Allen & Overy

Sonya Barcant

Employment Team - so far so good!

So, I’ve been in the Employment team now for around a month and so far so good!  Within my first couple weeks I was interviewing a claimant by myself and drafting his claim form (unusual as, given A&O’s clients, we normally act for respondents).  I was also asked to go to the Court of Appeal on another matter to represent A&O and take notes at a summary judgment appeal hearing.  It’s generally a fast-paced department with lots constantly going on, which means a lot of task juggling and prioritising (good practice for being an associate!), and it’s always a surprise when you look at the time and realise it’s already 5 o’clock! 

As a summary of what trainees get involved in here, the Employment practice’s work breaks down into three key areas: litigation, corporate transactions (employee due diligence, SPA drafting, etc) and day-to-day queries from their HR clients.  In terms of corporate transactions, the due diligence includes reviewing the contracts of the company’s key employees to check for any significant provisions e.g. problematic change of control or termination clauses.  The day-to-day queries can be anything from drafting pre-action letters to a claimant’s solicitors (which require very strategic thinking!) to advising on updates in employment law or reviewing a client’s pro-forma employee handbook/ compromise agreement (all of these are things that I’ve been asked to do so far). 

Litigation-wise, the experience a trainee gets very much depends on what stage the case is at when you’re in the department.  For example, my trip to the Court of Appeal was for a claimant’s appeal against the High Court’s finding that their application for summary judgment should be dismissed.  The background work had already been done so I just had to go along to meet with our barrister and the client, and take notes during the appeal.  It was extremely interesting but made me very thankful that I decided to become a solicitor rather than a barrister!  The judges gave our barrister a really hard time and barely gave him the chance to argue his case before firing streams of questions at him.  It was also interesting to see how much importance they placed on the exact wording of the relevant contract as opposed to the wider context of the market and industry in which the claimant worked.  Our barrister explained that this was their particular “style” and that it differs between different Court of Appeal judges. 

“In my last blog I was marvelling at the fact that there were just 6 months left until I qualify as a solicitor. Now it’s less than 5 – eeek!”

On the flip side, I’m involved with another case where we’re right at the beginning of the whole process.  We submitted our defence at the end of last week and I’m now in the process of reviewing documents for disclosure.  As part of putting together the defence, I attended meetings with the partner and key staff of the respondent to drill down into exactly what happened and why.  It’s been great to be involved from the beginning because I’m building up a picture of events at the same time as everyone else.

In my last blog I was marvelling at the fact that there were just 6 months left until I qualify as a solicitor.  Now it’s less than 5 – eeek!  The application process for qualification has started which is very scary – we find out the result soon so I’ll keep you updated on that.  Secondments for June to September have also been announced and there’s a really interesting one to Liberty (one of the UK’s leading human rights organisations) which I’m applying to.  As part of A&O’s pro-bono initiatives, the firm has taken on cases from Liberty since 1993!  We also help with Liberty’s public advice line and drafting replies to query letters that they receive.  It would certainly be a unique and fascinating secondment so I’ll be keeping my fingers crossed and will let you know how I get on.

I’ve had a very productive wedding planning month, which is good seeing as there’s now only 5 months left to that also!  We’ve sorted out what my fiancé is wearing (at my insistence!), our tropical flowers, entertainment, dresses for the usherettes (yes, I made that role up!) that go perfectly with the bridesmaid dresses, our honeymiles gift list and we’ve even started work on our hand-made invitations! 

So, all of the big things are now done but it’s the small details that seem to take a ridiculous amount of time and effort to sort out.  As an example, I have four bridesmaids and two usherettes and they all want their hair and make-up done in the morning.  Although it may seem so straightforward, you would not believe the difficulty I’m having in finding some local stylists to make them look beautiful without us having to wake-up at 6 o’clock in the morning!  But I’m trying my best to enjoy every minute because I’m sure I’ll miss all the planning when it’s over (or so people tell me…)!

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