You will likely hear a lot about “seats” when applying for training contracts. This just means the Legal Practice Group (LPG) you will be “sitting in” for a period of time.

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During a typical training contract at Lewis Silkin, a Trainee will experience a variety of LPGs by rotating between them during the two years. This allows you to gain as much experience as possible, and helps you decide which area of law you might like to qualify into at the end of your training contract.

At Lewis Silkin, we typically rotate around four LPGs, spending six months in each area.

At Lewis Silkin we have eight seat options:

(1) Corporate,

(2) Data,

(3) Digital, Commerce, and Creative,

(4) Dispute Resolution,

(5) Employment,

(6) Immigration,

(7) Intellectual Property Disputes, and

(8) Real Estate.

Sometimes there may also be the opportunity to go on a Client Secondment for 3 – 6 months, where you’ll work in-house on a placement to a client’s legal team. For more on Secondments please see our blog here. Although you’ll be asked to submit your choices of the LPGs that interest you the most and HR will try their best to ensure you are placed there, this is not guaranteed (although we tend to get one of our top choices each time!). It should be noted that you will also have to do one contentious seat throughout the period of your training contract. You’ll have the choice of either Dispute Resolution, Intellectual Property Disputes, or Employment (within the Employment, Litigation, and Financial Services sub-team).

Seat Rotation at Lewis Silkin

Before starting my training contract at Lewis Silkin, we attended a session where each LPG explained a bit more about what they do, the typical work a trainee would get involved in, and the types of clients you might get to work with.

Following this, I had an initial meeting with HR to map out what I would like my training contract to look like, including the LPGs I was keen to spend six months in, and the ones I didn’t have as much of an initial interest in. None of this is set in stone but it helps HR get an early idea of how to plan seat rotations. It is also helpful to mention any LPGs you definitely want to try as a priority.

Once you start your training contract, you will inevitably gain a greater understanding of what each LPG does, as you will likely have peers within each group. It’s fairly common to change your mind about which LPGs interest you from that initial conversation with HR. In my opinion, this is the best thing about a training contract, as you get the opportunity to discover which areas of law interest you (which often ends up being quite different from what you initially thought it maybe!).

We have regular catch ups with HR to discuss our thoughts on our current LPG, and where we would like to go next. HR will then organise rotation for the next seat. I’ve been fortunate to try out every LPG that I asked for, and overall this has been the case for all trainees in my intake!

Tips

It can be quite daunting deciding where you would like to spend the next 6 months of your training contract so hopefully these tips will help:

(1) Stay open minded: you may think when you start your training contract that you know exactly what seats you would like to do, but it’s best to stay open minded about your choices and allow yourself to change your mind once you find out more about an LPG.

(2) Do your research: there is no better way, from my experience, to find out whether an LPG would interest you, than by discussing with your fellow trainees the types of work they are getting involved with.

(3) Communicate with HR: if you change your mind, communicate this to HR as soon as possible, to give you the best chance at getting the LPGs you want.

Type: Trainee Stories

Related Item(s): Trainee Stories

Author(s)/Speaker(s): Amy Earnshaw,