Do some practice areas leave you stuck in London?

[antisocial applicant]

Hi everyone. I was wondering, for people looking to train and qualify in large London firms, is it true that qualifying into some practice areas mean you're stuck in London if you want to continue practicing? I'm not sure if this is accurate, but I hear that it's hard to lateral into the regions if you've specialised in areas like international arbitration and private equity. I know I wouldn't like to stay in London forever so I'm just trying to get a better view of what happens post-qualification. I'd appreciate any insight!

 

[TCLA Community Assistant]

Hi everyone. I was wondering, for people looking to train and qualify in large London firms, is it true that qualifying into some practice areas mean you're stuck in London if you want to continue practicing? I'm not sure if this is accurate, but I hear that it's hard to lateral into the regions if you've specialised in areas like international arbitration and private equity. I know I wouldn't like to stay in London forever so I'm just trying to get a better view of what happens post-qualification. I'd appreciate any insight!

I won't be an expert on this unfortunately, mainly where I don't know as much about regional roles.

I do expect it depends on which region you move to though. Moving to somewhere like Manchester is likely to be very different to moving to somewhere like Norwich (and that's just assuming you mean moving in the UK).

For things like international arbitration, I do expect to be very focused in international arbitration hubs (London, Paris, Washington DC) and so moving outside of those areas are likely to result in far fewer opportunities. However, you could qualify in IA, and then become more of a generalist contentious lawyer in another region. Your skills/knowledge won't disappear entirely - you will have transferable skills and knowledge you could apply to more generalist roles if you did move. Same for something like private equity - the knowledge and skills you will gain will be applicable to more generalist corporate work.