How approachable are your supervisors?

Every supervisor should be approachable. As a trainee, you will need to ask a lot of questions and your supervisor, be they a partner or an associate, should be willing to answer them. Of course there will be times when your superiors are busy or unavailable but, for the most part, those who oversee your work should be taking an active interest in your training. Your experience will be immeasurably better if you have an approachable and attentive supervisor. At Osborne Clarke, ‘the proactivity of trainee supervisors’ does not go unnoticed. One of the best things about Fladgate is the ‘open-door policy and the resulting accessibility and approachability of partners/senior associates for advice’. At Goodwin Procter, trainees appreciate ‘being able to approach senior management and the flat hierarchical structure’. At Taylor Vinters, recruits ‘work very closely with supervisors and also get a career coach throughout the course of our training contract which is someone we can go to for advice and to discuss career progression as well as work issues and personal issues on a confidential basis’. One Vinson & Elkins trainee waxed lyrical about the supervision: ‘my work is acknowledged, appreciated and valued by the fee-earners, and anyone who gives me a task takes the time to sit down and explain the background and context of the work, instead of trying to complete it in the abstract’. Similarly, at Morrison and Foerster, superiors are ‘friendly and generally have time to talk and help’.