Keeping An Open Mind – Navigating seat rotations during your training contract

Seat rotations are one of the main stresses in your training contract. Making sure you are working towards getting you to the right place for qualification is a careful balancing act of what you think you want, the needs of the firm and a developing picture of where your skills are best utilised. So, here are my top tips when navigating the tricky subject of seat rotations.

Be open minded

Even if something doesn’t feel like it’s for you, give it a chance. At worst you’ll learn more about another team, and the skills solicitors in that team need to effectively do their jobs. At best, you might find the area you are truly passionate about. I was clear in my training contract interview that I did not want to qualify into family law, and even less so public family law. I had not studied that area at all, and didn’t know one end of care proceedings from the next. When I (hopefully) qualify as a public family solicitor in July 2023, I will have been in the department for 15 out of the 24 months of my training contract. Sometimes you find what you love in the most unexpected places. 

Be flexible

While Machins endeavours to take your seat preferences into account, it would be impossible to give every trainee the exact seat they want on every single seat rotation. Sometimes there are differing workloads in different departments, and sometimes there are multiple trainees wanting to try out departments to see what they are like. Nothing demonstrates your willingness to be a team player, or commerciality, more than being flexible to the needs of the firm.

Be direct

It is important to keep an eye on your own objectives and goals. Be open and honest with the training partner and your mentor early on in your training contract about which seats you are interested in and where you think you hope to qualify. The conversations about rotation start earlier than you might think, so it’s a good idea to keep the decision makers up-to-date on what you want to do. You might not get what you have your heart set on as your first seat, but it will be taken into account as much as possible as you move through your training contract, particularly as you move closer to qualification.