Training and development

Training and development is a key part of being a Herbert Smith lawyer, which is why we encourage you to think actively about career development, and to ‘invest in yourself’.

Given the relatively small size of our US practice team, junior associates work shoulder to shoulder with partners and senior associates, learning at a rapid pace and gaining an intimate knowledge of their profession at a comparatively early stage.

One of the first things new associates learn is that the partners are delighted for them to take the initiative and run as great a portion of the transaction as is realistic. Junior associates soon realize that their unique talents and knowledge are in great demand across a large cross-section of the firm's corporate practice. In order to ensure that our junior associates are ready to meet this challenge, we understand that they need support.

To that end, the firm furnishes its attorneys with excellent secretarial and technological support. Further, and of great importance to junior attorneys, we offer two types of formalized training through first, a comprehensive mentoring program, and second, our dedicated professional support lawyer.

As an associate, you’ll have ongoing training and development, along with opportunities for international or client secondments as your career progresses.
 
We develop our lawyer’s skills in business development, client interviewing and client contact. Specific training is also provided, including formal and informal knowledge sharing and language training according to individual needs. All our lawyers attend development centres after they have been qualified for two and then five years. This helps them to develop in key areas, including personal development, people management, organisation skills/delegation skills, managing finance skills, business development and client relationship skills. 

Mentoring program
To assist with professional and social integration, each summer associate and each junior associate is assigned a mentor. The mentors are associates who are junior enough to be sensitive to the concerns of new hires and senior enough to be effective mentors on transactional work. Each participating associate understands the importance of his or her role as mentor. They are excited about sharing their experiences and introducing new members of the team to our international practice.

Professional support lawyer
The US team’s professional support lawyer (PSL) fulfills a dual role - as a former transactional attorney, the PSL is well-suited to provide important research and legal information to the team's client-facing lawyers, as well as providing training and professional development courses. In the former role, the PSL undertakes a knowledge management role in which the PSL monitors legal developments, undertakes research and secures information needed by the team members, digesting it and presenting it to them in a summarized format. In the latter role, the PSL implements the firm's training programs for both summer associates and junior associates. The training and professional development courses address the securities laws that form the foundation of our practice, as well as the development of skills such as establishing effective professional relationships, managing transactions and successfully participating in "beauty parades".

In addition, upon joining the firm, we offer an orientation program and courses over a three week period on the nature of our securities work, our clients and the legal nuances of various jurisdictions.

We also provide monthly training courses and weekly discussion sessions for the members of the US team.

Staffing transactions
The team's usual approach to staffing client matters is to assign one partner, one senior associate and one junior associate to each matter. The senior associate will take primary responsibility for mentoring the junior associate; however, the junior associate can expect to have significant interaction with the partner as well as with clients.

The performance review process
During the summer program, our evaluation process provides substantive feedback on all work undertaken and seeks to give summer associates constructive input to benefit them in respect of future assignments. The evaluation process consists of informal feedback on each assignment, as well as a formal evaluation at the midpoint and at the end of a summer associate's stay with Herbert Smith.

For those attorneys who join the firm on a permanent basis, our evaluation process includes a formal performance review each May and an informal review each November.