Brodies has a variety of teams which specialise in a diverse range of sectors. When making their seat choices, trainees list their top three choices in order of preference, and these preferences are taken into consideration when the seat allocations are made. Trainees typically spend eight months in each seat throughout their two year traineeship, allowing you to get to know your team and area of specialism. If you could pick, which area of law would be your choice?

To help give you a flavour of what trainees do at Brodies, I've put together some famous TV shows and movies which have links to various areas of law.

Local Hero

This is the story of a man sent to Scotland by an American oil company to buy the entire village to build an oil refinery.

As a trainee in our oil and gas team within the Corporate department, you may be involved in high value asset sales, reviewing bespoke contracts and agreements, or due diligence projects. Our insurance and risk team also works closely with oil and gas clients providing advice on health & safety, shipping & marine and regulatory advice.

Traineeship Seat: Oil and Gas or Litigation - Insurance and Risk

Philadelphia

Philadelphia is an award-winning 1993 Hollywood drama tackling discrimination in the workplace.

An employment trainee may find themselves communicating with tribunals, opposition and ACAS in the course of a claim, drafting settlement agreements, preparing tribunal bundles and if you're lucky, attending preliminary hearings to observe fee earners. The employment team at Brodies helps clients via its online HR tool Workbox, our employment portal and represents clients at employment tribunals.

Traineeship Seat: Employment

Million Dollar Listing

If Frederik Eklund's property portfolio interests you, our property team may be for you. Not only do our colleagues in the Glasgow office benefit from the best views of the city - it's also a team with one of the most diverse workloadsat Brodies.

A commercial property trainee may be involved in Registers of Scotland applications, drafting LBTT return forms, reviewing titles or drafting dispositions, offers to purchase or drafting leases, and generally assisting at all stages of a transaction. The team's broad spread of work covers commercial conveyancing in the hotel and leisure sector, retail sector and the food and drink sector. Typically, Brodies acts for 100 different retailers each year and for the occupier in at least one out of three deals in Scotland.

Traineeship Seat: Commercial Property or Land and Rural Property.

Suits

This legal drama centres on a college dropout who manages to get a job as an associate, despite having no law degree, and his success in settling high value cases.

Whilst legal qualifications are definitely needed in the real world, as a Corporate trainee you may be involved in company incorporation, share buybacks, preparing company filings at Companies House and drafting company articles, agreements and licences. Our corporate team is involved in share and asset purchase/sales, corporate restructuring and company regulation.

Traineeship Seat: Corporate

The Proposal

Who doesn't love Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock? The male protagonist's family has a vast fortune in Alaska which will likely be passed down to the next generation ...a situation which our Wills Executory team would be able to assist with.

A personal and family seat offers trainees high levels of autonomy with their own caseload early on, and they may find themselves drafting wills, taking instructions from clients, and researching estate planning options. The personal and family team assists clients in planning for the future in order to protect their families and loved ones. The team can support this by drafting wills and powers of attorney wills, estate planning (including Family Limited Partnerships and Family Investment Companies) and trust creation.

Traineeship Seat: Personal and Family

The Social Network

Based on the true story of how Facebook started, the film explores the lawsuits that Mark Zuckerberg faced, including one accusing him of stealing an idea.

A trainee may find themselves completing contract reviews, GDPR and IP-related research, drafting privacy notices, proof reading contracts or summarising rulings from the advertising standards authority. The Commercial Services Division at Brodies deals with non-contentious intellectual property rights matters, data protection, and confidentiality, providing legal advice on all aspects of the development of new technologies. Should there be a dispute, our contentious IP team in the Litigation department would step in, with itsextensive experience of dealing with and resolving all forms of IP, IT and technology-related disputes.

Traineeship Seat: Commercial Service Division, or Litigation - Business Disputes and Asset Recovery

A Civil Action

A Civil Action is the story of lawyer Jan Schlichtmann who built the case against Beatrice Foods and W.R. Grace for contaminating a town's water supply.

Known for the hands-on nature of the seats, our litigation trainees get involved very early on. Trainees can appear in simple procedure cases at the Sheriff Court as part of the court rota, and in ordinary cause cases once they are a year into their traineeship. They can also assist with precognitions, prepare writs and take witness statements. At Brodies, our litigation teams help clients with professional negligence, catastrophic injury and contentious construction matters. Our litigation lawyers act in some of the most high profile, complex disputes in Scotland and we represent prestigious clients from across the private and public sector.

Traineeship Seats: Litigation - Business Disputes and Asset Recovery, Insurance and Risk, or Contentious Construction.

For more information on how to apply for a traineeship, check out our traineeship section.