qualities « Lawbore Future Lawyer

19Jan/120

The City Legal Market – past, present & future – a talk by Robert Sutton, Senior Adviser, Macfarlanes – Marie Tay

Author Marie

The City Legal Market - where leading solicitors gather - is a place that calls for versatile capabilities and wit along with the ability to adapt to new challenges constantly. And it’s a place where the faint-hearted or egoistic need not apply. Set against a background of Eurozone instability and the arrival of a number of US law firms on the scene, today’s City Legal Market is a far more competitive one.

Is there still a place for the GDL/LLB graduate whose goal is that increasingly hard-to-obtain training contract?

The answer is still a resounding yes. For it is said that competition brings out the best in us. And most certainly, while the entry of the US firms fosters competition between City firms, this also means that there is now a wider range of opportunities available.

Good news then for those seeking employment at City firms. For all that’s left to do is to prove yourself. Except that you need to do this in a more prominent manner than before. As City lawyers now play larger roles in the driving or organising of transactions, you need to be equipped with additional skill sets along with the all-important legal knowledge such as administrative and communication skills, a ‘what if’ intellect and the ability to lead.

Tagged as: city firms, qualities, research, solicitor, trainee Continue reading

8Nov/100

Macfarlanes Presentation: the City legal market past, present and future – Ghazi AbuYounis

LLB1 student, Ghazi, reviews a talk by Robert Sutton (Senior Adviser at Macfarlanes) about the City legal market, past, present, and future, in which Robert shared some of his experiences of City Law.

ABC of City Law...Thanks to james.swenson13 for image via CC licence flickr.com

Robert divided his talk into categories:
A. At the firm
B. Information about the law firm
C. Qualities which a lawyer should have
D. Communication
E. Payment
F. Money
G. Gossip
H. Assessments

A – At the firm:

-Ask questions:

When doing interviews, Robert expresses how important it is for you as an applicant to be proactive and ask the firm questions.
Thus being confident is very important. Here are a few examples of questions you could pose to the firm:

1. What is training like?
2. The impact of outsourcing adopted by the law firms on young lawyers/trainees: Keep in mind how important Outsourcing is in terms of increasing efficiency and cutting costs.
3. What is the turnover? Keep in mind, the higher the worse.
4. Where do profits go? Are they ‘retained’ back into the firm? If yes ask by how many percent, if not ask why?

-Talk to participating solicitors at the firm:

This helps you to see the firm through the eyes of the lawyers (generally, this is a more accurate approach). Ask them of how they’re treated? Do partners treat trainees well? This helps in assessing the motivation and atmosphere of the firm.

Tagged as: interview, law firm, macfarlanes, qualities Continue reading