Trainee blog - Joan McHutchison

Joan McHutchison, a trainee solicitor at Glasgow City Council Legal Services, obtained her LLB and LLM in international law from the University of Glasgow. She worked in Brussels as part of the British civil service for a year before returning home to complete her Diploma at the University of Glasgow. She is about to complete her first seat in property before moving to her next seat in licensing. Joan is due to qualify in September 2018.

Life as a legal trainee in local government

Working with Glasgow City Council Legal Services as a trainee solicitor has been more rewarding than I could have imagined. I have always been drawn to working in the public sector. My work within legal services is undertaken in an environment in which the public interest is at the heart of every decision made. My priority is the quality of service rather than profit; this is something I find endlessly motivating and fundamentally liberating. I am not constrained by business interests or yearly turnover, although having financial awareness is essential, the work legal services seeks to achieve is underpinned by what is in the best interests of the city and its people. I can’t think of a more motivating and rewarding environment to work in.

I am currently about to complete my first seat in property law. I have had the opportunity to be involved in a wonderfully diverse variety of work, including right to buy requests, leases, licences, voluntary registration, title investigations, planning applications, acquisitions of land and common good property matters. One of the joys of working in local government legal services is that you just never know what’s coming next. Unusual requests and unique legal problems frequently arise out of the blue; I find this unpredictability exciting and something that constantly keeps me alert in anticipation of the unexpected.

The level of responsibility I have as a trainee is also something that came as an unexpected but wonderful surprise when I first began my traineeship. Trainees within Glasgow City Council Legal Services are assigned their own files to progress under the guidance and supervision of an appointed legal mentor. As opposed to assisting other solicitors with their files or contributing to aspects of transactions through research or drafting, I have my own files that are my responsibility to progress with the support and mentoring of senior colleagues. These files and the work I am responsible for concern projects and transactions that directly affect people and communities within the city of Glasgow. I am grateful every day for the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to the work undertaken by legal services and the excellent mentoring I receive provides me with the knowledge and confidence to achieve results and progress in my work.

Although the financial pressures on local government often make our work more challenging, I feel this difficult financial climate has created an infallible cohesion within legal services. Achieving more with fewer resources has certainly added another dimension to my traineeship, persevering and seeking alternative means to achieve results is one of the many skills I have acquired.

I am reminded every day of how fortunate I am to have obtained a legal traineeship in public law with Glasgow City Council Legal Services. For me, my traineeship has breathed life into law by placing people and communities at the core of our purpose. Next week, I move to my second seat in licensing law; I am really looking forward to learning more about the various committees and boards within the council.