An interviewer may well ask you to explain what a commercial lawyer does, or even what a trainee’s role might include in a certain context, yet “what is your understanding of the role for which you are applying?” isn’t a question that candidates necessarily give much thought to. 

However, how can you credibly claim that you want to carry out a role if you’re unable to explain what the role will involve. You should make sure you are able to deliver a solid answer to this question, as it’s designed to assess whether you have truly thought about the career, and test whether your motivations are credible. 

So what do trainees actually do? This is a question that trainees are frequently asked by students. The truth is, there is no definitive answer to this question. The reality is that being a trainee is probably rather less glamorous than you think/hope. 

Now don’t get me wrong, some of the work can be very interesting and depending on where you train, much of it high profile. However, a training contract is a learning process and nobody starts at the top! Trainees will typically be involved in a number of administrative/less interesting tasks, but these types of tasks can give you invaluable exposure to the types of documents/processes you will be handling as an associate. Below is a brief introduction to some of the more commonly delegated trainee tasks.

What do commercial lawyers do?

Commercial lawyers generally work in teams to advise clients on transactions and disputes, as well as advise clients on how to comply with legal and regulatory requirements and codes of conduct.

In a transactional context, this includes helping clients to identify and assess legal and commercial risks, then mitigate these risks through the use of contractual protections in contracts. It also includes precisely documenting clients' intentions and the outcome of negotiations. Depending on their practice area, lawyers may also work on financings, real estate transactions, competition law analysis, tax structuring, and so on.

In a disputes context, lawyers may advise clients on investigations, litigation proceedings (involving courts), alternative dispute resolution proceedings (e.g. arbitration and mediation), and settlement negotiations and agreements. This can involve reviewing thousands of documents that are potentially relevant to disputes, engaging and coordinating barristers and experts, drafting witness statements, producing court bundles, and helping clients to understand the prescribed legal processes that they must follow. 

In an advisory context, commercial lawyers may advise clients on a broad range of matters, for example matters relating to, cybersecurity, data protection, employment law and environmental law.

Typical trainee “fee earning” tasks

“Fee earning” (or “billable”/”chargeable”) tasks are tasks which relate directly to client matters and therefore tasks for which clients are paying. Examples/explanations of typical trainee fee earning tasks are set out below.

• Bundling: this refers to producing hard copy and/or electronic folders of documents, usually in connection with court proceedings or investigations. 
• Bibling: once a deal has completed, trainees are usually asked to create a “transaction bible”, which will contains all (or at least the main) deal documents.
• Document review: when contentious teams are working on litigation matters or carrying out investigations, they will typically need to review thousands (sometimes hundreds of thousands) of the client’s/the other side’s/third parties’ documents to ascertain what has been going on and to try to find evidence to support the arguments, claims or defenses that they wish to raise. Trainees are usually involved in the early stages of the review and are typically responsible for coordinating other reviewers (e.g. paralegals) and identifying the documents which are/might be relevant
• Due diligence: due diligence is typically carried out by transactional (including specialist) teams. It refers to the process under which a company (typically a prospective buyer) and its advisers carry out an in-depth investigation into a variety of aspects of a company, to gain a solid understanding of that company’s business and/or market and to check for any existing or potential issues that could impact upon the deal. 
• Verification: verification refers to the process of checking statements made throughout a draft company prospectus to ensure that the statements are accurate and supported by sufficient evidence.

Prospectus: a legally required document that must precede bond or share issues. It advertises the issue to potential investors and contains information about the issuer’s business, the potential risks and the issuing firm’s financial circumstances, in addition to the terms and conditions of the issue.

• Project management: trainees will typically be responsible for coordinating a range of client-related workstreams. On a day-to-day basis, this can involve chasing internal teams for input/advice; answering questions from other teams and advisers or clients; coordinating paralegals and PAs; keeping records; engaging and liaising with barristers, local counsel (i.e. law firms based in other jurisdictions) and specialist law firms; and project managing deal signings/closings (which can involve ensuring that all the relevant documents are signed correctly). 
• Drafting: drafting and/or amending documents, including engagement letters, non-disclosure agreements, board minutes and corporate authorisations, powers of attorney, and a range of practice area-specific documents. 
• Other transactional tasks: in transactional teams, trainees may also get involved in: drafting Companies House forms; incorporating or dissolving companies; carrying out regulatory/court filings; carrying out company searches (via Companies House), intellectual property-related searches (i.e. searching for information on a company’s patents), real estate searches etc.; and preparing legal step plans (setting out the processes that should be followed as a deal progresses) and structure diagrams (which set out the current structure of a company group and/or the proposed structure of a company group after a deal has completed).
• Research: research is one of the more interesting tasks you will be asked to carry out during your training contract. This can include: research into a specific point of law (including how the courts have applied the law in certain contexts); research into a company (including its shareholders, the business it carries out, the legal filings it has made etc.); research into legal processes/procedures (including court procedures, deadlines for court filings, the documents required to give effect to certain courses of action etc.); and research into regulator guidance/proposed legal updates.
• Proofreading: this can involve, for example, checking the spelling, grammar, format and structure of documents produced by others; ensuring defined terms have been used consistently throughout documents; ensuring cross-references within documents are accurate; sense-checking documents (e.g. reading them to make sure they make sense and the points are presented logically); ensuring handwritten comments have been accurately typed into a document; and comparing documents to ensure information has been accurately copied between them. 

Note that our Training Contract Handbook provides a more comprehensive insight into what trainees do on a day-to-day basis, including example trainee worklogs.