Our trainee solicitors are our future lawyers and partners. Each one has followed their own path and brings a unique set of qualities and skills to the firm. Take a look through their profiles to find out more:
Rose Woolterton James Iron Lily Stagg Charlie Watkins
Maggie Berry Alex Robinson Eleanor Chapman Georgia Sartin
A day in the life of Alex Robinson, Trainee Solicitor, Leathes Prior
Departments to date: Commerical Dispute Resolution Team (first seat); Employment Team (second seat)
University : Durham University
Degree: BA & MA History Degree
I started my training contract with Leathes Prior in September 2023. I am currently sitting in the employment team, having previously sat in the commercial dispute resolution team. The work at Leathes Prior is interesting and varied, with the employment team acting for both employees and employers in the employment tribunal, while also offering ad hoc legal advice for our Employmentor clients. Working in the team also provides the opportunity to get involved in sports law, which has included working on an FA arbitration, a motorsport intellectual property dispute and a football-related defamation dispute.
Following a short walk to work, I typically arrive at the office at around 8.30am and start my day by checking my emails. I will then head to the kitchen to grab a drink and use this as an opportunity to say hello to the other members of the team. I will also update them on the progress of any work that I am doing for them and see whether there is anything else with which I can assist. When I get back to my desk, I go through my list of tasks and prioritise them.
The employment team at Leathes Prior is a very busy team and today is looking no different.
I start my day with a grounds of claim I have been drafting for a case involving disability discrimination and constructive unfair dismissal. This is the second claim I have drafted during my time in the seat, with the claims here being more complicated, so it is a good opportunity to test myself and see how I am progressing. I get some constructive feedback from the partner leading the case, which we talk through and she gives me some helpful guidance on how to structure and set out the various claims. I take this feedback on board and prepare a second draft.
After the new draft is complete, I sit in on a meeting led by one of the partners who is seeing a new client. The client has been dismissed and has been subjected to sex discrimination. After the meeting, the partner and I discuss the merits of the client’s claims, particularly as the client does not have the necessary two years’ service to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. We explore the possibility of an automatic unfair dismissal claim. After our discussion, the partner asks me to draft a letter before action and I add this to my list of tasks.
My next task is to review and update a contract of employment for a client. It has been some time since the client last updated its employment contracts, so it is important to go through the entire contract to ensure that the statutory requirements have been met. As part of this review, I draft amend the existing holiday and sickness absence clauses, and add new clauses relating to training and paid leave. When I finish the review, I send a tracked change version across to the lead partner along with some of my comments and draft an email to the client.
At around 1pm, I head out for lunch. It is a hot, sunny day and on days like this it is nice to wander through the Cathedral Close down to the river. We are lucky at Leathes Prior to be located in such a scenic and peaceful part of the city. On my walk, I bump into a couple of colleagues and have a catch-up before heading back to work.
On my return to the office, I turn my attention to some comments on a witness statement I have drafted on behalf of a client. I discuss the client’s comments, how best to incorporate them into the statement and how they affect the case more generally with the partner leading the matter. I note down the partner’s suggestions and incorporate them into a new draft of the statement. Once the draft is complete, I send an email to the client attaching the updated statement. This email explains the changes we have made and asks him whether he has any further comments.
Once this email is sent, I turn my attention to a disclosure exercise for a respondent client. I start by reviewing the pleadings to identify the issues in the case and what sort of documentation may exist that supports or goes against both our client’s case and the claimant’s case. After this review, I go through the file, including the preliminary documentation we have had from our client and the employment tribunal, and pull everything relevant together into a bundle. I then compare what I have found against what I need to have based on my earlier review and draft an email to the client explaining what further documentation I need from them.
At the end of the week, the team meets in one of the offices to have a chat about our weeks and catch up ahead of the weekend. After this, we will head to the pub for the firm’s Friday drinks. Leathes Prior prides itself on being a very sociable firm and the turnout for Friday drinks is always good. Here I can chat with people from across the firm and catch up with my fellow trainees who I do not always have a chance to see during the week with us all being in different teams and buildings.