Trainee blog - John Morgan

John is one of our trainee bloggers from Brodies LLP. John grew up in Coatbridge, in North Lanarkshire, and attended the University of Glasgow for his LLB, spending time abroad at the Universities of Toronto, Connecticut and Cagliari. He then ventured to Edinburgh University for his Diploma. He spent his first seat in Brodies’ banking team, and is currently working with the employment team in Glasgow.

On the market: becoming an NQ

I have now been a trainee solicitor for nearly a year and a half. Seeing that stated in such stark terms seems a bit strange – it only feels like a few months since I started. Whereas everything was fresh, and much of it daunting, the days now pass like a proper job and, by and large, I know what I’m doing nearly all of the time. It is just as you reach this comfortable level, around the year and a half stage, that thoughts turn to the next step: becoming a fully qualified solicitor – known as a ‘newly qualified’ (NQ).

The traineeship provides you with a breadth of experience across sectors, clearly an excellent learning experience, whereas the NQ stage is usually where you commit to a single practice area. It is not until faced with the decision that you realise it is a definite fork in your path. It’s increasingly rare for lawyers to switch practice areas after qualification, so if there’s ever a time to ensure that you’re sure then it’s now! You’ve also got to think about what you want from your career – different practice areas have very different earning potential and work/life balance.

The actual day to day of being an NQ shouldn’t differ too much from the work in the second year of your traineeship. It is not expected that, immediately upon qualifying, you suddenly become a better lawyer. Especially in your second year, you’ll increasingly be tasked with NQ level (or above) work. The main changes are that you are liable for your actions, you are directly governed by the detailed rules regulating the profession, that you will be able to delegate work to a greater extent, and that your work will gradually become even more advanced. A good traineeship will prepare you for this step up – ideally the only thing that changes on a day to day basis is your job title!

So what’s the process? At all medium and large sized firms, as far as I am aware, there is a formal application to be completed, often including an interview. This may seem redundant when you’ve been working alongside your interviewer for at least six months, but it ensures that all who apply – even those who perhaps hadn’t completed a seat in the area – are able to put their case forward. The oft-quoted mantra of the traineeship being a ‘two-year interview’ still holds true though – if you’ve performed for a team on the job, they’re very unlikely to let a mediocre interview performance block your path.

Of course, the two-year interview has its flip side – you may not wish to stay after trying out the firm for so long! The good news is that the NQ recruitment market seems to be very buoyant at the moment and, as a result of this, there is seemingly a tendency for the bigger firms to push their NQ application processes earlier and earlier to ‘beat the market’. So for all those about to qualify, it is well worth starting to think about your options perhaps even at the start of your second year. My own firm, Brodies, posts available positions on our website.

A final thought: more than at any time in the last decade, the buoyant economy and ensuing demand for legal services means that retention rates at most large firms are very high, and the days (in the not so distant past) where a small minority of trainees managed to secure a position with their training firm are over for now. These things are always cyclical to an extent, but now is a good time to be on the market!