Adam Hugill talks about common traits that distinguish our firm’s Trainees, while Alfred Ip highlights the importance of starting a legal career in the right environment from the very start. Geraint Ho discusses his own experience as Hugill & Ip’s first home-grown trainee.
SHOW NOTES
00:05 What makes an ideal candidate?
01:03 A milestone for a successful legal career
02:17 My first-hand experience
TRANSCRIPT
Traineeships at Hugill & Ip
What makes an ideal candidate?
At Hugill & Ip we don’t favour any particular type of person when hiring trainees. We reckon that individual differences bring greater strengths to our firm. This being said, there are some common traits: enthusiasm, creative-thinking, confidence, a solid academic record and a passion for the legal profession. We also look for dedication in providing exceptional service to clients.
We offer our trainees professional and friendly environment to be both who they and to be part of an inclusive team.
We believe that our trainees are the future of Hugill & Ip and they provide our clients with an incredible support while working on legal matters. Trainees are given a high level of responsibility and will experience regular client contact from the outset, while being closely supervised by their mentors. Speaking of clients, our trainees will have the opportunity to learn about, and gain experience of an extensive range of exciting and high-profile work that we do, with training seats across all of our practice areas.
A milestone for a successful legal career
On completion of their training, we know that our trainees are well equipped to become excellent solicitors. Not only are they given the necessary technical and legal skills to be a solicitor, but also they are offered the opportunity to develop essential “life skills” necessary for all lawyers: time management, business development, building client relationships, independence, but at the same time recognising the indispensable requirements for teamwork and collaboration.
We understand that a trainee’s roadmap doesn’t end upon qualifying as a solicitor, hence for those trainees who become our associates – as we hope they do – the firm goes on in providing on-job training and assist the development of a solid legal career.
Lastly, for potential candidates looking for a training contract at Hugill & Ip, nowadays is rather easy to find plenty of information about the legal market and the various opportunities available, however we stress the importance of finding the right environment where a trainee feels can be themselves, thrive and achieve the results in the areas they are passionate about.
My first-hand experience
I was a trainee with Hugill & Ip the day the firm opened in 2018, I qualified here as an associate and have remained here ever since.
The training at Hugill & Ip is intended to put you in the shoes of an actual, practicing lawyer. You do get the “training wheels” but in many aspects it’s no different from if you had a more senior role at the firm. I even remember one occasion where I was 3 months into my traineeship and was given a case to look after on a day-to-day basis, of course under the close supervision of our senior partner.
You do get substantial client contact as part of your traineeship; we encourage this as sometimes trainees get intimidated by the prospect of reaching out to clients, so we give them the exposure early on and help them get accustomed to something that they’ll be doing for the rest of their careers. Clients normally take this quite well, and they will acknowledge you as a lawyer giving substantive advice, instead of just being a trainee.
Our training can be a bit niche because of the practice areas that we focus on, but if you’ve already decided that you want to build a career in the practice areas that we do offer, there really is no better place to be.
This video is for informational purposes only. Its contents do not constitute legal or professional advice.
