Six months in to their trainee contracts, Sophie Bush and Sewak Singh have begun their journey to become qualified solicitors.
Throughout their training contracts, Sophie and Sewak will be spending time in various departments learning about different areas of law under the supervision of senior members of the department. Each will gain the vital experience and knowledge they will need as they progress with their chosen career.
Here they share their experiences at Howells and update us on what they have learnt so far:
Sophie Bush
Sophie gained her law degree at the University of Glamorgan in 2013, and has worked at Howells for the last three years, spending most of her time in the conveyancing team.
Sophie has already completed a seat in conveyancing, which enabled her to build on her existing skills and handle more complex matters through to completion. She is currently working within the employment department, and commenting on this, Sophie said:
“I am enjoying the opportunity to gain experience of the different elements that make up employment law and applying this to on-going cases. It’s a really exciting time to be in this department, especially with the ongoing cases in the media regarding the gig economy and the gender pay gap.”
When asked to provide an example of some of the cases she has worked on, Sophie said:
“As part of my seat in employment law, I reviewed the employment contracts for a company we provide retained employment law support for on our H.E.L.P scheme. This included ensuring the contracts were compliant with the updated pension legislation and preparing them for the upcoming GDPR changes.
“I also drafted a separate GDPR compliant data notice for the client in preparation for the amendments to data protection legislation coming into force in May.”
Sophie continued,
“In addition, existing clauses were redrafted regarding restrictive covenants as the time limits applied for the anti-compete clauses were highly restrictive in comparison with the current attitudes of the Courts.
“Additional clauses were also added to give the employer contractual rights to recoup money from employees for damage caused to company equipment as given the industry of the client, the employees utilise technology and transport provided by the employer.”
Sophie also hopes to complete a seat within the child care department, as this is an area of law that’s always been of interest to her.
Sewak Singh
Sewak gained his law degree from the University of Wales, Bangor, in 2010. For the last three years, he’s worked for Howells in the conveyancing team.
Sewak’s first seat is also in the conveyancing department, dealing with sales, purchases, remortgages, auction properties, stair casing and new build purchases.
Providing his thoughts on his training contract so far, Sewak said,
“I’m thrilled to have this opportunity to kick start my career in law, especially being able to gain such invaluable experience in such a high-volume conveyancing team. It will be interesting to complete the remaining seats in areas of law I haven’t worked in before, which I’m sure will provide plenty of scope to further develop my professional skills.”
In the future, Sewak has big ambitions and would like to work his way up to Partner within the firm.
Working for Howells
We look forward to continuing to see Sophie and Sewak’s development in their training contracts.
If you would love to join our growing team of experienced legal minds, take a look at our current vacancies and get in touch.
