Hi, my name's Helen and I'm a second year trainee at Morgan Cole

So what do you want to know?

Well hopefully you'll have already found out that Morgan Cole recruits trainees either to their Welsh offices in Cardiff and Swansea or their Thames Valley offices in Reading and Oxford. I am a Thames Valley trainee and I spent my first seat in Oxford doing commercial litigation and my 2nd and 3rd seats have both been in Reading doing Insurance litigation and now corporate.

Being split across offices you have to be quite flexible about travelling but Morgan Cole assists with the extra travel costs and the offices have slightly different cultures so it is quite interesting trying the different locations. However, everyone I've worked with has been very approachable and happy to answer your questions, no matter how stupid, even the partners who will often be your supervisors and sometimes even your drinking buddies!

This brings me nicely onto your next question

So is it all about work?

I think Morgan Cole has a good work-life balance (for a law firm anyway!) The hours you work depend on the seat you are doing and how busy you are but a normal day is probably 9-6pm.

We're not very sporty in the Thames Valley and prefer our socialising to take place around a pint instead of around a football pitch but people are open to suggestions and if you want to start a team, you can normally find a few people who will give it a try. I've just entered a team of trainees to run the Reading Half Marathon in costume and if I told you some of the costume suggestions you would realise that people are up for almost anything!

Morgan Cole is very active in the community by supporting local initiatives and charities and Morgan Cole recently offered to provide support to someone to raise money to do a trek to Everest base camp with their charity, Helen & Douglas House in Oxford, so the sky really is the limit!

So should you apply to Morgan Cole?

If you're up for a laugh and not too proud to get stuck in you'll fit right in and who knows where you'll end up.

Good luck with your exams and maybe see you soon.

I'll be thinking of you from Everest!