All You Need to Know About Being a Trainee Solicitor: What They Don't Teach You at Law School [Paperback]

Law School is all very well with its academic niceties and its carbolic
smoke balls but day-to-day life in a modern law firm is warfare. And that's if you get in the door...

Elephant traps, office politics and even that scourge of the trainee - photocopying - are the often baffling rites of passage in a law firm.
There are arcane rules and ways of doing things and you need to grasp them fast if you are to survive.

This book is the distillation of years of experience from lawyers young and
old, provincial or City, secretaries, support staff and PSLs (know who or
what they are?).

Our guide takes you from your application for a training contract through your gestation as a trainee. Practical, painstaking and full of common sense, every aspect of your day-to-day life is covered from what to wear, billing and time-recording to dealing with those highly stressed partners who now control your long waking hours.

This book will make you better prepared for the culture shock so many trainees say they encounter when they enter their firm's portals for the first time. And that will mean a better chance of your flourishing in this challenging but highly rewarding environment.

Chapters include:
Applications for training contracts, interview techniques, dressing for the
job you want, 'pour the coffee, darling', how to manage common office situations, presenting your work, rainmaking and networking, sharing an
office, protection and survival, appraisal interviews, overseas seats and secondments.

Who this book is for: Students (at school and university) considering a career in law
- Law firm work-placement students
- Postgraduate law students
- LPC students
- Trainees
- Trainee supervisors
- Professional support lawyers
- Law firm HR personnel
- Law firm graduate recruitment officers
- University law lecturers
- School and university careers advisers and officers

Elizabeth Cruickshank taught English at a Sixth Form College before qualifying as a solicitor in 1989. She is a past Chairwoman of the Association of Women Solicitors, the founding editor of LINK, the AWS magazine, and in 2005 was the recipient of the Eva Crawley Award for services to women solicitors. Elizabeth is the author of 'Women in the Law: Strategic Career Management' and co-author of 'Sisters in Law'.

Penny Cooper is an Associate Dean and Director of Continuing Professional Development at a leading London Law School. She qualified as a barrister in 1990 and practised law for almost 11 years. She is the author of 'Reporting to Court', co-author of 'Experts in the Civil Courts' and co-author of the 2007 'Expert Witness Pack'.