Allen & Overy

Views from a first seat trainee!

10 July, 2008

I arrived at A&O in March 2008 having spent several months at a language school in Buenos Aires sponsored by an A&O grant where I met (completely unplanned!) two other people also starting at A&O.  Graduate Recruitment made us feel welcomed and at ease and we soon began our induction programme.  This began with a series of talks from representatives at the firm ranging from the (then) managing partner Guy Beringer, to the charismatic Health & Safety manager Rueben Van Schalkwyk!  The first week was spent receiving training in using the telephone (not as simple as you might think), the document management system (Omnia), the A&O document precedent system, Microsoft Word and the physical and online research facilities.  We also did an introductory litigation course to help enable us to decide if we wanted to do a seat in litigation or the alternative course to gain contentious experience.

Various social evening events were arranged this week which allowed old friends who had done the A&O specific LPC together to catch up and new people (like me) who had done the LPC elsewhere to get to know the rest of the intake.  I was particularly struck by the range of people in my intake, which included those from France, Denmark, Ireland, India, Russia, South Africa and Canada and I was pleased to see (as a northerner) that there were several trainees from Manchester, Birmingham, Newcastle and Liverpool.

In the second week of our induction we began our departmental inductions, which for me was corporate, and we had a whistle stop revision of the LPC corporate electives.  I then went up to my department to begin my general corporate seat.  I had already met my trainer (a South African qualified senior associate) the previous week at a social evening and she took me round the department introducing me to other members of the group.  I was also invited by my trainer for champagne at impromptu drinks that evening at the onsite cafe Lavanda which allowed me to chat to people in a more relaxed way.

I have now been in the Industrial & Services corporate department (C4) for over four months and the corporate hours have certainly lived up to their unpredictable reputation despite the credit crunch!  My work here has tended to involve less technical law and more project management as the teams I work for often act as the hub of the transaction instructing other A&O departments and offices as well as external specialists.  I have had regular contact with clients on deals, even participating in a conference call to Delhi, and have worked closely with A&O Amsterdam, Milan, Frankfurt and Paris.  It has also been great to use French and Italian to liaise with lawyers abroad and I have made the most of A&O's language programme by organising weekly private Spanish lessons.  I have been surprised at the relative autonomy that I have had in managing my workload and at times when I have felt overwhelmed, I have been able to speak to my trainer who has helped me to organise my workload and manage my relationships with colleagues in the department.

Highlights so far have included being taken by my trainer on a client business development trip to Lords, getting involved in the Battersea Legal Advice centre which means giving advice (often just practical, not legal) to people who can't afford legal advice and also playing a rather amateur game of football for the A&O women's football team!  Another good thing is that, in addition to our ongoing professional skills trainee training, here in corporate we have had two weekly lunchtime corporate training sessions outlining recent deals that members of the department have worked on or going over new developments in company law such as the introduction of the 2006 Companies Act.

As a final thought before I log off, I would say that although working in a magic circle law firm certainly means that managing your work life balance is sometimes challenging, the people I have met and worked for here at A&O have consistently been friendly, fair and appreciative and the perks outside of work (such as an onsite roof garden terrace, GP, dentist and gym) make life outside work much easier!