Career Clinic: Should I quit the magic circle after my TC?

Did HR really say absolutely no chance? I don't see how they can predict with such certainty the need for a newly-qualified in any area in two years time. That decision is unlikely to be taken until a few months before you qualify and will be affected by the economic environment, the success of that business area and the number of junior lawyers already in that area (people leave!). My advice to you is to concentrate on being a superstar in all of your training seats with a view to qualifying at the firm. If it doesn't look like your chosen area is going to be available (or you don't like the firm), you only really need to be looking elsewhere in your last six months.

Ex-Magic Circle Lawyer -06 May 2010 | 12:31

Politics?

Hi,

Have you considered a career working for the Lib Dems? I heard they are taking crypto-Conservatives these days...

barney -06 May 2010 | 14:56

HR are often only concerned with ensuring that the heavy hitting departments get enough cannon fodder. This means that they will put pressure on you right from the start to do seats in corporate, banking etc. with little regard to what you actually want to do.

Stick to your guns - do what you want to do, and then think about leaving (if you still want/need to) in your 4th seat. The needs of the firm could have totally changed by then from what HR currently claims them to be.

It's much more important to qualify into the area of law you want than to stay with a particular firm in the wrong area of law.

Anonymous -06 May 2010 | 15:49

Get real - this is all far too soon

You haven't even started your training contract yet. All you've done is identified those areas of the law you're most interested in now - and which are relatively trendy with law students. This will change as you start to work through your seats and you change your mind on which areas of law you find absorbing in practice. HR know this and are simply trying to head you off at the pass. As others have said, HR also know that they need to encourage people to become the cannon fodder we need for 3-4 years hence and you should be alive to that.

If you can, try to keep an open mind about your seats; if you don't, you will not only limit your career within your firm but also, potentially, not discover an area of law which you really want to practice.

City woman -06 May 2010 | 16:49

I agree with City Woman

City Woman is spot on. What is interesting (or not) academically is not necessarily the same in practice.
The trendy areas have always been on the margins, and you need the majority of your seats to be in mainstream areas - commercial, corporate, etc. - to be as attractive as possible to any firm and to maximise your future flexibility (i.e. career prospects).

H Shipman -06 May 2010 | 17:38

Regional Associate

I also agree with City Woman. I trained at the firm I am still employed by and went into my training contract convinced that I wanted to be a corporate lawyer. However, after doing a seat in environment and planning I decided I wanted to qualify there and was lucky enough to get a job on qualification (back in the boom days of 2003!).

You may well be convinced that a particular area is for you, but the reality of practice can be very different. Go into your training contract with an open mind, by all means try some of the seats that you think you want to do, but accept that you will not always get your first choice, and do your very best in every seat. When it comes to qualification you will then have a much better idea about what you really want to do, and whether staying at the firm you trained at is important to you. At that point you can make informed choices about your future.

Laura Hughes -06 May 2010 | 18:07

Quit now

Quit now dude. Don't become another photocopying gimp; don't stay until you have got nothing else to talk about except the last not so cutting edge cutting edge deal you did and how many hours you billed last year - it will seriously ruin your mojo baby. If you can't quit, hide out in the firm library for as long as possible pretending to be doing some research and make it a rule never to stay in the office beyond 5:30pm.

I left my MC firm on qualification, rocked out for a few years in Africa and the far east, pitched up at a hedge fund, did my thing and now I'm sitting on a beach in Malibu sipping cocktails.

Yeah baby - don't be a loser and stress too much about training contracts and seats on qualification; just go with the flow.

surfer -06 May 2010 | 20:41

Surf's brought some bs up

Yeah baby, I'm sitting on a beach in Malibu too, logging on to the Legal Week website via the soul food cafe's wifi, because I know how to LIVE. Yeah, right.

On a more serious note - ignore everything HR say to you about your seat planning process. They seem (and act) important now, but post-qualification will swiftly become an irrelevance. Pick what you want to pick, you'll almost certainly want to change your seat plan during your TC (and HR will resist this), and work out what you want to do during the course of experiencing it (following the wise words of City Woman above).

Oh, and don't be fooled by "x is the best path into partnership nonsense". You may well find that after a couple of years, you realise it's not the best place in the world to, I dunno, permit meaningful relationships outside of the workplace, and once you get bored of staring wistfully across a candlelit canteen at 9pm on 14 Feb, you may want to get out into a better paid in-house role where you can get out the door at sensible o'clock. So on that note, have a think about exit routes at 2PQE when you're working out what you want to do.

Finally. Environment, etc. at the MC tends to equal "gimp reviewing contaminated land issues in M&A deals in some dataroom dungeon". Or at best, defending XYZ plc because its latest spillage has caused babies' arms to fall off, and so on. Remember you're MC and you're v much working for the man, man.

Stupot -07 May 2010 | 12:21

Wah

Wah baby wah - someone takes themselves a little too seriously here. Chillston Mr Serious.

In fact guys, all of you - take a break man, have a kit kat, roll a big fat reefer and just think of all those rock and roll nights ahead chasing cps, quibbling over what is reasonable and what isn't, running with all those important documents, dotting the is and crossing the ts - its all worth it in the end, honestly.

Come to Malibu and join Mr Serious and me on the beach.

surfer -07 May 2010 | 13:07

nice try surfer

Terribly sorry old bean, but I don't work late, nor do I trouble myself with CPs or any of that kind of thing. Nor do I believe that anyone is tragic enough to log on to comment on Legal Week articles in their spare time, least of all from a beach. But maybe you are.

Stupot -14 May 2010 | 11:09