As a trainee solicitor and aspiring solicitor, one should already know the law society circular on signing training contracts. The I-firm is not a guaranteed offer. What happens if they don’t take you then? Get qualified ASAP and then jump to other places. Be realistic and take what’s given to you under the current market circumstances..
A little bit frustrating when I see and hear things like this…. I understand a lot of students want to climb to big places, but it also depends on the timing too, really… Just general advice, I’ve tried PCLL for four times and very luckily landed a TC in I-firm after pcll, but this is luck and timing too..Perception of people thinking that it’s hard to jump from local firms to I-firms is so wrong these days, especially if you are in litigation…
Maybe a bit different for corporate, but if you can show what you can do at an interview after qualification, it’s very easy to jump ship (especially in capital markets once the market gets better because there will be a high demand for corp fin lawyers then) Also, it depends on the type of cases you deal with (if insurance litigation, I’m sure it’s not hard to jump ship, can go in house and then jump back out to city firms – seen quite a few of my friends do that too). But my experience is more on cap markets so that’s why I have these comments haha
當然能不能move up 取決於你處理哪方面的case，比如如果你做保險訴訟，就不難轉去相關領域的公司做內部律師然後再跳回大的I-firm，過往看到不少朋友走這條路。 可能公司法領域情況會有點不同，但是如果獲得執業資格後你在面試中能展示你 的能力和才華，仍然容易升級(尤其是資本市場暢旺時對公司法律師的需求就很大)。 我個人的經驗更多在資本市場，所以會有以上評論。
總結
Get qualified and build your portfolio Then jump to bigger firms Keep it up! A lot of youngsters need some guidance in the reality world and not just their own fantasy of earning the big bucks and doing big deals Gotta find what they are actually passionate about or they’re just basically a robot for the rest of their lives
