The Ultimate Guide to Commercial Awareness

A commercial solicitor needs to have the knowledge and understanding of the business world to relate their legal advice to their client’s interests. And to ensure this, the law firms invest a significant amount of money in each trainee solicitor. 

Assessing the commercial awareness of the applicants is a crucial way to ensure that future trainees will be able to provide legal advice in the light of the client’s needs. This is why a part of the training contract interview and application form is focused on indicating such awareness.

There are a few other reasons why commercial awareness is crucial in law firms.

1. Clients want commercial, not academic answers to their legal problems

Clients generally expect a confident response to their legal issues, and they may not be too intent on how they reached that answer. Therefore, as a commercial solicitor, you need to show that you are both bright and commercially astute in your legal approach to the client’s problems.

2. Commercial awareness is about understanding how a law firm operates

A commercial solicitor must understand how the law firm works as a business. Apart from providing advice to the clients, the solicitors should perceive what’s important to the firm.

Like all other businesses, a law firm needs to keep a careful eye on its profitability and cash flow. And the interview panels expect to hear an appreciation of these while recruiting new trainee solicitors.

3. Commercial awareness helps in the role of a trainee solicitor

Trainee solicitors must make an effort to read around the subjects the firm works on. Correspondingly, they should monitor the press around key clients and build their broader knowledge instead of getting entirely bogged down in trainee tasks. In short, it’ll make the job more interesting for the trainees. Furthermore, it’ll enable the law firm to get them involved in more exciting work.

4. It’s not about knowledge; it’s a way of thinking

Many law students often think that commercial awareness is all about fact-learning. Instead, commercial awareness is a way of thinking that involves:

Some law firms assign their trainee solicitors to business development within the firm. This particular task requires them to go to client events and marketing events. And going on client secondment not only gives the trainees new job experience but also a good insight into the commercial world.

5. To understand the client’s objectives

Solicitors must think about the client, and any legal advice they provide must be commercially focused. Because only by knowing the law won’t get this job done. A solicitor has to understand the client’s intentions and must conform to those objectives. 

Therefore, it’s crucial to understand the setting within which the clients want advice before beginning any research.

6. To find aspects of the commercial world that interest you

If you want to apply to a City law firm that tends to do commercial work, you have to have a good understanding of the commercial world. But this doesn’t mean you need to have studied business or economics.

After all, if you just have an interest in business, finance and the broader world, you can quickly grasp the critical information you need and be prepared for any topical questions at interviews. Because it can be as easy as reading the ‘Financial Times’ or any other business newspapers.

Keep in mind that nobody expects a trainee solicitor to understand all the details of a complex transaction process. However, if you have an understanding of the corporate world, you’ll be of more value to the firm. So, find an area that genuinely interests you in the business sector.