Traineeships in Scotland

Traditionally, vacancies in the job market are made known through adverts in newspapers or relevant professional journals. For those who seek a legal traineeship it is extremely rare to find a job advertised in this way. It is not necessary for law firms to advertise a vacancy as they are inundated annually with requests from law students looking for positions. A few attempts have been made to regulate this process, but for the most part it is down to the individual student to find out for themselves what traineeships are available and to make the applications. The Law Society of Scotland keeps a Training Register of those firms which offer training places. This is updated at least annually, but unfortunately is not always that accurate. There are two main reasons for this. First, the Law Society can only reproduce information supplied to them, and although they send out questionnaires to all firms asking about their training needs, firms may be dilatory in responding. Secondly, firms' needs may change without much notice and the information provided in good faith at the beginning of a year might be out of date six months later when you consult the Training Register. There is little that can be done other than to be aware that the data in the Register is subject to change. A copy of the Training Register is sent to all law schools and university Careers Advisory Services and should be available for consultation there. The Law Society also retains a list of all those who have completed the Diploma stage of their training and are seeking a traineeship. Names on the list are passed to law firms that approach the Law Society looking for a trainee.

Do not underestimate the significance of the information gathering process if you are seeking a traineeship. You must gather information about firms to which you are applying to enable you to tailor your application to the needs of the firm. For example, it is absolutely pointless to apply to a large city firm that specialises in corporate client work if your heart is set on being a criminal court lawyer. While not all of the suggestions that follow will be relevant to those who do not seek a traineeship, general principles can be extracted.


The first and overwhelming rule is "do your homework". Start with a broad source base such as your institution's Careers Advisory Service. Do this at an earlier rather than later stage. It seems that many students do not come into contact with their careers service of their own volition until quite late on in their undergraduate career. Although it is likely that there has been some input from the careers service at your Fresher's Week or other induction period, it is not realistic to expect your careers service to come to you-you must go to them. You should browse the literature and information held in their offices. This may be in addition to or separate from careers information held within your law library. The classic encyclopedic sources of information include the law directories published for Scotland and England. For the former these are the White Book and the Blue Book, and for the latter the Legal 500, a source book of the 500 top firms in the United Kingdom that are likely to be those which take the most trainees, and the Chambers and Partners' Directory which is published annually and which contains detailed information of the top 1,000 United Kingdom law firms. The Chambers Directory also details all barristers' chambers and lists specialist areas of law covered by firms, with information given about big name clients they have and the kind of work that they do. A further growing source of information is the internet. Many more firms are acquiring their own web page and since IT is one of the skills you must develop for your future utility in the job market, you should be able to surf the internet and to do so at your own institution.

The Law Society of Scotland's web page will link you to all firms in Scotland and can disclose useful information that tells you much about the profile of the firm. For example, if you are interested in practicing in a specific area of law you can search on the internet to find the firms which specialize in that area. Solicitors can become accredited as specialists in a range of areas of legal practice including family law, employment, agriculture, insolvency and criminal law. By identifying where such specialists are located you can focus your applications for a traineeship; or if you are offered an interview with a firm, you can use the search facility to gather this information, thus making you better informed about the firm and more prepared for your interview.

The professional legal journals are vital sources of information. For Scotland these include the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Law Gazette, the Scots Law Times and, to a lesser extent SCOLAG, the journal of the Scottish Legal Action Group. As far as England is concerned the professional legal journals include The Lawyer, the New Law Journal, and The Solicitor. All these professional journals should be available in your law library, and several have websites. Most, such as the Journal of the Law Society of Scotland (for Scottish students) and The Lawyer (for those pursuing an English qualifying degree) offer reduced subscription rates to students which is a good way of keeping up to date with events in the profession. Some business magazines are extremely valuable for the information they contain about firms who might be recruiting. A prime example is Business Insider, which used to be available on a very limited circulation basis but is now available in major high street distribution outlets.

Still on a national level, information about firms is often contained in the broad-sheet press, which for Scotland is The Scotsman, The Herald, The Sunday Herald and Scotland on Sunday and for the United Kingdom is The Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, The Observer, and The Independent on Sunday. Local press such as, in Scotland, The Courier for the Tayside area, The Press and Journal for Aberdeen, the Edinburgh Evening News and the Evening Times in Glasgow may also be useful sources. All the national and local press may carry stories of firms, and on a regular basis in their business pages they will carry information about new ventures, new recruitments and appointments recently made. All this information allows you to build up a profile of the firms which you are considering as prospective employers, which in turn permits you to make the most relevant type of application to them.

Last but not least is the firm's own brochure and literature. Not every firm will produce this but many firms will have a glossy brochure for clients and others. This information should be made available to you on request by writing to the firm or if you call to visit. The latter is a good idea if you do not know the firm particularly well as you will pick up a lot of information from simply visiting the firm and getting a sense of their size, atmosphere, image, and so on. You should also take advantage of firms who make a specific recruitment drive on a regular basis by, for example, having open evenings where they invite all interested prospective trainees to come for a presentation. At such events there will likely be an opportunity to speak to existing trainees (perhaps even graduates or diplomats of your university) as well as to partners and other employees of the firm. Current trainees will have a particularly helpful perspective to offer on the firm. Equally, students above you in the university either at senior honors or diploma level may already have secured a traineeship for the year earlier than the one for which you are aiming and, having gone through an interview process, they may have much advice to offer about the selection and recruitment of that particular firm. That is not always easy information to gain but there is no harm to be done by asking around.

Firms who do not offer open evenings or presentations can still be approached for an informal visit. This may be something which you have to arrange for your vacation but is to be commended. Similarly, information can be gained at a very intense level if you are able to secure vacation work or work experience with a firm of your choice a year or two prior to the point at which you might be applying for a traineeship. Making such an approach has a number of advantages. It gives you firsthand experience of legal work which you might not otherwise have. It enables you to decide at the outset whether or not this particular firm is one that you would wish to work for, and it allows you to become known to the firm so that in the event that you do make an application, you ought to have a distinct advantage, provided you have performed well during your time with them.

Information relating to public sector traineeships may be available from different sources. The profile of a local authority will be readily available from the local and national press, and there will be an expectation of those who seek traineeships in the public sector that they have a knowledge and understanding of current affairs which renders them suitable and appropriate employees.

Finally, another source of information about law firms is the law reports. You can find out about the kind of litigation which your chosen prospective firm undertakes by checking the law reports for the last few years to see for whom they have acted and in what situations. The names of agents in civil and criminal cases appear at the end of all law reports.