TRAINING CONTRACT

Your training contract is where your journey to becoming an exceptional legal expert truly begins. It is very much “your” training contract and over the two years you will be working at the forefront of all aspects of family law, being trained by leading family law specialists across a breadth of family law issues, which will provide you with an outstanding foundational pillar, on which the rest of your legal career will be built on.

Every trainee’s journey is different, so we design the training contract to give you the widest range of experience possible and the opportunity to play a meaningful role on some of the most exciting cases as you learn from the top legal minds.

The training contracts involve a 2-year programme, structured so you are immersed in client work almost immediately. During the programme you will work across as many areas of family law as possible, but you will also have opportunities to learn about other areas of law through secondments and also learn other business skills through bespoke training sessions.

We offer training contracts in St Albans, Harpenden, Berkhamsted, Beaconsfield, London Bridge, Hampstead, Epping, Bishop’s Stortford and Birmingham.

Our training programme provides high quality work with trainees playing a vital role in case progression, client responsibility and development of legal skill, technical ability, and business acumen.

During your training your experience of family law matters will include, but not be limited to, divorce, financial remedy, children matters, cohabitation disputes, domestic abuse, surrogacy, adoption and nuptial agreements. You will be supported throughout, working within a team structure. This is done with the aim of providing trainees with as much exposure as possible to our business and our clients. Working within a team structure ensures that you will work very closely with the solicitor/partner who has overall supervision of the matter, and you will be given key responsibility on the cases you are working on so you can understand case progression and the importance of case strategy.

As a Trainee, you will meet clients in person or online for client meetings and then regularly interact with them via email or over the phone. You may also be asked to attend conferences and court hearings with them. This helps you develop your client care skills whilst being supported by other senior colleagues.

We know it is fundamental to your career that we train and develop you towards becoming an exceptional lawyer but we also know there are other important business skills that will be vital to your professional development. So we make sure that you have a thorough grounding in these skills, equipping you to deal with clients, other professionals and the competing pressures of life as a lawyer.

Business Acumen

• Working with business operations
• Business development and client care

Risk STRATEGY

• Understanding risk management
• Understanding how to handle complaints

Financial Management

• Understanding client ledgers and accounts
• Debt recovery and claims process

We know it’s important to provide as much support as possible – both from your educational development as a lawyer but also to ensure you are enjoying your training contract, and to help you work consistently, towards excellence and navigate any issues that might arise. So we make sure you have access to different levels of support to cover all aspects of your training contract, a whole team that is by your side throughout.

Manager

• A dedicated line manager throughout your training contract
• Your line manager will help you directly with your case work
• Your line manager is there to provide you with any work or personally related support you need

Trainee Supervisor

• An allocated Trainee Supervisor who you will meet monthly
• Determines any gaps in knowledge
• Supports you with capacity related issues
• Listens to your thoughts on areas of interest and helps you to develop in those areas

Buddy Support

• Your buddy is someone more junior, who understands what you are dealing with as a trainee
• Your buddy is there to answer those questions you might be more reluctant to ask a senior colleague

As a specialist family law firm we recognise the importance of our trainees having an opportunity to learn skills from other legal fields so we arrange for you to undertake a 10 week secondment in a different law firm. We have excellent relationships with other law firms so that you can benefit by learning from other practitioners often in non-contentious areas such as private client or conveyancing – all complementing the skills you learn in family law.

The secondment is regularly tailored to a trainee’s interests and locations so that you can get the most out of the experience.

As well as a law firm secondment we also arrange mini-secondments (usually a week) where possible with leading family law barristers’ chambers – this gives you the opportunity to experience the other side of family law practice, helping you to understand the role of counsel in proceedings and learn key negotiating and advocacy skills.

Learning and Development forms the core of what we do at Rayden Solicitors and our trainees are no exception. We have developed a bespoke trainee learning and development programme, tailored to introduce key legal aspects to our trainees, in an insightful and practical way. The programme also goes beyond key legal concepts and aspects and covers other skills that we believe help our trainees progress towards becoming inspiring legal professionals. The L&D programme is in addition to the Professional Skills Course you will have to complete.

Induction

• Key policies and procedures in a law firm
• Online systems expertise
• Introduction to other business operations functions eg. finance & marketing

Know How

• External sessions delivered by barristers, pensions experts, financial experts and more
• Internal sessions delivered by senior colleagues

Technical Skills

• Communication and relationship building
• Emotional intelligence
• Negotiation
• Writing skills

We invite our staff including our Trainees to feed into our training and development programme as it is each of those individual contributions that enable us to deliver a tailored, bespoke Learning& Development programme, fit for purpose and helps us to offer you the opportunity to develop into a knowledgeable and confident lawyer who will help propel us further as a leading family law firm.

Your training contract is not all hard work and no play – it’s also about enjoying your time as a trainee and looking forward to your future life as a lawyer. We know how beneficial it is to socialise and get to know your other trainees and junior professionals both within Rayden Solicitors and also from other firms and barristers’ chambers. So we arrange social events – they might be team building events, or informal networking events – for you throughout the year. And we actively encourage you to start to develop your professional network in this way – you get a budget to attend events and you join up with the junior solicitors when they are attending or hosting events!

We are looking for candidates with a strong academic record, and who can demonstrate empathy and that they know what it means to be a great family lawyer. We want candidates who show a willingness to become involved in all aspects of the firm – everyone is encouraged to get involved with initiatives in the firm that interest them e.g. joining the Well-being Committee, the EDI Committee, participating in rep meetings, arranging social events and attending networking events. There is a whole host of opportunities to develop yourself and the firm outside of just the legal work and we are looking for candidates who have the drive and confidence to take those opportunities and excel

Applications are now closed for a training contract to start in 2024.

For training contracts to start in 2025, applications will open on 1 April 2025.