On Thursday 3 April the Trainee Solicitor Council were delighted to host the annual Trainee Networking Event. It was great to see a mix of talented young professionals from a range of industries who were ready to connect and learn from each other.
The evening commenced with a talk from our guest speaker, Sir Anthony Seldon. Sir Anthony is one of Britain's leading historians, a political commentator and author of British politics, and educationalist. He is the historian of 10 Downing Street and the Prime Minister, and has written or edited over 50 books including biographies from Winston Churchill to most recently, Liz Truss. Amongst other things, he co-founded Action for Happiness (the patron of which is the Dalai Llama) and AI in Education.
Sir Anthony engaged with attendees in a conversational manner and beyond the realm of politics, left everyone with thought-provoking takeaways which I have summarised below.
- Happiness through Community: Sir Anthony reminded us of the importance of building a strong community of family and friends whose values align with our own, finding a team that supports and encourages you, and maintaining passions outside of work – all of which are key to happiness.
Since joining Taylor Wessing as a trainee in September, Grace Taylor's lifestyle has naturally adapted to working later into the evening and occasionally on weekends. Although this does constrain time for activities outside of work, at least during the working week, she has learnt to prioritise things that are important to her such as exercise, family and close friends. She takes advantage of the firm initiatives, which she would encourage others to do, for example making use of the new wellbeing allowance to go to the gym or on runs before work, and enjoy playing in the (undefeated!) netball team at Lincoln's Inn Fields. Many of Grace's peers enjoyed (or survived) running the Vienna marathon with Taylor Wessing recently too!
- Diverse Intelligence: Sir Anthony challenged the education system's narrow interpretation of intelligence, highlighting how it comes in many forms: social, emotional, physical, mathematical, creative, and logical. Striving only for academic excellence limits one's potential and we must do more to celebrate different types of intelligence in others and ourselves.
One of the great things about being a trainee is getting to work with so many different people across the two years. You quickly learn how different teams interact and are structured and the type of manager you want to work under or aspire to be like.
- AI vs human capability: the rise of AI brings us back to fundamental questions about humanity – what unique qualities can we offer that machines cannot?
Artificial Intelligence is always a hot topic at Taylor Wessing so this felt particularly relevant. AI is being used to build tools to make lawyers' work more efficient and many across the firm have been making good use of LitiumTW. Whilst helpful, it is important that we know how to sell our human expertise, as well as our firm's use of technology. From a client perspective, AI is being used in connection with fraud to fabricate content, create deep fake videos and push people to click on links which harvest their data in breach of GDPR. This is likely to cause an increase in both litigation and regulation with the Online Safety Act 2023 and Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 being examples of the latter. In a corporate context, venture capital investment in AI start-ups is proving robust and has been constituting a significant proportion of M&A deals. In the intellectual property space, works created with AI are raising questions over copyright law and regulation. Recently, the US Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia confirmed that work presented as entirely AI-generated will not receive protection under copyright law. Statute requires work to be 'authored' in the first instance by a human being, although arguments are being raised as to what, rather than who constitutes an author. This largely translates to Europe where the CJEU has stated that the 'personality' of a human author must be visible in the work in question for it to be protected under copyright law. Works of art can be created with the assistance of AI, but only the parts in which there is a human author who exercises the required originality will be protected (see IPKat's article here).
Following the talk, trainees and their guests had the opportunity to network in Cloud 9 with drinks and dinner. Networking is an essential aspect of a lawyer's career development and starting this at junior level offers several key benefits. First, it facilitates the development of professional relationships. These can provide invaluable mentorship and guidance whether that is having someone support and stretch you or someone to help you to navigate early career challenges.
Second, networking enables the sharing of knowledge and diverse perspectives within the legal sector and across industries. This is essential for building legal expertise as it allows us to adopt new ideas and approach our clients' complex problems in innovative ways. It also helps to build more inclusive practices and practitioners as people share their experiences, often connecting in more informal or conversational settings.
Finally, creating a reliable network not only enhances visibility within the legal community but perhaps more importantly, amongst potential clients. This opens the door to new opportunities. By nurturing new connections, long-standing business relationships are built and individual lawyers become more than just a 'lawyer': they become genuinely trusted go-to legal advisors.
Overall, the evening was a great success. Encouraging events like this is one of the many ways that Taylor Wessing separates itself from other firms. It showcases Taylor Wessing's dedication to support early career development for junior lawyers, facilitating unique opportunities for professional growth and equipping trainees with strong business development skills for the future.
