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Ben McFeely is a first year trainee at Rollits in Hull.
Ben's current seat is in the Company & Commercial Department.
Below, he gives us his account of what it's like to be a trainee at Rollits, along with his description of a typical day in the life at work! |
I have now joined the Employment Team in the Company & Commercial Department of the firm which is the second seat of my training contract.
My first seat was in Commercial Property which followed a period as a paralegal in the Social Housing Department. I have enjoyed my time in the Commercial Property Department, this served as a natural progression from my role as a paralegal as I had built up a reasonable amount of experience of residential property transactions. I now have experience of commercial leases, commercial freehold transactions and agricultural freehold transactions to name just a few.
I have been pleased with the level of involvement I have been afforded in the training contract so far. I had observed this when I attended the firm for a period of work experience and I have not been disappointed. The firm provides genuine responsibility to its trainees; I have regularly reported to clients and held client meetings as well as taking on a number of technical legal exercises such as drafting a commercial sub-lease and negotiating the terms of a leasehold enfranchisement transfer.
This level of involvement will continue into my employment seat as I will have responsibility for assisting with the running of employment tribunal cases on behalf of both employees and employers. This is my first experience of contentious work and is taking some getting used to following the previous 18 months dealing with property transactions.
The skills I have acquired so far stand me in good stead, especially with regards to communicating with clients, which is particularly important when formulating arguments. However, there is the added pressure of meeting court deadlines, which means prioritising your workload is essential.
My usual day will start between 8.30 and 9.00 am and I will begin by checking my e-mails. I will usually have an idea as to what I will be dealing with on any given day as I will have set aside certain tasks from the day before, however, I always allow scope for any fresh job that arises as you have to be ready to respond if required. My day will typically end between 5.30 and 6.00 pm, however the hours of work are very much dependent on the work load at the time. The firm does not insist anyone works beyond 5.00 pm and they do promote a healthy work-life balance. I personally make allowances at either end of the working day to tidy up certain matters while the phones are not ringing as I find this to be the most efficient part of the day.
The Hull office has made me feel very welcome since I moved over here in March of this year and I am due to take part in a charity bike ride with eleven colleagues and friends in September. We are cycling 101 miles along the route of Hadrian's Wall over two days for a local hospice. I have no doubt this will be a thoroughly enjoyable, if tiring, experience for a very worthy cause and is the latest event that will bring together the closely knit team at Rollits.
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