Ashfords Solicitors - Working in more than one office

On initial inspection the Tiverton and Exeter offices could not be more different. The Exeter office is a modern building with open plan working spaces, and a high-tech client suite. The Tiverton office is in a listed Queen Anne building, where people have individual offices (although trainees usually share with their supervisor) and where the cups of tea for the clients come up from the basement in a dumb waiter.

The Tiverton Office primarily does private client work for clients based in Mid and North Devon, but the work they do varies from legally aided criminal and matrimonial work to multi-million pound Estate administration. The Exeter office, although it does have a strong private client element, also has large commercial departments, and corporate clients who could be based anywhere in the UK or abroad.

Working in more than one office gives you a more rounded picture of the firm than you would see from one office only. It also affords you the opportunity to experience different ways of working and different client bases. Regular trainee meetings and social events bring together the trainees from the different offices, so you will get to meet the trainees across the firm, not just those in your office. Even though the offices seem to be very different, the training experience is the same in each; I have always found people to be very welcoming and friendly, and to have been given interesting and challenging work from the beginning.

Esther Thackeray

Second Year Trainee Solicitor

September 2007

Working in more than one office

Introduction