Life as an in-house construction solicitor

I do the normal in-house functions; I work for the organisation and give legal and commercial advice on a range of issues. More specifically, I work in construction law, so that might involve things like negotiating and drafting contracts at the beginning of a construction project or advising on disputes and risk management during a project.

In a private practice firm, solicitors offer legal advice to different clients. In some ways I have a quasi-private practice role because the trade association is my internal client, but I also deal with the members of the association who are our external clients.

On a normal day, I’ll start at 9am and check my emails and diary.

Once a week, I’ll meet with general counsel and our support team.

We have a legal helpline for ECA members to go to with legal queries or disputes, so we’ll go through that as a team. Reviewing helpline queries can take up most of my day.

ECA has about 2,500 clients. Some are prominent contractors in the construction supply chain and others may be a person in a van who’s just set up their first business, so I have a real spectrum of clients.

For example, a client may have just received their first construction contract and want me to explain the legal jargon and their rights and obligations and that brings its own challenges and rewards compared to advising a battle-hardened multinational contractor who’s been in the industry for decades.

We work on the beginning of any construction project.

So, before any building happens, we deal with the paperwork and look out for any potential risks.

Most of our work doesn’t involve disputes between parties, so it’s non-contentious, but that can change during the course of the project.

Disputes sometimes arise around payment, usually where someone hasn’t been paid and we need to work out why and how they can get paid.

For our smaller clients it makes a big difference. If they don’t get paid for a few months they could become insolvent, so we advise them on their options.

One of the biggest reasons I moved in-house was work-life balance.

Before I moved to ECA, I was at a big private practice firm and would often work to 10pm or 11pm. I was burning the candle at both ends and had to prioritise my mental health.

Of course, there will be times when I have to work late but, most days, I can shut my laptop at 5pm if I want to.

Practically, that isn’t always the case but there are well-established boundaries. There are no expectations to pick up emails outside of working hours.

The biggest advantage has been the impact on my personal life: actually being able to socialise, meet friends and family.

I kind of fell into construction law: I think that’s the reality for a lot of junior lawyers.

After I finished the Legal Practice Course (LPC), I got a couple of paralegal roles, one of which was in construction.

I had no knowledge of construction and had major imposter syndrome, but the two senior associates who interviewed me reassured me it would work out if I had the appetite to learn.

Construction soon became my bread and butter. I love the fact the results are tangible – there’s normally a physical manifestation of what you worked on.

I worked as a paralegal for about six years and qualified via equivalent means. But while I was qualifying, Covid hit – I was put on furlough and eventually had to take voluntary redundancy.

I then got a commercial law job in an international private practice firm upon qualification. I would have loved to have qualified into construction as that was what I had been building my career towards, but Covid hit the newly qualified (NQ) job market pretty hard and roles were very scarce.

So, when an opportunity came up in the ECA legal team, I took it. It’s so important for aspiring solicitors to realise you can always pivot and qualify in one practice area and then move to another, especially within the first few years of qualification.

You never really know what a job is until you do it day to day. If you’re newly qualified and you start something and it’s not for you, you can just leave.

Moving in-house was a massive culture shock.

I went from a huge private practice firm to a legal team of me and my boss. The main challenge is that you don’t have peers you can lean on.

In a big firm, you have your cohort, but when you go in-house, the training wheels are off: I was running my own projects straight away.

The biggest difference is in the culture, particularly the fact you’re not judged by your billable hours (hours recorded working on a project or a piece of work, for which the firm can charge the client.)

My progress is judged in a more holistic way; I have appraisals every quarter about how I’ve developed as a lawyer and how I’ve helped the business.

I did law at university, but even up to that point, I had no idea if I wanted to be a lawyer.

I questioned if I had the skill set. I grew up very shy and introverted, I had a really bad stutter and when I thought of law, I thought about public speaking and my self-manufactured belief in my inability to be a confident speaker.

Even when I went to do the LPC, I wasn’t sure. I didn’t have any links in the industry and didn’t know how to go about getting a training contract.

When I started, I probably wasn’t very good at it either: I got rejection after rejection.

I had to get over this preconceived notion that I wouldn’t be a good lawyer and get to a place where I could tell myself I am good enough.

Working in-house, there’s always an overarching question about how you’re going to progress.

It’s not like private practice where there’s a traditional framework, usually from trainee to associate, to partner. As an in-house solicitor, you’re a legal counsel, then maybe at some point you’ll be general counsel. So, one of the challenges is figuring out how you can develop and grow.

The easy end goal to state is that you want to be general counsel, but if you’re in a business where your current general counsel isn’t leaving anytime soon, you have to think about your goals and consider what is achievable in the short to medium term.

I’ve had discussions internally about pathways to becoming a director within the trade association and developing wider skillsets beyond pure legal function, such as business management.

I’ve learned a lot through osmosis and I’ll ask questions to find out what more I can do to develop.

It’s not a linear process: it’s about learning how to pivot and be adaptable.

Perseverance is key.

In the legal industry, we hear a lot of success stories, but that’s not the reality for everyone.

There will be some super talented people who have a smooth journey from university to the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) or into a training contract, but there are other people who take longer.

I qualified when I was 30! I had to realise that it’s not a race: it’s about doing what’s best for you. Taking the scenic route helped me develop tools I might not otherwise have had.

In lockdown, I was unemployed and had no idea if I would even qualify. That’s why I say to keep grinding, keep digging and you’ll get there.

The industry is becoming much more open. We are trying to break down barriers and we are seeing changes, so keep persevering.