am still able to carry out my role effectively; albeit in a very different way.

The legal sector will take time as a whole to adapt to this situation, with everyone working remotely (including the courts). We may see changes to the way we would witness a Will, with e-signatures and video-witnessing being contemplated; although, there is no confirmation that this would be accepted so far. In personal injury, we have already seen a dramatic shift to remote access to the courts and greater cooperation between defendant and claimant lawyers who understand the need to maintain continuity and mitigate the effects of these unprecedented circumstances.

These are difficult times for everyone, the way we go about our lives has changed drastically with little time to adjust. The ability of the people of Lanyon Bowdler to maintain a degree of normality and to continue to perform exceptionally at times like this, is how I know I’ve chosen the right firm to undertake my training contract with.

If you are interested in applying for a training contract with Lanyon Bowdler, please visit the training contracts page for more information.

If someone had said to me, five years from now you will complete your law degree whilst holding down a full time job and bringing up three young children with my husband, I would have laughed and said no chance. I honestly did not expect to get through the first year let alone five years.

It turns out however, with a fully supportive husband and employer I am now thankfully at the end and on course to obtain a high 2:2. On 1 March, I actually found out I gained a 2:1, I am over the moon to have achieved this and not to have taken any resits!

Good background

Having worked for Neil Lorimer, the head of the personal injury department, since 2010, working on high level injury claims where clients have suffered serious multiple injuries including brain injury, spinal injury and amputees, this has given me a good background on aspects needed in a good lawyer.

Since 2016 I have worked for Debbie Humphries as her legal assistant. This has furthered my knowledge and experience in dealing with clients, barristers and experts. Each case is unique and requires clear communication with clients to enable them to understand the legal process they are going through, and also with barristers and experts where organising conferences or instructions.

My role consists of duties such as obtaining and collating documents for a claimants claim such as medical records, police reports and other relevant documents. I also meet with witnesses and prepare witness statements, as well as preparing draft instructions to counsel and experts together with collating the relevant documents for them. These tasks require me to consider the facts of each case, setting out a descriptive background detailing the issues to be considered. All of these duties have given me experience to pull from when completing assignments and exams, as I have been able to put myself in the shoes of a lawyer advising clients.

Along with other aspects of my role I have found that being a full time worker in a law firm, whilst studying a law degree, has been invaluable. Each and every one of my work colleagues have been pestered for their views on whatever subject I happen to have been studying at the time. Similarly every trainee solicitor passing through the department, when completing the seat with personal injury, has been helpful in giving their advice on both subjects I was studying and also on training contracts and, more importantly, the interviews for a training contract. They all have my undoubted thanks.

Plan and organise time

Working whilst studying a law degree has taught me to plan and organise my time. Remembering to allow time to be with my family and time to relax, but also planning in study time around exams to coincide with work.

I would thoroughly advise anyone thinking of studying whilst working, it can be done! If you are lucky enough to be working in a law firm whilst studying, use this to your advantage and speak with your colleagues, you will find that many of them are more than happy to help and advise. Lanyon Bowdler has been instrumental in aiding me to achieve my goal and have given me the flexibility to work and study whilst also having the balance with family life.

This blog was written by Mathew Hughes who trained with the firm until September 2018.

I’ve always seen myself pursuing a career in law, but at the same time I also knew that I wanted to be able to get involved with business, so when I was applying for training contracts, ensuring the practice had a strong commercial focus was at the top of my list.

At Lanyon Bowdler I received hands-on training under leading lawyers who share my enthusiasm for business; this blog reflects upon my experience within the commercial departments of the firm, with a view to providing some insight for those considering a similar route.

Active role

My first experiences of dealing with businesses on a day to day basis came in my second seat with the corporate & commercial team. The department had advised on deals worth over £110m in the previous year and had ambitions to grow further; after just one month I was taking an active role supporting the partner of the team on the due diligence effort in relation to a £2m share sale. Suffice to say I relished the opportunity to get involved with the day to day workings of businesses large and small - even if there was a bit of a shortage on corporate golf days!

As I acclimatised to working for business clients I was pleasantly surprised at the assured approach taken to getting trainees involved with the work; I found that across all commercial teams at the firm that if you demonstrate you’re up to the task, are keen to learn and enthusiastic about the work, you can expect to be meeting lots of clients and being kept very busy!

Add value

In terms of practical lessons, as a trainee you are always encouraged to “add value” for commercial clients; ie to use your initiative to apply legal knowledge to the context and make commercial suggestions to the benefit of a client’s business. Trainees are encouraged to consider the bigger picture to a client’s instructions and to ask questions such as: “Why has this problem arisen?” And “Is there anything we can do to help stop it happening again?”

By taking the time to ask these sorts of questions and offering practical commercial advice, as well as fulfilling our legal retainer, commercial trainees can offer a more rounded service that ideally heads issues off before they arise, and gets clients thinking about the sorts of risks that we as legal advisors see crop up regularly. In this way we can offer clients more for their money and a business-orientated service which stands out from the crowd.

Having established a solid commercial base from which to build I moved on to the commercial dispute resolution department. Whilst sitting within the team I saw a broad range of business disputes; from relatively small agricultural boundary disputes, all the way up to multi million pound manufacturing disputes between international companies.

I found that whatever the size of business the same broad principles of commercial awareness apply; in a dispute context companies generally want to know how much time and effort a dispute is likely to put them to, and they want our advice on whether their dispute is financially worth fighting.

No shortage of work

As for my fourth and final seat, I joined the commercial property team assisting the busy department with a variety of commercial purchases, leases and business ventures. I’d whole heartedly recommend Lanyon Bowdler to a prospective trainee, and as you may have gleaned from the above, there’s certainly no shortage of work!

I completed my Law degree at the University of Sheffield and graduated in 2015. I then went on to study the legal practice course at the University of Law and graduated in 2017. Whilst I enjoyed many aspects of both courses I found I enjoyed land law the most, so it felt like a natural progression when I started my training contract to pursue seats in commercial and residential property.

Unique and the same

The most interesting thing about property work for me is that each transaction is both unique and exactly the same. Whilst each sale and purchase follows the exact same stages each time, there will be different issues in each matter. Some properties will be subject to rights from other land owners, or you might need to agree rights with other land owners in order to gain access to the property or use services. Some properties are listed or have been extensively renovated meaning you will need to see evidence of planning or building regulations. Some properties will have far more complex titles than others and unfortunately not every property will be registered! The list of different issues can be exhaustive.

The real skill of working in property is being able to identify the issues that need to be resolved to either secure your client a marketable title, or successfully sell your client’s property. The more experience you gain, the easier it becomes to identify what enquiries you need to raise with a seller’s solicitor.

Managing expectations

Many skills you learn in property will be transferable to different departments, particularly the art of managing client’s expectations which is especially relevant in residential property. Client’s can sometimes become blind sighted by their desire to move into their new home and forget that one day they might want to sell their property. Without good title this can be very difficult. As much as you want your client to move into their new home, you must make sure that their position is protected for the future. Often, you will also be acting for their lender and so you must make sure the lender’s position is protected should the property need to be repossessed and sold.

Communication with lots of different parties is vital to keep a transaction moving along and you will quickly build up relationships with many third parties including estate agents and other firms. Whilst property can be very stressful, particularly when you have a chain transaction with many parties moving on the same day, it is really rewarding when a sale or purchase completes

I have just taken over as training partner at Lanyon Bowdler but I have been heavily involved in the trainee application process and monitoring the trainees during their training contracts over the last few years. It is a very rewarding part of my job to watch young people develop into lawyers. We invest much time and consideration into selecting our trainees and giving them the best training, because if possible we would like to retain them as solicitors within the firm when they qualify. Many of our partners were once trainees and indeed our managing partner, Brian Evans, was once a trainee!

Recognition from our own young lawyers

As a firm Lanyon Bowdler is forward thinking and very client focussed. The firm provides a full range of legal advice and expertise throughout Shropshire and Herefordshire, as well as nationally. We consider the key to providing excellent service is to have excellent lawyers, and that begins with their training. This is reflected in the fact that we have won many awards at the Law Careers.net Awards. We won “Best Recruiter - Small Firm” in 2004 and 2009 and we were nominated again in 2007 and 2008. In 2017 and 2018 we won “Best Trainer - Small Firm”. These awards are granted purely on the feedback received from our existing trainees with no input from the partners. Therefore, we are understandably proud of this achievement and the recognition from our own young lawyers.

We look for rounded and self motivated individuals

In recent years Lanyon Bowdler has expanded, and this is reflected in the fact that we now offer at least three training contracts per year, usually having six - eight trainees at any one time. We look for rounded and self motivated individuals who are likely to fit the ethos of the firm, and make good solicitors who will serve our clients well. We seek solid academic performances and the nature of work experience the individual has acquired, both legal and otherwise. We are only too aware that some candidates have to finance themselves during the long and arduous training and this demonstrates resilience and passion.

It is helpful for the potential candidates to be local or have connections to the area. Interests and achievements outside of the law are also of relevance and may give an advantage to a candidate over someone with similar qualifications. We are looking to see if they are likely to be able to communicate with our clients both on a human level, and to be able to explain the legal issues and advise clients so the advice can be easily understood.

Given a choice of seats

Lanyon Bowdler covers a wide range of legal specialisms and trainees usually spend six months in a department, so that over the time of the contract they gain experience in four areas of work. They must experience both contentious and non contentious work. Where possible trainees are given a choice of seats, although over the years we have often discovered that trainees are surprised by how much they have enjoyed a seat where they thought they would have no interest at all.

Informal interview initially

The application process is usually conducted in two stages. Firstly, we have an informal interview with two of the partners, where we go through the curriculum vitae and ask questions designed to “get to know” the applicant to decide whether or not they are likely to be a good fit for the firm and our clients.

If the candidate gets through to the second interview phase they will be tested on their legal knowledge and how they apply it to a client’s situation. We provide each second interview candidate with a booklet of client scenarios covering various specialisms, the trainee will be popped into a quiet room with a hot drink and is given an hour to choose two of the scenarios and to prepare a response to the questions. They then come and deliver their responses to a panel of partners so that we can hear them communicate and see how they are likely to deliver advice to a client and what impression they will portray.

Naturally we appreciate that the candidates are only at the beginning of their career and we are not looking for the finished product but development potential. We ask ourselves can we see this candidate progressing, with guidance and supervision, into an excellent lawyer and do they have the potential to contribute to the firm in terms of business development; are they likely to develop supervision and management skills and be partnership material one day.

Chance to speak with existing trainee

Once a candidate is offered and accepts a training contract then a few weeks before they join one of our existing trainees will contact them, so that they can speak to somebody at the firm who has gone through the same process and who will answer any questions. The trainees often mix and socialise together during their contract and share experiences. There will be an initial welcome lunch for trainees where they will meet existing trainees and newly qualified solicitors and some of the partners. There are also opportunities to meet up with trainees at marketing and network events and the firm’s social events such as the Christmas party and the summer staff conference and supper.

The SRA requirement is that once a training contract has started, the trainee needs to keep a training record which must be completed throughout the two year period and submitted to the training principle at the end. It should record all the tasks completed whilst being a trainee and includes information such as – who the task was completed for, what the task was, what skills were used and what was learnt from it.

Another exam

There are also the compulsory modules of the Professional Skills Course to complete. These cover client care, finance and business skills, advocacy and communication. There are a further four elective modules which the trainee chooses, according to what areas of law they are interested in, and just when they think all of the exams are over, there is a finance exam!

Articles

Although I am now rather old in the tooth I can still remember my training contract (then called “articles”). I can remember all the mistakes I made and arriving at my first day in court dressed in a new suit, ready to meet the barrister instructed on the case. As I approached the court a seagull defecated over the lapel of my new suit! I was mortified and despite vigorous cleaning of the said lapel I had to explain the large stain to the barrister and client. Fortunately they responded with good humour. The point is that during a training contract you are supposed to learn from your mistakes and how to handle yourself ready to be a solicitor and officer of the court, and of course, to serve your clients with skill, understanding and integrity. My aim as the training partner is to help the trainees get to that stage.

Blogs by current and former trainees

Click on the links to learn more about training with Lanyon Bowdler: Training Contract Selection and Life as a Commercial Trainee Solicitor.