Traineeship: My First Year in the Court of Session Department

This week marks one year since I started as a Trainee with Drummond Miller. I’ve spent the past 12 months in the Court of Session department in our Head Office in Edinburgh. It has been a fast but enjoyable year and I have learned a lot.

A key part of the past year has been getting to grips with the procedure for different types of actions and learning how to manage my workload and emergencies as and when they arise. These are things that you learn in theory at university, but it has been very beneficial to see how all the theory works out in practice. 

The Court of Session department mainly deals with personal injury and medical negligence cases and judicial reviews. Personal injury and medical negligence cases often take years to run from start to finish, especially if they go to Proof. However, with so many cases at different stages, spending a year with this team has allowed me to see how a case runs at each stage, from raising an action to settlement or Proof.

Judicial Reviews, by law, have to reach a conclusion in less time and so I have been able to see more of these run from start to finish. The rules changed in September 2015 and it has been interesting to see how the new legislation has affected our practice, not least the rush of cases being referred to us just in time to beat the new time limit for raising actions just before Christmas.

As the trainee in the department, I often go up to the Court of Session to cover hearings, take notes and have the file at hand if the Advocate instructed needs anything. I have spent many hours in Parliament Hall, waiting for my case to be allocated to a judge, watching advocates pace up and down in their wig and gowns, with groups of nervous clients and their solicitors lining the sides of the Hall, waiting for their Proofs to begin.

I have also had the chance to sit in on Proofs, procedural hearings and opposed motion hearings. It has been a great place to learn advocacy skills from watching Counsel address the court, question witnesses, and respond to their opposite number’s submissions or to challenging questions from the Bench!

The Court of Session is an interesting and very unique court to spend time in, steeped in history and tradition. My days there have been one of the highlights of my first year.

As a first year trainee at Drummond Miller, I also appear weekly at the Small Claims and Heritage courts at the Sheriff Court. This has been a great opportunity to get used to appearing in court, albeit nerve-wracking at times!

Although not the worst trainee appearance story I have heard of, I once, accidentally, found myself standing up in court for the wrong case. On top of that, I did not realise what I had done until I had introduced myself and read out my whole motion. The one redeeming feature of an otherwise awkward and embarrassing court appearance was that I made a notoriously stern Sheriff laugh! Aside from the nerves, the regular court appearances have given me experience of dealing with on-the-spot questions from the Sheriff and surprises when things do not quite go to plan.

A year-long seat has allowed me to pick up enough practical skills to be able to contribute to the firm, legal skills to assist our clients, as well as to learn my team’s tea and coffee orders off by heart! It has been refreshing to work on real life cases rather than textbook scenarios.

Inevitably, I have had some photocopying to do and errands to run, but my responsibilities have increased over the year. I am grateful for what I have been able to learn this year, and I have enjoyed being able to contribute substantively to cases.

I now have less than a month to go until I complete my first “seat” and will move to join the Family Law team in Dalkeith in July. The year has gone very fast, but it has certainly been a great start to my traineeship, and to my career.