Legal Lingo: What does a trainee solicitor at a corporate law firm do?

Being an aspiring commercial lawyer often means being confronted by complex, often abstract, concepts leading to an often impenetrable wall of jargon for students and trainees. Next up in our Legal Lingo series, which we've introduced to help break down this jargon, is an explanation of what a trainee at a corporate law firm does on day-to-day basis.

A trainee solicitor at a corporate firm will be the most junior person on a deal team. This means that there is plenty of opportunity to take responsibility of workstreams and make the first attempt at basic legal documents. The role of a trainee will vary by department, but tasks can typically be divided into co-ordinating, drafting and researching:

• Co-ordination: The trainee will be responsible for ensuring that deals are progressing on schedule and keeping track of key documents and other deliverables as they are negotiated between parties. This can involve creating and managing checklists, communicating with local and opposing counsel, attending client meetings and ensuring that documents are internally saved and filed appropriately. It is often the trainee that is relied upon to know exactly how a workstream is progressing, so it is a vital role!
• Drafting: A trainee will typically be the one to attempt the first draft at basic documents such as board minutes or other ancillary documents (normally with a precedent to help you). This is a great way to gain experience and develop your understanding of key commercial documents that you will frequently encounter. Drafting can range from taking a precedent and inserting details to free drafting deal specific operative clauses. A redline (a comparison between the precedent and your draft) is then typically sent along with your work to an associate to review and provide feedback.
• Research: Often specific points arise which require research, and the initial stages are handled by the team trainee. This will involve using legal and commercial sources to go in depth into a particular topic or question. This can range from a specific legal point in relation to a client issue to general changes in the law or commercial landscape. Research points can arise regarding transactions, business development and pro bono matters. The trainee will often report their findings back to the team through either a written report or presentation. Research tasks are incredibly varied and are therefore a really interesting element of trainee work.

All trainees work under the supervision of a qualified lawyer so there is always somebody on hand to answer questions (and you will have many!). The above are just some of the areas of legal work that trainees at corporate firms are involved in. A key advantage of training at a US firm in particular is that you get to take on many of these tasks at a level you would not yet otherwise have access to.

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