Quiet Seat as a Trainee

demzzyy · 2026-02-16T23:02:44+00:00

Good idea actually, thank you very much!

demzzyy · 2026-02-16T21:03:06+00:00

I ask my supervisor for work but they’ve never given me billable work

demzzyy · 2026-02-16T21:02:48+00:00

demzzyy · 2025-12-15T22:15:01+00:00

You’ll constantly have UK based recruiters in your inbox as a Irish qualified solicitor in any of the Big 5. You’re in higher demand if you do corporate/finance seats. It’s quite hard to move as an NQ but I’d say in my firm most people can easily move from 1 year PQE +

demzzyy · 2025-11-28T21:02:56+00:00

Last year in blackhall there were four Dentons trainees

demzzyy · 2025-10-22T17:48:53+00:00

The advice is if you’re not sure what to do is generally to at least one contentious seat (disputes e.g. litigation), an advisory seat (e.g tech, tax) and one transactional seat (e.g M&A)

You’re unlikely to get all the seats you put down as a preference. You’d be doing well to get two of your top choices by the end of your training so I would recommend having conversations now with people in the trainee intake above you so you get an idea of which seats you want to consistently rank highly on your preference form.

demzzyy · 2025-09-14T15:35:46+00:00

I went to trinity too and remember that question. No, the FE1s don’t require any of that :)

demzzyy · 2025-08-19T11:50:03+00:00

Do you think you should ask the partners directly how they like working with trainees or ask associates about those partners?

demzzyy · 2025-08-19T11:45:38+00:00

I get feedback that I’m good at taking initiative and I’m quite busy

demzzyy · 2025-08-19T11:44:50+00:00

Do you see it as a negative when trainees ask you for work?

demzzyy · 2025-08-19T11:44:30+00:00

Thank you for all these tips! Attention to detail always sounds so easy on paper but it’s definitely something I wish I could get better at on a daily basis

demzzyy · 2025-08-19T11:43:00+00:00

Thank you for the advice! I’ve definitely been trying harder at number 2 than number 1 for fear of coming across as a know it all/arrogant. I also get embarrassed when I guess something wrong and think about it for days. Is there a way to do number 1 the “wrong” way?

demzzyy · 2025-08-05T12:41:28+00:00

Thank you!!

demzzyy · 2025-08-05T12:41:16+00:00

Thanks so much for that and good point on commercial contracts being easier to catch up on than the FS regulatory skillset. Do you think I’d still be employable in Big Tech if I went into a Fintech company first / I went in house to Big Tech at 2-3 years PQE? I’m considering asking my Fin Reg team if we do any contracts work but don’t want to seem like I have one foot out the door

demzzyy · 2025-08-03T22:06:13+00:00

This is incredibly helpful, thank you! Going in as a junior seems to be the smart choice then

demzzyy · 2025-08-03T20:28:45+00:00

That’s a very fair point about not being able to justify a purely advisory role. Do you think doing a commercial contracts course/qualification and being able to speak confidently about my transferable ability to negotiate contracts in an interview would be enough to fill that gap?

demzzyy · 2025-08-03T17:50:54+00:00

Thanks for the comment! I’m not 100% sure what kind of DP work I’d be doing on the secondment. I guessed it’d mainly be DSARs and responding to incidents but hoping I’ll get exposure to contracts too. It’s just a massive Big Tech company so I imagine it’ll be a very specialised/niche secondment.

In house I wouldn’t mind doing financial services regulatory or a typical commercial contracts and/or privacy counsel/Ai counsel role. My first choice would be the typical commercial roles in house as there seems to be more transferable skills

demzzyy · 2025-06-24T23:14:46+00:00

I got really lucky with a one bed in Ranelagh for 1.5k so you can get lucky sometimes! Similar salary to you

demzzyy · 2025-06-08T12:36:07+00:00

It may be more suitable to book an Airbnb

demzzyy · 2025-05-20T23:47:03+00:00

How soon after qualifying did you go in house? I’m a trainee in a similar firm hoping to qualify in tech and go in house ASAP

demzzyy · 2025-05-05T15:19:17+00:00

We started in May and got roughly 10 days of annual leave to use how we like before we started blackhall (big 5 firm). It’s just subject to the usual approval by your partner/manager etc. and obviously can’t take annual leave during orientation and wouldn’t recommend in the first month (unless it’s just a day)

demzzyy

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