Claim forms or contracts?

May 09, 2016

Written By Steph Rowbottom, Trainee at RPC

There's a lot of difficult choices in deciding what type of lawyer you want to become, so we sat down with Steph Rowbottom, a trainee at RPC to get her perspective on contentious and transactional work.

"So you want to be a lawyer – great! But what kind of lawyer do you want to be?" is a question I was often asked throughout university and law school in the run up to my training contract, and it was a question that I did not know the answer to.

From my own experience and from speaking to colleagues, it is a question most lawyers don't answer until during their training contract: the natural-born arguer who was destined for litigation can turn out to be an excellent draftsman. But what is the difference between the two types of legal work, and how do those differences impact on the day-to-day life of a trainee?

At the heart of contentious work is a dispute. Some disputes are more amicable than others, but litigious work by its nature is argumentative and confrontational, with parties competing for different goals. Contrastingly, at the heart of transactional work is a deal: parties are instead negotiating to reach a common goal.

The split is clearly evidenced at most law firms with departments broadly falling under either category. At RPC, for example, the Commercial Disputes team and the Commercial Contracts team do exactly what they say on the tin. Having done a seat in both departments, I thought it would be helpful to explain the similarities and differences based on my own experience.

Despite the differences between contentious and transactional work, trainee tasks in each are often quite similar, although their execution might be different. Take drafting, for example, as trainees will get drafting experience in both types of department. Non-contentious drafting is, in my opinion, the "classic" drafting that comes to mind when people think of lawyers – e.g. contracts and leases.

However, if you're having a bad day, drafting a strongly-worded letter to the party on the other side of a dispute can be a good outlet to vent! In either category of work, being able to understand detailed instructions is important: you need to ensure a contract accurately reflects your client's intentions and you need to be sure that a witness statement captures your witness' true recollection of events.

Document management is one of the most important trainee tasks. The need to keep on top of documents in contentious and non-contentious work cannot be underestimated. In a deal, this might be knowing which draft is the latest version and keeping track of the twenty-something schedules that relate to the main body of a one hundred-and-something page contract.

In litigation, you could be asked to keep on top of numerous court documents (e.g. statements of case, witness statements) or get involved in a huge disclosure exercise comprising thousands or millions of documents.

Trainees are often required to undertake legal research. In litigious seats, research will likely involve a thorough analysis of relevant case law and the outcome will be a detailed note documenting your findings and opinion. It is a great task for those who enjoy a legal debate.

In transactional seats, research is faster paced and more focused on a particular outcome, e.g. can our client do this? What are the benefits and risks? Are there any examples of other companies doing the same thing? However, the end goal is always the same: can our client achieve what they want to achieve?

Speaking of clients, trainees are given the opportunity to get involved in calls and meetings with clients and the "other side". It will be your responsibility to take a note of such meetings. For both types of work, it is important to seek guidance on the level of detail needed: for a contract, you might just need to record the key points that will need to be included, whereas in litigation much more detail might be required if you are agreeing on settlement terms.

You will need to be able to digest information quickly and determine what the crucial information worth noting is. It is important to seek out these client contact opportunities. After all, the greatest similarity between contentious and transactional work is the ultimate goal of keeping the client happy.

So how do you work out what type of law is for you if trainee tasks are so similar? You need to experience both and how they affect your day-to-day working life. This will help you understand where you naturally fit: are you better suited to resolving disputes or closing a deal? Do you prefer court-set deadlines or client-set deadlines?

Although the tasks involved with both are similar, you will realise which variation you enjoy the most. As clichéd as it sounds, you will just know whether you want to work with claim forms or contracts.

For more information on RPC and what they do, check out their website.

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