A Junior Lawyer’s Handbook - 6 Essential Modules

Introduction

This six-part modular webinar series is designed to support trainees and junior lawyers, as well as paralegals, apprentices and other early-career team members, in navigating the core issues involved in working within a professional legal practice.

By developing these essential skills and behaviours, delegates will be better equipped to begin their careers with confidence, enhance their effectiveness, and avoid common pitfalls that can affect both efficiency and the overall quality of the team’s work.

What You Will Learn

This webinar will cover the following:

Module 1: Basic Writing Skills for Professional Practice

Being able to write clearly and precisely (and proofread carefully and correctly) are key components of professional legal practice. If you are embarking on proofreading together with drafting attendance notes, billing narratives and other documents, then this module is for you.

• Why we use a written format
• Basic grammatical rules
• Structure
• Punctuation
• Proofreading

Module 2: Communication Skills

Good communication is a fundamental skill for any junior lawyer to develop. This module analyses the types of communication a junior in a law firm may use (together with identifying the potential barriers to clear communication). As well as ascertaining best practice for both telephone and email communication, this module will also identify how not to behave (including ensuring basic rules surrounding e-mail communication are established) and utilising a practice scenario to apply the rules discussed.

Module 3: Successful Time Recording - Key Skills

Time recording is a vital component to the profitability of any law firm. Without time recording, a firm is unable to bill effectively. This module reflects on the elements of time recording and WIP and analyses the key principles of successful time recording, including putting the principles into practice with four different case studies.

Module 4: Guide to Preparing for a Good First Meeting

If you are a junior lawyer (particularly if you are new to working in a professional environment) and are involved in attending (or potentially organising) client meetings, then this module is for you.

The module will take you through the key elements of a client meeting and provide a step-by-step guide to a great first meeting.

Module 5: Behavioural Etiquette

This module will aim to highlight key areas of behaviour that can be problematic in the workplace.

• Office etiquette (including implications of working open plan, agile working (including ‘hot’ desking) and other common office ‘bugbears’)
• Good practice at meetings both virtually and in real life (what to do/what not to do)
• Highlighting issues that may arise at social events
• What to wear?
• Online behaviour (including social media policies)

Module 6: Using LinkedIn Effectively

This module will ensure that you understand what Linked In should be used for, how to improve and expand your network, together with avoiding some common pitfalls.

If you are looking to expand your network of professional connections but are unsure of how to proceed, then this module is for you.

• Distinguishing LinkedIn from other forms of social media (or: ‘what not to post’)
• When to connect/approve requests/reject requests
• Headshots - what to do/what not to do
• How to get the most out of your profile
• How to raise your profile including some tips and ideas for creating and sharing content

This pre-recorded webinar will be available to view from Wednesday 3rd June 2026

Alternatively, you can gain access to this webinar and 2,101 others via the MBL Webinar Subscription. Please email webinarsubscription@mblseminars.com for more details.