I applied for the Government Legal Department (GLD) training contract (Solicitor route) after working in the Civil Service at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for nearly a year in a non-legal, entry-level role. Having studied law at university, I was uncertain about pursuing a legal career. However, I loved working in the Civil Service and thought that a legal career in government appeared to be more interesting and potentially more fulfilling. When I was offered the training contract, I was also given the opportunity to work as a paralegal in GLD before starting my LPC, which I found very useful.
Despite my experience as a GLD paralegal, I began my training contract with little knowledge of what the two years would entail, other than that the structure was similar to those in private practice: four six-month seats. My first two seats were in litigation and the latter two in advisory. My litigation seats were divided into private law litigation and public law litigation. “Litigation” refers to the process of taking legal action through the courts to resolve a dispute, and GLD litigation can also include working on inquiries. “Advisory” means acting as an in-house lawyer for your chosen department, sometimes sitting with, or in the same building as, your clients.
My first seat was in private law litigation, with the Home Office and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) as our main clients. This was a great introduction to litigation and to GLD. Within the first couple of months, I was running my own smaller cases (under supervision) and assisting colleagues on larger cases. A highlight was attending the Supreme Court for an (appealed) application to strike out a defamation claim.
My second seat was in public law litigation, with clients including the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the Ministry of Defence (MOD), and the Home Office. In this seat, I worked mostly on judicial reviews, which are challenges to decisions made by public bodies. These are much faster-paced than private law claims, with courts often setting deadlines of only a few days. Consequently, the work was intense, but I really enjoyed it.
My first advisory seat was in the Attorney General’s Office; the Attorney General is the chief legal advisor to the Government, and so his “office” (which is a whole department) works across a number of matters. My favourite aspect of my team’s work was collaborating with departments across government to ensure that Bills were constitutionally sound before being introduced to Parliament. This involved cross-Whitehall liaison, attending Parliament, and briefing Ministers. It was a privilege to have this opportunity at such an early stage in my career.
I am now in my fourth and final seat in the Home Office and the work is once again very different. Among other things, I am still working on the same Bills I reviewed in AGO, but now focus on the details of different measures, working closely with policy clients and Parliamentary Counsel to draft them. This seat has so far been challenging and interesting – and I’m looking forward to qualification.
