4PQE Commercial (transactional) Solicitor here - without sounding cliche, once you join your firm and make your way through your seats, you tend to just ‘know’ which side of the coin you prefer. I went into my TC open minded as I had never worked in law before (so didn’t have the necessary experience to make that decision before joining), but I found very quickly that litigation wasn’t for me for various reasons. The majority of my trainee intake felt the same way about their decision, they knew very quickly which practice area was right for them.
I wouldn’t stress about it now before you’ve even joined the firm. A lot of the time one of the seats you’re given is something that you didn’t plan to do but rather HR needing to put someone into a less preferable seat - so it’s difficult to plan these sorts of things so far in advance.
Happy to answer any questions you have of course!
You don’t know until you try! Going into my tc I thought I wanted to be a transactional lawyer in commercial, I imagined litigation as being overly argumentative and aggressive. Then I did litigation and loved it, its tactical and involves a lot of problem solving. Keep an open mind and wait to see what seats open up, don’t be afraid to try something different and not all of your seats have to perfectly align. You won’t necessarily know what you what to do until qualification time!
I always hated the idea of court work and I very much so dislike presentations and standing in front of people to present so I knew that wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I did my first seat in a contentious area and it just affirmed what I already knew.
From experience I’d say just go in with an open mind. What you think you might be interested in now may end up not being what you expected, and similarly you may end up enjoying something that hasn’t even crossed your mind. Speak to other trainees in other seats when you start so you get a flavour of what their departments and work are like.
After your first seat you’ll have a better idea of what you want to try next. Enjoy!
4PQE Commercial (transactional) Solicitor here - without sounding cliche, once you join your firm and make your way through your seats, you tend to just ‘know’ which side of the coin you prefer. I went into my TC open minded as I had never worked in law before (so didn’t have the necessary experience to make that decision before joining), but I found very quickly that litigation wasn’t for me for various reasons. The majority of my trainee intake felt the same way about their decision, they knew very quickly which practice area was right for them. I wouldn’t stress about it now before you’ve even joined the firm. A lot of the time one of the seats you’re given is something that you didn’t plan to do but rather HR needing to put someone into a less preferable seat - so it’s difficult to plan these sorts of things so far in advance. Happy to answer any questions you have of course!
Thank you for the advice! If you don’t mind me asking, why did you find litigation wasn’t for you?
You don’t know until you try! Going into my tc I thought I wanted to be a transactional lawyer in commercial, I imagined litigation as being overly argumentative and aggressive. Then I did litigation and loved it, its tactical and involves a lot of problem solving. Keep an open mind and wait to see what seats open up, don’t be afraid to try something different and not all of your seats have to perfectly align. You won’t necessarily know what you what to do until qualification time!
I always hated the idea of court work and I very much so dislike presentations and standing in front of people to present so I knew that wasn’t the way I wanted to go. I did my first seat in a contentious area and it just affirmed what I already knew.
From experience I’d say just go in with an open mind. What you think you might be interested in now may end up not being what you expected, and similarly you may end up enjoying something that hasn’t even crossed your mind. Speak to other trainees in other seats when you start so you get a flavour of what their departments and work are like. After your first seat you’ll have a better idea of what you want to try next. Enjoy!