Being a trainee at a firm with a truly global practice means guaranteed opportunities to travel with your work. I have just completed my fourth seat with the Asset Finance team in the Paris office and it has been a fantastic opportunity to gain real hands-on experience, high levels of responsibility and exposure to a variety of interesting deals that you might not otherwise see working in London. Working in an international office, in a smaller team, has meant being involved at the centre of the deals and playing a key role as matters progress; such a high level of involvement seems to occur rarely for trainees at other firms.

Beyond the work, there are of course many perks to a four month secondment in Paris. For a start, being put up in a spacious apartment in central Paris has meant spending my free time exploring all the famous sights and visiting all the best museums, restaurants, bars and cafés. To top this off, having the firm’s New Year’s party at one of the most exclusive hotels in the city (Le Crillon) was a memorable and exciting way to bring my four month stint to an end.

As I commence my fifth and penultimate seat with the Corporate department in London, it’s clear to see that WFW invests a lot in its trainees with a view to developing well-rounded and confident lawyers whilst taking a genuine interest in how you, as an individual, want to develop your career. Life at a smaller city firm certainly encourages a sense of community where you can always rely on the friendly support of others at all levels.

It’s incredible how quickly the first year of my training contract has flown by – half way through already! I spent my first seat in Litigation which involved working on several international arbitration disputes and particularly honing skills in legal research. My second seat was with Project, Commodities and Export Finance which involved working on a really interesting wind farm development project, giving me a great insight into the renewables sector.

I’ve had a particularly busy summer in the Asset Finance department, working on multiple transactions at once. With the fast paced turnover of deals, it’s a real benefit to see transactions progress from start to finish, where I’ve had to manage various conditions precedent in the run up to ship deliveries and do plenty of hands on work. For example I’ve had to draft a lot of finance documentation, had regular client contact and had to attend various closing meetings at international ship registries. One thing I’ve certainly noticed is that when times get busy there’s pressure on to complete a deal, it’s amazing how quickly you learn and develop confidence.

This will all be good preparation for my next seat with the Asset Finance team in Paris, which is only a few weeks away now – had better book those Eurostar tickets soon! It’s also been both useful and fun having weekly French tuition during my lunch breaks which I’m sure will help not only around the office but with day to day life whilst I’m there.

Back in the London office, I am now working in the Property department which is expanding by the minute with three new recruits: Louise Kyle, Simon Folley and Hetan Ganatra. The team is extremely welcoming (on my first day in the department we all went for team drinks) and a pleasure to work with.

As the only trainee, there is a great deal going on and a lot of responsibility from the outset; especially in the run up to Christmas - always a busy time of year. Working for every fee earner at the same time is demanding but really does enable you to get to know the whole team very well and to experience, first-hand, a wide variety of property work.

The majority of work carried out relates to commercial property but, occasionally, residential conveyancing as well. I have had the chance to get involved at all stages of the property transactions; from setting up files and carrying out property searches through to drafting documents, research and post-completion matters such as SDLT applications. I have also been given the opportunity to run some of my own files which has been very rewarding. Overall, it has been a very interesting and enjoyable seat and I have learnt a great deal. The Fortnum & Mason hamper that I received as a Christmas present from the Partners in the department was a lovely way to mark the end of a great seat!

On the social side of things, there has been a huge amount going on. The festive period saw endless in-house festivities such as the delicious Christmas lunch in our fourth floor restaurant (another amazing performance by the WFW in-house catering team), the charity fundraisers and the inter-departmental Christmas decoration competition. The much anticipated Christmas party at LSO St Luke's was also great fun and a fantastic venue. All in all, a great finish to another year at Watsons!

I am at the end of my seat in the Asset Finance department in Paris, which has been a great experience. Paris is a fantastic city and four months has been long enough to fully integrate myself into the team and to learn a great deal (as well as enough time to see all the sights and get a real feel for the Parisian way of life).

The office on the Champs-Elysees practices both English and French law. My colleagues have been very welcoming and a pleasure to work with. Although growing, the English law team is smaller than the teams in London meaning you get a lot of responsibility from the start and a chance to be involved in every transaction.

As well as the usual trainee tasks, such as keeping on top of conditions precedent and instructing foreign counsel, I have also had the opportunity to draft a variety of security documents for various transactions and restructurings and have been lucky enough to prepare for and attend various signing meetings and closing lunches.

I have assisted with the transfer of a bank’s loan portfolio which has included transferring the role of Lender, Agent and Security Trustee in over sixty transactions involving jurisdictions all over the world. This has required good organisational skills and so was very satisfying when I closed my very own transfer!

I have also experienced Project Finance, assisting with a wind farm financing. If you thought there were a lot of CPs involved in Shipping, you should see what’s involved for Projects!

Overall, I feel that my time in Paris has been very beneficial and enjoyable. I have learnt a huge amount, met some wonderful people and will go back to London with a good understanding of Shipping Finance. I will be sad to leave!

I’m now into my fourth seat and am in the Corporate department. It is great being back in London after my seat in Bangkok, but there is also a lot I miss from my time abroad; the people, being able to get a really nice dinner and a drink for under £2 and the fantastic weather are just some of the things. I was lucky enough to avoid the floods that so badly affected Thailand, but it’s great to see some of the work the office out there has done to help those who have been affected.

I’m sat with Mark Tooke, the Partner who deals with Intellectual Property matters in the firm, so it has been great to get some experience of looking at patents, trademarks and other IP issues that I would not necessarily have had the chance to do with another supervisor. The work in Corporate has been hugely varied; ranging from drafting agency agreements for swimwear companies, dealing with company books and working on Cleantech matters. It is nice to be working on non-contentious matters again as my Asset Finance seat, at the start of my Training Contract, seems a long time ago!

During December both the department and the firm as a whole had their Christmas parties which were both pretty impressive. It is nice to be able to spend some time away from the office in a more relaxed environment with everyone, and the settings for both parties were really great.

I’ve just found out that I’m going to be moving to our Competition department for my fifth seat which starts next week, and I’m looking forward it. I’ve already spoken to Mark and Emanuela (my next supervisor) about a small project that I might get to work on which will draw on some of the football related work I did out in Bangkok as well as my dissertation; I’m really looking forward to drawing on my previous research and studies!

Well I’m currently in the second half of my seat in Bangkok, and it has been nothing short of incredible so far. We have been working on a number of high profile cases, which have given me some absolutely incredible experience and have allowed me to get an insight into what happens in the corridors of power; liaising with Members of Parliament has taken up a lot of my time, which has been challenging but extremely interesting.

The level of responsibility out here is extremely high. When you are given a piece of work to do, the onus is on you to go away and get it done ready to go straight out to the client. It really helps to focus your mind when that is the case, even more so when the cases you are working on are so high profile.

I have just got back from the ‘Away Weekend’, where the whole of the office go and stay at a five star hotel by the beach. It’s been a great way to get to know more people in the office on a more personal basis.

Everyone over here in the Bangkok office has been so friendly, and they really do help you find your feet in a new city. There is plenty to do outside of the city and I’ve managed to get over to Khao Lak and Phi Phi in my spare time. With only a few weeks left here I’m going to try and squeeze in a bit more travelling and try and get over to Vietnam this weekend. I’ll be very sad to leave here and will miss both the work and the people.