Secondment Island

What can you learn about successful secondments from Love Island? A suprising amount, Callum O’Brien discovers. Callum is currently on secondment working in-house at Scottish Power.

Increasingly, as a way to develop relationships or to provide additional support, many law firms offer secondment opportunities  to the “in-house” legal department of clients. These can present a fantastic opportunity to widen both your skillset and network, and gain a true understanding of how legal advice shapes the decision-making processes of a business.

Over the past six months, I have had the opportunity to work within the Corporate Legal team at ScottishPower, which has been both incredibly varied and rewarding. As the end of my time on secondment coincides with the end of the hit ITV2 show “Love Island”, I have written a guide to life on secondment and “re-coupling” back with my firm (with plenty of Love Island references shoehorned in). With my apologies in advance...

Make sure the secondment is “100% your type on paper”

Secondment opportunities can be incredibly varied in terms of both your role and the nature of the work involved. Make sure you research the company and the industry to ensure the work will be of interest. Additionally, speak to any previous secondees to the company - they will know better than anyone else whether the working environment will be a good fit.

Get graftin’

Once you’re on secondment, you effectively become the face of your firm to your client. This can be a daunting prospect, but you should try to embrace it. Remember that the client needs a secondee for a reason, so the best way to make a good impression is to get down to work, be enthusiastic and get involved in as much as possible. In doing this you will both provide a solution for the client, as well as develop the relationship between the client and your firm.

Secondment “challenges”

Much like the daily challenge on Love Island, your secondment will present you with situations which are unfamiliar, or place you out of your comfort zone. You are now part of the decision-making progress, so make sure output is both commercially focussed and pragmatic – you’re there to help get things done! You will be able to take this approach back with you to your firm, your clients in future will thank you for it.

Increase your followers

Whilst you may not be able to increase your Instagram follower count, going on secondment presents a great opportunity to bolster your professional network with both lawyers and others within the business. Utilise this opportunity, and who knows what opportunities may arise in future.

But “stay loyal”

Whilst some secondment opportunities may become permanent, most will involve you returning to your firm at some point, so don’t let your secondment turn into “Casa Amor” – keep in touch with the main villa!  It’s key to maintain the existing relationships with the colleagues from your firm – keeping up to date with your firm emails and continuing to attend social events is a great way to do this.

Most importantly, try to enjoy the opportunity. In-house work can be incredibly rewarding as you get to see the direct impact of your work and how it affects the business. The experience will undoubtedly be beneficial and give you a broad range of experience to take back to your firm.