We believe that aligning your career to a sector of law you are truly passionate about from the outset will benefit your development and knowledge, allowing you to become the best future lawyer at Hill Dickinson that you can be.
Our training contracts offer tailored, focused routes, allowing you to train in the area of law you want to progress in so you can become a specialised lawyer from the outset, in either our business services, health or marine group.
You will be given immediate responsibilities and challenging tasks as you become a valued member of our team, working with more experienced colleagues in large corporate deals and cases.
Our newly qualified associates reflect on their time as trainees to provide some insights into how this works in practice.
The degree of responsibility can differ from team to team. For example, as a trainee in the health litigation team, I had conduct of quite a large number of low-value, fixed fee cases alongside the larger cases run by other fee-earners that I would assist on. I had day-to-day conduct of the smaller cases and would be able to identify the legal issues involved and appoint experts to produce medical reports. All major decisions were, of course, approved by the overseeing partner, but everything up until that point was left up to me.
"To use the commodities team as a contrasting example, the majority of the work I would do was behind the scenes, as that team had very long-standing relationships with their clients and most of the client contact was left to the partners. However, I was still very much involved in the work itself and had a good amount of responsibility."
"Irrespective of the teams, it has been my experience that the longer a trainee works in a team, the more responsibilities they will eventually get. There is usually only one trainee per team, so the responsibilities will pile up before long." - Victor Oliynik, former trainee and now NQ in London
"During my seat in our Private Client team, I was present at the initial meeting with the clients and enjoyed meeting them and getting to know what they needed from us. I was then given the responsibility of managing the work for this client and gained a lot from discussing this and receiving feedback from my supervisor. It gave me a real sense of accomplishment when we met with the clients again at the end of the matter to have the documents I had assisted in drafting signed and witnessed." - Peter McDonnell, former trainee in Liverpool and now NQ in London
"During a seat in the marine business group, while interviewing witnesses with my supervisor, over the telephone, we learned that the vessel was moored in a harbour not far from the location of the incident. I was delighted when my supervisor asked me to visit and inspect the vessel and while there meet with the harbourmaster and various other potential witnesses. Not only was it an exciting visit but to be offered the opportunity and responsibility to attend by myself, and to be trusted to do so, was a great moment." - Elizabeth Elliott, former trainee and now NQ in London
Feeling inspired? Check out the Hill Dickinson profile to discover where a career here could take you.