U.S. associates receive training on all areas of the law to enable them to gain both a broader understanding of the legal issues and a wider view of the business context of a transaction or case. We feel that obtaining this perspective is incredibly important due to the size and scale of the matters in which we are involved.
We offer an introductory training program for all new associates that covers a variety of topics, from the fundamentals of legal research and privilege to more practice area-specific topics such as international capital markets issues, and litigation issues such as writing briefs. For instance, our securities practice course explains relevant U.S. securities law and regulations, the options involved in preparing a securities offering, the implications of these decisions on a transaction and the core issues to consider when offering and selling securities in the U.S. It consists of a number of modules including U.S. securities regulatory framework overviews, due diligence procedures, legal opinions and basic UCC secured transactions issues.
We also offer programs given by carefully selected external providers on areas such as legal writing, deposition taking and defending, accounting, and presentation and communication skills.
After completing your basic training, you will continue to receive advanced training on topical issues relevant to your practice area throughout your career. We offer training plans for all junior, mid-level and senior associates (and for partners), which will allow you to see where you are and what you need to achieve in order to reach the next level. We also encourage you to deliver training to others, which allows you to share your knowledge and practice your presentation skills.
Linklaters is an accredited provider of NY Bar Continuing Legal Education (CLE) and we ensure all our U.S. fee earners are provided with sufficient training to meet the New York Bar CLE requirements.
We also have dedicated training and know-how teams that are focused on collecting practice area precedents, models, and information, so that you can draw quickly on the expertise of the wider Firm. Our practice support lawyers and staff also run our sophisticated online knowledge system, which allows lawyers across the firm to share transactional, legal, and client information with a few mouse clicks.
Our ethos of sharing information is also evident in our global practice group retreats. These give associates and partners from offices around the world the chance to gather together and explore legal issues of common interest, coordination of service to our many international clients, new product ideas, and developments in the practice. And when our attorneys have learned enough for the day, they are turned loose on the sights and clubs of their unfortunate host city.
Most importantly, because our U.S. practice is relatively small compared to many other large firms, our associates cannot “escape” learning, developing, and growing as lawyers. No associate falls through the cracks. Every associate has worked closely with at least one partner, if not several. Every associate takes on real responsibility as a junior lawyer, and every associate is exposed to a variety of deals or cases. Our practice simply could not function in any other way.