Trainee blog - Andrew Gibson

Andrew Gibson is one of our new trainee bloggers. He’s one of three trainees from Brodies LLP who’ll be contributing to the blog. Andrew obtained his LLB from the University of Stirling (studying abroad at Flinders University, of South Australia, in Adelaide) and his Diploma from the University of Strathclyde. He is currently working in the firm’s Corporate department, having completed seats in Commercial Services, Personal & Family and Personal Injury Litigation. Andrew began his traineeship in 2013 and is due to qualify as a solicitor in July 2015.

Preparing for your PQPR

I’ve got my seventh PEAT 2 Quarterly Performance Review (PQPR) this week. My recent preparation has involved familiar reflection and self-assessment. I suppose it may be viewed as my last PQPR; sort of. The eighth will technically be my final review, but I imagine that this will be slightly different given that my traineeship will be in its final few days. When you get to this stage, it could be easy to feel that you’re simply going through the motions – getting the formality out of the way quickly so you can concentrate on other things.

However, the PQPR is not only great for assessing how you’re performing, but also an opportunity to identify development needs and, for want of a better phrase, blow your own trumpet.

That’s why I’ve decided to take a look at the PQPR in this blog.

Preparation

The review will be between you and your supervising solicitor. At Brodies we also have a third attendee – this spot is filled by the senior partner with overall responsibility for our trainees and a member of HR on an alternate basis. Each review is based on the Law Society’s PEAT 2 outcomes: professionalism; professional communication; professional ethics and standards; and business, commercial, financial and practice awareness. There’s a form you’ll prepare beforehand and submit after the review.

See full details of the outcomes.

I’ve found that it’s useful to keep a track of the work that you’re doing on at least a weekly basis. Although the time flies, you can experience and achieve quite a lot in three months. It may be that everything isn’t instantly visible to your supervisor, so it’s a way to make sure you don’t miss any good examples of your progress. The Law Society’s PEAT 2 record (an online tool for trainees to quickly note the work we’ve been doing) is an ideal way to do this.

Imagine going through a busy spell as your PQPR is fast approaching – your preparation will be much more efficient if you’ve kept a regular record of your progress. I’m a big fan of copy and paste.

The PQPR

Your supervising solicitor will have sought feedback from all of the colleagues you have worked with over the quarter. You’ll both have considered the evidence of your performance and your development needs. This will form the basis of the discussion. My tip is to draft a pretty thorough form – it can be a useful prompt during the meeting!

I was very anxious before my first review, but there was really no need to be. There will be discussion of your progress, praise (hopefully…), constructive feedback and an identification of your development needs. If you are prepared and confident that you have been working towards your objectives and PEAT 2 outcomes, the meeting can be a great boost.

Post-review

You’ll leave with a skip in your step, confident in the knowledge that you are well on track. That’s the hope, anyway. You will be graded as performing ‘above the standard required’, ‘to the standard required’ or ‘below the standard required’. You should also leave with specific objectives for the next quarter and a clear idea of where you need to improve.

As an aside, at Brodies, our PQPR review forms formed an important part of our NQ recruitment process. We had to submit all of our forms when we applied for roles. I used the forms to remind myself of what I’d done well – examples for all of the competency-based questions you can think of should be in your review forms! Taking the time to complete them properly will prove to be well worth your while.