The Shetland trainee's experience

As winter starts to turn to spring, thousands of school students across Scotland will soon be preparing to sit their exams. It then won’t be long until those results hit the doormats and inboxes.

At Harper Macleod, this is currently the time when we open the application process for our future trainee positions.

There are many ways to start a legal career. On the face of it, although I’ve taken the traditional route, my experience could be seen to be slightly different to others given I was brought up and am currently undertaking my traineeship on Shetland. After attending Scalloway Junior High School and then The Anderson High School, I achieved a joint honours degree in Law and Business Management at the University of Aberdeen, followed by the Diploma in Professional Legal Practice.

In 2019, I undertook a summer placement at Harper Macleod in Glasgow, which ultimately led to a traineeship commencing in 2021. I am now in my third ‘seat’ (a department within the firm) - family law. I am a rotational trainee, meaning I complete four six-month seats in different departments. However, my experience has also been different to my fellow trainees as I have been situated in changing locations for each seat. At the moment I am back where I grew up – Shetland.

My first seat was in residential property in Glasgow, in the shared equity team. My second seat was in the personal insolvency team on a secondment to the Accountant in Bankruptcy, based in Kilwinning. This was a fantastic experience where I got to work in policy development – something brand new to me. A secondment is something I would recommend to any future trainee, as not only did it give me an insight into the public sector, but it also gave me great client exposure as you are essentially always conversing with the client.

I am now five months into my third seat working in Lerwick’s family law team alongside resident partner Jenni Gear, assisting with separations, divorces, cohabitation, and child contact cases.

It is undoubtedly a change going from our Glasgow office which is home to just over 300 colleagues, to Lerwick with eight members of staff. However, one major advantage of being in Lerwick is the exposure to many different types of work outside of your assigned seat. Even though I am in the family law team I have gained exposure to working with clients requiring residential and commercial property, and private client advice.

When I started my legal career journey in 2015, I knew I wanted to work in law, but I had no idea about what sector. Harper Macleod offers the possibility to try new areas of law, even if they’ve never been considered before. This means I have become fully aware of what works for me and what doesn’t.

Being in three different offices for three different seats can be quite unsettling and I have felt out of my comfort zone at times. However, I have been extremely fortunate to work for a firm that takes pride in the people it hires, and my anxieties about entering new workplaces have soon been eliminated by colleagues.

The only obstacle I have faced since returning home has been the unpredictability of the weather conditions on the island, waking up every morning hoping that my power and signal are still intact!