Structured Training

Your time as a trainee with McGrigors will include intensive legal skills, technical and commercial training, and will be an enjoyable and challenging experience.
Your training contract is about making the transition from the academic study of law to becoming a fully fledged practising lawyer and much of what you learn is through working as part of a team under the careful supervision of a Partner or senior solicitor. You will have client contact from an early stage in your training and participate in all aspects of researching, drafting and giving client advice.

McGrigors trainees rotate between four six-month seats, covering a range of corporate and commercial disciplines and gaining diverse legal and commercial experience.
As a law firm with national reach across three jurisdictions (England, Scotland and Northern Ireland), we encourage all trainees to take up seats in offices outside their base office.

We also offer trainees the opportunity to take up secondment seats with blue chip clients such as KPMG. Client secondments give our trainees and junior lawyers an opportunity to work closely as part of a client's team. They provide an opportunity to gain invaluable insight into client needs and what they want from trusted, professional advisers. It's also an opportunity for trainees to develop external networks and contacts at the earliest stage in their career and to take responsibility for developing client relationships and future business opportunities. Our client secondment programme offers a unique opportunity for our trainees, which is not available with many other commercial law firms.

In London, for our English qualifying trainees, we deliver the Professional Skills Course ("PSC"), in conjunction with a small consortium of London City firms. The PSC is a compulsory programme of skills training prescribed by the Law Society of England & Wales and is the last hurdle to qualification as a solicitor. The PSC consists of Core and Elective modules, including Advocacy and Communication, Client Care and Ethics and Finance and Business Skills.

In Scotland, for our Scots qualifying trainees, we are fully accredited by the Law Society of Scotland to deliver the Professional Competence Course ("PCC") internally. Like the PSC, the Scottish PCC is a mandatory course for all Scots qualifying trainees and the last hurdle to qualification as a solicitor. Again the PCC consists of both core and elective modules. Core modules include Drafting and Writing Skills, Negotiation, Personal Organisation and Time Management, Practical Ethics and Risk Management and Communication and Client Care. Trainees also complete Elective modules in Corporate, Banking, Property, and Construction Procurement depending on the seats they are allocated.

In Belfast, our Northern Irish qualifying trainees must be offered a place to attend the Certificate in Professional Legal Studies at the Institute of Professional Legal Studies at Queens University, Belfast. Northern Irish trainees also participate in PCC skills training when not attending the Institute.

Support

When you join McGrigors you will be assigned a mentor within the Firm who you will be able to talk to regarding any areas of your working life.

You will also have your performance reviewed during each seat by your supervisor once at three months (mid seat review) and again at the end of your seat (end of seat review). These reviews are used to help you understand where your strengths lie and what things you can improve on.

Law Society Review 2004

General conclusions from our 2004 monitoring report:
"McGrigors is complying with the training regulations by providing training in a minimum of three different areas of law, including contentious and non-contentious work. It gives its trainees plenty of opportunity to learn and practise the skills standards and provides an effective feedback and appraisal system.

Overall I consider the organisation of the training of trainee solicitors at McGrigors to be excellent and of a very high standard. I have no concerns about the training provided. Much attention has been given to the detail of training and the support and appraisal of trainees. The Firm has clearly invested much time and effort in organising training, which is reflected in the quality of the various systems it has in place for ensuring that its trainees are fully and effectively trained and supported.

The method of training was clearly appreciated by the trainees who recognised the quality of the support they are given. One trainee described the Firm as being a good environment in which to learn the skills of a solicitor as well as the black letter of law."