Exceptional Training
Rebecca Hilton Associate Complex Commercial Litigation
Miguel Colebrook Senior Associate M&A / Capital Markets
I started my training contract in 2020, completing seats in Complex Commercial Litigation, Energy Transactions & Projects and M&A/Capital Markets. The training contract at V&E has really allowed me to develop personally and professionally. The small trainee intake and non-rotational structure meant I was able to work closely with colleagues in small teams and follow matters through to my second year to get a full picture of each practice’s work. The benefit of working in small teams also meant that I could see the context of my work and how it fits into the wider case or deal. As my training contract progressed, this allowed me to identify upcoming challenges and offer to take responsibility for them. The majority of training is hands-on with more responsibility afforded each time you perform a task, for example, I would start with proofreading or footnoting a document and later I would contribute to the drafting. Teamed with real-time feedback, I have been able to continually develop within a seat rather than waiting for formal reviews, building my knowledge and learning from lawyers who are leading in their fields. The office culture and firm have allowed me to feel very comfortable from day one. I’m constantly being told by everyone that they have an open-door (or from remote working, open Zoom chat) policy, and that translates to reality. I’ve always felt confident talking to partners, counsel and associates about cases/deals and asking questions. Throughout my training contract, I’ve felt that people were open and willing to speak with me to help me learn and develop as I embark on my legal career.
The V&E approach to the practice of law, principally animated by the desire to produce outcomes par excellence for clients, is buttressed by three foundational pillars: flat structures, lean and efficient teams and dynamic development. V&E prides itself on having a firm culture characterised by functional but limited hierarchies, which translates to significant interactions between colleagues irrespective of seniority. The goal is to ensure trainees have frictionless access to, as well as opportunities to learn directly from, senior members of the firm. As a supervising mentor, I insist on group meetings (including trainees, juniors, and mid-levels) when delegating and/or assessing the progress of work to ensure all members have equal access to myself (as a senior associate). Similarly, trainees are regularly invited to attend meetings, negotiations, and sessions pertaining to high-level work streams with which they are not actively involved, the aim is to reinforce the principle of teamwork as well as to facilitate learning by passive participation. In addition to ensuring trainees have maximum exposure to senior colleagues, matters are typically staffed with lean teams. For trainees, the benefits are manifold: They power trainee development by affording early opportunities for greater responsibility, they punctuate the involvement of each team member so trainees feel more involved and connected to a matter and they motivate seniors (like myself) to place an emphasis on training to maximise the contributions of each team member. Finally, V&E’s preferred approach to mentoring is to adopt a dynamic, as opposed to a static, training method. We calibrate levels of responsibility and complexity of tasks to talent and effort (as opposed to homogenising training at the risk of stymying development). By adopting this approach we ensure all trainees acquire a core set of skills and provide a structure that allows trainees to accelerate their development.
5
Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online