Cardiff focus week – being a Cardiff trainee solicitor


4th June 2020

If you are reading this article, it is likely that you have committed to making an application for Blake Morgan’s Period of Recognised Training – good luck! If you are searching for insight into what you can expect from a Period of Recognised Training with us, I hope the below will help.

I’m Isobel and I am a second seat trainee based in the Cardiff office, currently on client secondment in London. I am going to use this article to talk about my experience as a Cardiff trainee, share tips for applications and explain how I have found remote supervision whilst we have been working at home during the pandemic.

Being a Cardiff trainee

Being based in Cardiff offers a unique opportunity to work for Welsh clients and on local projects.

My first seat was with the Commercial team where I was largely involved in public procurement work. In addition to national clients, the team advises many Welsh local authorities as well as NHS Wales and the Welsh Government.

The public procurement framework in Wales is unique because it’s guided and informed by The Well-being of Future Generations Act (2015). The Act places obligations on public bodies in Wales to procure sustainably and in-line with the social, economic, environmental and cultural pillars identified in the act, for current and future generations. It is the first Act of its kind in the world and working with clients to build these considerations into their procurement processes was extremely rewarding.

Application tips

One thing that helped me prepare for the application process was completing an online personality test.

Sometimes it can be challenging to recognise what personal qualities we have to offer to an employer or we are guilty of assuming that everyone has an attribute that is actually unique to us. Completing a free online personality test helped me focus on what my ‘unique selling points’ are and also recognise where my weaknesses were.

Supervision in the time of COVID-19

Whilst the pandemic will have hopefully come to an end by your start date, remote working is likely to become more common.

My experience in my current seat is testimony to the fact that receiving supervision remotely can be as, if not more, effective that supervision you would receive in the office. Screen sharing and diarising 1:1 time are some of the ways that my current supervisor and I have adapted to the challenge of remote working – it is working well so far!

You can find me on LinkedIn for more trainee related content.

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