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Over the last few months, I have found that the most valuable skills aren’t learnt in the classroom but rather are developed through working and learning on the job. Working in a national law firm with clients and practising lawyers can teach you a wide range of valuable skills that are extremely important to develop your career in the legal profession. This article will outline some of these skills and demonstrate that you’ll continue to learn every day whilst working in a law firm, which is a key benefit of the apprenticeship route.
Professional communication
Throughout school, you learn to communicate with your peers and friends, however, as an apprentice communication is completely different. From day one of the programme, you quickly learn how to communicate professionally, politely and concisely, not only with clients but also with fellow colleagues. The art of professional communication is extremely important in maintaining client relations and a positive environment within the firm. As an apprentice, you learn how to communicate in different ways, such as through emails, telephone calls and Teams meetings as well as in-person meetings with internal and external individuals. It is important to master each of these in a way that works for you and those on the receiving end. It is important to understand which communication style is the most applicable to specific situations. Often, when I need to relay urgent information, I will either call the recipient or send an email labelled ‘urgent’. This is different to a casual Teams message, which I have found typically takes more time to get a response. Each communication style is surprisingly different and can be interpreted and received in different ways, it is therefore important to learn how to develop and refine these skills early in your career, which, fortunately, the apprenticeship makes much easier.
Time management
As an apprentice, you will develop a wealth of time management techniques and skills. Unlike at school, you are required to juggle multiple deadlines whilst delivering high quality and consistent work. Deadlines in practice can also affect the progress of a matter or court proceedings, reinforcing the importance of meeting these time constraints. Missing a deadline can negatively affect a client’s interests or even damage the firm’s client relationships, making effective time management and organisational skills essential. Apprentices also have the unique challenge of studying whilst they work, which creates good time management in itself. Juggling work with study can be difficult, but I have found that planning your day in advance and giving yourself strict deadlines makes it much easier. You are given one dedicated study day per week, so to manage your time effectively, it is good practice to only focus on study on those days. With a range of exam and assignment deadlines at university, along with tight and constant deadlines at work, time management has never been as important.
Building professional relationships
Building professional relationships with colleagues, clients and fellow apprentices is not as easy as it may seem. From networking events to meetings, apprentices are exposed to situations where forming professional relationships is vital. Through the programme, you quickly learn the art of introducing yourself, holding professional conversations and expanding your network. While you build relationships with peers and teachers throughout school and college, these are often more informal in nature. An apprenticeship provides valuable exposure to professional communication and relationship building from an early stage, helping you develop these skills naturally. It is important to build relationships with new colleagues as you move to different teams throughout the apprenticeship. I would suggest attending team socials and ensuring that you regularly go into the office. By doing this, you can build professional relationships face to face, which can be much easier than doing so virtually. This experience as an apprentice prepares you for future responsibilities, such as leading client calls, attending meetings, and managing professional relationships once qualified. It is important to build new relationships with new colleagues as you move teams throughout the apprenticeship.
Adaptability
Adaptability as an apprentice is enshrined into you from day one. Every day is likely to be different, with new challenges to overcome, tasks to complete, people to meet and processes to learn. As the programme revolves around gradual and continuous learning over multiple years, you are constantly required to adapt. Often, an urgent task can come in whilst you are already in the middle of completing other work. In these scenarios, I stay calm and make sure to quickly switch my mindset to enable me to adapt to the new situation and review the priority of tasks. You also learn to adapt to new teams, ways of working and areas of law when rotating seats every 6 to 12 months. Adapting to a new job every year is no mean feat, and it definitely teaches each apprentice how to be adaptable and to thrive off change. Adaptability is a crucial post-qualification skill, as legal professionals must quickly adjust to new matters, unfamiliar legal issues, and evolving client instructions. Learning this at such an early stage in your career is beneficial as you already feel comfortable managing this change well before qualification.
Commercial awareness
Commercial awareness is a vital skill for any aspiring lawyer as it enables you to understand how the firm operates, as well as the external factors that affect both the firm and its clients. By developing commercial awareness early as an apprentice, you gain a better understanding of clients’ objectives, how these are influenced by others and how the wider economic, political and legal landscape can change client needs. The knowledge sessions offered by the firm, as well as knowledge segments in team meetings have helped me to develop my commercial awareness. Along with this, the firm has multiple subscriptions to legal news platforms that can help develop a strong and up to date legal and commercial understanding. These have proved vital in helping me build my commercial awareness whilst working. You can appreciate the wider context in which legal advice is given, helping you prepare for complex matters post qualification, as well as developing the ability to give purposeful legal advice that is driven by commercial considerations.
Final thoughts
Starting an apprenticeship has enabled me to learn and develop a variety of skills that are extremely useful in professional legal practice. Whilst you do learn some of this at school, there is no doubt that the apprenticeship accelerates development by providing real-world experience that simply cannot be replicated in the classroom. From increasing commercial awareness to building professional relationships, the programme equips apprentices with the skills they need for a successful career in law.