City lawyers - I am about to become one of you. Please advise me!

Don't snog or shag any other trainees or anyone else for that matter. Especially not a senior associate I did, and am now happily married with a DS to said senior associate who is now a partner and never comes home!!

I BF both of my child until they were nearly 2, even though I went back to work full time when number 1 was 9 months. And co slept. In fact co sleeping bfing was the only way I could cope!

I'm ex MC and my top tip (as the others have already been taken) is to learn how to proof read letter by letter word by word line by line. Use a finger on each word and make sure you not only check for spelling but also for sense. Good luck! It is a wonderful career and, although city law wasn't for me ultimately, it got me my current job which is literally my dream job in the law.

A senior partner gave me advice years ago which I have never forgotten - the only things you really have to worry about are if you lose an original will or if you pay a beneficiary too much money in an executry, anything else can be resolved.
Lots of great advice here - agree with be humble, do anything thrown at you and do it well. Don't pretend you understand instructions passed to you if you don't - ask, ask, ask. Don't give a client advice unless you are certain it is correct. Keep in with your accounts department!

The same above senior partner drunkenly told me I had fabulous tits at a work do - he was subsequently mortified, as there is nothing lechey about him, still makes me snigger.

I now work in a really small town law firm, much nicer, sometimes I even wear jeans to work, I would hate to have to go back to the power-suited city firm days!

Tigerlilly there is no issue. We are all women! And we have all been there years!

Gherkins - my colleagues call me a hippy as I bf my boys until over 2, use slings and do blw... There are a fair few stealth lentilweavers in the law...

I have to say that I think this thread demonstrates a common misconception as to the 'problem' of maternity leave in professional jobs. There is an issue with women carrying more childcare responsibility and therefore becoming less attractive employees. However the problem is not about whether you take six months or twelve months mat leave, it's about how you are perceived on your return, in my experience (would be interested to know if others disagree). First of all I don't think there are many city jobs where there is a huge difference between the two options of six or twelve months... On a practical level, you have to hand over your clients to someone else for a while regardless. On the other hand, on return, someone who is obviously constrained by childcare arrangements, can't do the post work drinks or pull a very late night is going to find it harder to progress. So definitely there are still issues to address. Something2say, start your thread, it would be good to learn how other industries do a better job of keeping women engaged.

Hello the sun always shines.....yes excellence is pleasing to work amongst, and also inspiring I think. I work for a charity and we have to be very tight with what we do, and we work with all sorts of other agencies and they are nice and tight as well. It has made me improve. Before that I had a job in the corporate sector... I always wanted to study law....you recommend it, but I grew to hate it because people feel able to argue one so and then change roles and argue the other. Where I work we stand by our beliefs really....but then I am raging femo and there's only really one position on that isn't there!

Gherkins that's lovely! I hope I meet one of you someday then, at the bottom of some secret garden or other!

something - I am an ex-MC (and subsequently in-house) lawyer. Looking back, the main thing I miss about being in that world is the standard of excellence that the vast majority of people I worked with held themselves to. This applied as much to fee-earners as it did to support staff (secretaries, typists, print room guys, canteen staff, delivery guys - everyone). This is now part of my professional DNA. For that alone, I would recommend an early career in a MC law firm to anyone setting out in the world of work.

I agree, HerBigChance. A very interesting read. I am heartened by what I perceive as the high standards and genuine enjoyment of excellence as standard. I am less heartened by women having to make it OK that they are still judged for their gender. I refer to all of the horror stories about time off when you have a baby.

My employers give a year off, women regularly take all or some of it and they are offered part time roles when they return with no sense of discrimination, plus we then pay 80% of the childcare fees..... But then I work for a women's charity..

I feel like making a similar thread about the values and norms in my career, working with people. I am so pleased that we are encouraged to express our personal style at work. Granted this doesn't often stretch to stripper heels, but it will mean hair colours, styles, piercing s, eye makeup, nails of colour, lovely jewellery and a general expression of one's values, with the idea that you are on the outside who you are on the inside. Or perhaps that is the whole point!!!

Anyway lovely to read about the values in this industry. I was once hauled over the coals by a horrible MC lawyer at a dinner party. I am now a hippy and don't go to dinner parties. Haha!! (I should shut up now in front of all of the lawyers!!)

I am not a lawyer (and I don't work in the City), but this thread is fascinating. It contains a lot of general common-sense advice that applies to a number of sectors of working life in general.

saffron I have to say that I've been a bit disappointed as I don't really want a TC in a large City firm but they are so few and far between in smaller, more local practices. I'd love to avoid the City if I can help it!

OP I think you said DP did not work in the same 'arena'. Being a trainee at a City firm is very full on. Would be a good idea to make sure your DP is fully aware of the time demands.

Should you go on to have children and want to stay - being really sure of your childcare is key. Do not scrimp. I have colleagues who are constantly stressed by having to sort out domestic arrangements, some of their own making. I am amazed at those on six figure salaries who look for cheap childcare.

I'm not a City lawyer but work in a profession/suity job where I've worked alongside one or two over the years. My advice:

-outright lechs are rare, but beware the male senior colleagues who will have you trailing along as an entourage because you are young and pretty and therefore enhance their status, who are dismissive of you in front of others and will never actually give you any responsibility or chance to prove yourself (they do that for the male trainees). In my experience that type of man is depressingly common in a lot of professions, though less as time goes by, thank goodness. It is difficult to handle-I've been that woman, many years ago. You can only make sure: (i) you never play up to this (no hair twirling, simpering, dressing a bit too sexy or flashy), keep things cool and professional, rise above the slights; (ii) you network madly with more useful people; and (iii) you volunteer to do work and make very sure there is good work product from you that people can judge you on;

-don't assume anything about your colleagues. it may look like a very white, male-dominated, privately-educated and Oxbridge environment but you can't necessarily tell by looking what people's education, class backgrounds or sexuality is, nor what race their partners are etc. I've known many a trainee really offend people with assumptions, whether because they are v right-on and cynically assume we are all bigoted Establishment shits, or very right-wing and conservative and assume the black bloke over there only got in by some kind of positive discrimination;

-FIGHT YOUR CORNER, albeit politely, where your work and ideas are concerned. It is very irritating when a trainee comes up with something potentially promising then can't argue for it or explain the idea. If you can't do this for your colleagues, they will assume you won't be able to do it for clients. Prepare, take a risk. It is better to be wrong (understandably, and due to inexperience) than never to try, and never, seemingly, to think about the task in hand;

-what my father told me, when I started work: don't be afraid to show liking for people you genuinely get on with. It is possible, especially for women, to be so concerned about demeanour that you end up as a bit of an automaton. But provided it is authentic, you don't need to hide the fact you like people;

-keep in touch with professional bodies and associations, find a mentor.

The last solicitor I worked with has a trainee whose appearance is a little startling (hair extensions, a LOT of make-up, very tight clothes, mega heels). I don't care about that myself, though other clients certainly will, but coupled with the fact she literally NEVER did anything useful, not even help lug the files, nor come up with a single useful piece of info like a date we couldn't find, appear to know any details of the problem or even fetch anyone a coffee, I will be very surprised to see her again in future meetings.

Take heart from nightmare trainee stories. There are plenty of numpties out there who will thin out the numbers nicely, leaving a smaller field for you to compete with.

As someone who qualified more than two decades ago I would advise you to think of where you want to be in fifteen years time, personally rather than professionally.

It is easy to get sucked in to what are perceived to be the more glamorous areas of law which involve lots of foreign travel and interesting high profile work. It is fun to do that when you don't have family commitments. However it is next to impossible to do that when you do have a family unless you are happy to employ a live in nanny. Maybe you are but very few people I know have done so through choice. It is always because they are in an family inflexible specialty that makes it hard.

If I had my time again I would have picked a perhaps more mundane area of law safe in the knowledge that it was more flexible and more portable (I'm stuck in the City) than the area of law I chose.

Good luck. I am in awe of anyone who makes it from LPC to actually getting a training contract these days. In my day there were far fewer places to do the LPC (LSF in my day) and lots of choice re training contracts (articles).

Oh, one more.

Do not add all your new trainee friends as friends on Facebook.

There is a type of partner who loves gossip. It is best to know nothing and share nothing. It doesn't reflect well on you if you are the subject of it or you share it, even if a cheeky partner pushed you into it at 11pm.

I don't work for a city firm but am a solicitor. Everything being said in here is also true of smaller practices.

Treat your support staff well as you may need them to bail you out in the future.

Do not think that something you are given is beneath you, you are trainee, no work is beneath you.

Follow your solicitor's lead in client meetings, any doubts/questions you may have can wait until the client has left. Never ever moan/ complain/ discuss office politics with a client even in a social setting. This may seem obvious but I have noticed in the last few years some common sense has been lacking in newbies.

As said many times before, dress conservatively. Work wardrobe is not the place to show off you cutting edge individual style.

Do not let any one assume that your training colleague is your superior because he is male. I have unfortunately seen clients assume this.

Spelling is ridiculously important.

Another ex MC lawyer, now in house.

Always have an eye on the exit. Yes, you might think you want to be a partner but a vanishingly small number of people make it particularly these days. Example, out of my 500 intake on the he LPC, most of whom were destined for MC and top 15 law firms, I don't know of ANYONE who's made partner. Some of that is choice, some is timing (many got canned/pushed down the line in the credit crunch), some is not being good enough. Whatever. It's a fact that few people make it so by about 7 years PQE, you're probably going to want to be gone. So:

When you do get client contact, be exceptional, be interested, be polite, go the extra mile. It's amazing how it can help in the future.

And be nice to the lawyers on the other side. Be right and be thorough but politeness and good manners cost nothing - I've known clients to switch law firms because the other side seemed more professional and nicer to deal with. Ditto I've known people to be offered jobs by opposing law firms because they were so good but also professional and great to deal with.

Oh, and networking? Took me years to realise that it's just the people you know. Get to know people, and they will become your network. I got my in house jobs through an ex-lawyer who was a friend of my DH (who is also a lawyer!). Almost everyone I know (and there are precious few private-school-Daddy's-connections-got-me-a-job) gets their next job through contacts. You don't have to fake friendliness but do make a bit of an effort. Remember people. Keep in touch with interesting people. Sports teams are particularly useful for that sort of thing actually.

As a mature student with 2 dcs of 10 & 13 at the end of the second year of my LLB, I've found this thread really interesting. I've just done all my TC applications so fingers crossed!

Oh, on time recording.

Do it promptly, accurately and with a decent narrative.

We do not routinely write off trainee time - we look at whether you were doing a job that would otherwise have been done by someone else who we would have charged for.

You need to record properly the time it took. If you think it took too long, you need to work out why and improve next time. If something happened - like you misunderstood the question for an hour of the research, find out the procedure at your firm (we'd note it very clearly in the narrative so it gets picked up and written off in billing) but don't just knock the time off.

Senior associates and partners bill and decide what to bill. You do not. They will know you are slow (but you are also cheap!). They will adjust accordingly if needed. If you adjust on your time records, you are double discounting the client and usurping the partner's role.

Very few things are more irritating in trainees than someone you know spent 12 hours a day in the office for the last week, but seems to only have 5 hours a day of time.

Oh, and nobody is as interested in your career development as you are, so don't expect someone else to direct it for you. Have an idea/plan on where you want it to go (with a degree of flexibility, you never know) and take the initiative to direct it that way.

If you are involved in a big transaction remember you are probably only seeing a tiny fraction of the whole deal. When dealing with large complex cross border transactions, sorting out the signature blocks, whilst important, is not the main focus for anyone other than the trainee dealing with it.