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When you start your training contract, your mind naturally zooms in on seat rotations, the departments, the deals, the day-to-day. Yet some of the most transformative learning happens outside the seat – in the unexpected intersections, the cross-team collaborations, and the moments where you are thrown into unfamiliar territory and forced to find your footing.
The Hidden Learning Curve
Across my three rotations, one thing quickly became clear: no team works in a vacuum. A property deal might need corporate structuring support. A distressed asset sale could raise employment issues. A restructuring plan might hinge on regulatory advice. Collaboration isn’t a bonus – it is the backbone.
In Banking, I was part of financing deals that pulled in the Corporate, Commercial, Transactional Real Estate, and Tax, Trusts and Succession teams. Each team looked at the matter with a different lens: borrower structure, shareholder constraints, and estate/executor considerations.
Now in Restructuring & Insolvency, I have already seen how deeply interconnected the work is. Within the first few months, I have observed close collaboration with teams across Corporate, Employment, and Commercial Regulatory Disputes, to name but a few. For instance, when advising a distressed business through administration, we consulted the Employment team to assess the TUPE implications. This demonstrated how a multi-disciplinary strategy operates in practice, with our insolvency advice needing to align with employment liabilities and regulatory considerations.
Cross-team work gives you invaluable perspective and being in those conversations teaches you how legal risks overlap and how clients rely on us to connect the dots.
Confidence in the Chaos
Every team has its own rhythm, priorities, and jargon, and these interactions build confidence. It is easy to sometimes feel like “just the trainee,” but cross-team work reminds you that your voice matters when you are trusted to contribute, ask questions and learn. Beyond the technical, cross-team collaboration hones soft skills you cannot pick up in a silo. You learn to juggle deadlines, manage expectations, and push for clarity when things get fuzzy.
Another bonus is the network you build. Working across teams means meeting people you would never otherwise cross paths with – junior lawyers, partners, support staff. These relationships can often outlast the seat. Embrace such experiences because these insights can shape your career in ways a single seat never could.
Parting Thought
Seat rotations build your technical foundation, but it is everything beyond the seat that shapes your growth. Cross-team collaboration teaches you to think holistically, communicate effectively, and operate as part of a wider legal ecosystem because that is where you learn nuances, build relationships, and start to see yourself not just as a trainee, but as a future lawyer.