SARAH-JANE’S PERSPECTIVE
Most large companies have in-house legal departments, and the in-house profession is growing all the time. In-house legal departments are busy environments (no different to a private practice) and having the right skillsets at the right levels is fundamental.
That is where having a trainee can add a lot of value to the in-house team. We were lucky that John had worked with us for several years as a paralegal before starting his training contract, so he ‘hit the ground running’ once the contract started.
However, even if this hadn’t been the case, a trainee can really be the right fit for your organisation.
Baggy trousers
In-house solicitors are often dragged in many different directions, and a trainee can work alongside you by researching legal areas, ensuring that the team is kept up to date on legal developments, and preparing first drafts of policies and advices. As a trainee develops in their role, they can take on more responsibility and operate their own workload.
Training solicitors in-house is now a real alternative to training in a traditional law firm. As an in-house lawyer, you need to have a different perspective. You are not only advising your client – people within your organisation who rely on your skills – but you are part of that same organisation.
This, in turn, requires a different skillset: your advice must be business-focused and to the point. You must be able to offer the business the relevant options, and you may even be involved in a cross-functional team that implements the advice.
Therefore, training in-house teaches a trainee not only legal skills, but also in-depth business skills. For example, John has exposure to how a global organisation operates, including its manufacturing and shared-services operations.
In addition, he has had the opportunity to work on projects that span across geographies: for example, he has had the opportunity to work with our colleagues across Europe on GDPR and marketing projects.
Our house
Our legal team works across numerous areas of law and is very much a ‘general practice’ in that sense. John does not do traditional rotations, but would support the team across matters as they arise.
He has had in-depth exposure to GDPR and company law, but will also get opportunities to work in areas such as food law, marketing and advertising, employment law, and some property law.
Since John and I entered into the older indentures for trainee solicitors, we will need to organise a secondment for him. That secondment may prove a little more challenging in the current environment of COVID-19. As a result, we are likely to wait until closer to the end of the traineeship now – our initial plan was early 2021.
The Law Society has issued new indentures since January 2020. These are more flexible, requiring trainees to gain in-office experience in three distinct areas of law (rather than having to complete training blocks that include compulsory experience in land law and litigation). This should enable a trainee to be fully trained in the in-house legal department.
Wings of a dove
John is also part of the first year of the PPC Hybrid – this makes having a trainee really attractive to an in-house department, as it no longer means that the trainee has to spend large amounts of time in full-time education, but can study and work at the same time.
It would not be feasible for many in-house departments to have someone out of the office for an extended period of time.
One question a prospective in-house trainee may have is whether training
in-house means you can never go back to private practice – that is certainly not the case.
An in-house solicitor brings huge value to a private practice, as they really understand things from the client’s perspective. I spent my first seven years post-qualification in-house; I then returned to private practice for three years, before moving back in-house again.
I was lucky to have worked with John for the best part of a year before COVID forced us to the home office. Despite not being physically together, John’s traineeship has not suffered.
We are lucky to have excellent technology available to us. John and I connect nearly every day by video-call, as well as having other routines with the other members of the direct and extended team.
JOHN’S PERSPECTIVE
I worked in private practice for a little under a year after completing my LLM in international business law. When I saw the advertisement for a job in the legal team in Coca-Cola, I thought that it was a great opportunity to work with such an iconic company, and it would also allow the best opportunity to apply what I had learnt during my LLM.
After working in the company for a few years and engaging with colleagues on projects across Europe, including the implementation of GDPR, I knew that this was where I wanted to train.
Although working in-house is almost like working in a general practice, due to the wide areas of work that are covered, there is also the chance to develop in a niche area of law that really appeals to me.
One better day
I am enjoying my time on the PPC Hybrid and find the business law course almost second nature to me. I have some previous experience of parts of the other elements of the course, but probate and conveyancing are completely new to me.
I don’t see myself or the other in-house students on my course as any different to the students from firms, but you can see different approaches to some of the skills modules and how they play out.
For example, I have noticed this in negotiation workshops. It has been useful for us to be paired together, as it allows us to see how
the other analyses each situation.
Flexibility is the biggest advantage for me. I am quite lucky that my manager and I were able to come to an understanding early on in relation to how we would manage my working time, especially for the weekends I am in the Law Society and the intensive week-long sessions.
Coca-Cola also offers flexible working hours, which is a massive help with the course. Another big advantage of training in-house – and especially in a multinational – is that I get to work with people from across the world.
These meetings are often in-person, which has allowed me to travel to different countries and, of course, we would also have weekly meetings via videoconferencing with our wider European team.
During the current pandemic, this prior experience of videoconferencing meant that the transition to working from home and attending the PPC Hybrid virtually was not as drastic for me as it was for a lot of other people in my course.
One step beyond
A challenge I faced upon completing my FE1s was that I was going to have to be out of the office for a large chunk of time to attend the professional practice course, and I would also have to go on secondment to cover certain required blocks under the indentures.
Part of this was dispelled when the Law Society announced the PPC Hybrid last summer and allowed trainees to work full-time and attend the PPC Hybrid over a slightly longer duration.
The requirement to go on secondment to cover certain mandatory blocks has been removed for indentures entered into after January 2020, provided the training solicitor can provide in-office experience in three distinct areas of law. However, they still apply for those in the PPC Hybrid who entered into their indentures in December 2019.
One other challenge an in-house-trained lawyer may face is it that you are likely to be less familiar with formal legal language, as that is not as likely to be used in an in-house environment.
That being said, I would not see that as a disadvantage as, more and more, the profession is moving towards the use of plain English.
It must be love
The removal of the requirement to do the traditional compulsory training blocks will also make training more accessible for people working in-house – for example, if your ambition is to travel and work in a more focused or specialised area of law, this new option is a massive help.
The biggest benefit for those seeking to do the PPC Hybrid is the fact that you can claim the traditional credits for working prior to attending PPC1 (maximum four months), and you can also claim up to five months’ credits for working during PPC1 also. Thus, it allows you to make up most of the additional time that the hybrid course takes.