We talk to four Addleshaw Goddard juniors in Leeds, Liverpool, London, Glasgow and Dubai about the ins and outs of being a trainee at a national firm with global opportunities, covering social life, working across offices, international placements, and more.

Sal Morton interviews Nazaneen Ahmadi in Leeds, Jessica Chapman in Liverpool, Alec Newton in Dubai and Michael Gray in Edinburgh.

What makes a law firm sustainable? Sal Morton speaks to Rachel Smith, Joe Wren and Jonathan Gilmour at Travers Smith about how law firms can do their bit for the environment internally, locally and even internationally. From Meat Free Mondays to carbon trading, we hear about the ways in which Travers is using its position in the market to spark change.

Insurance is the practice of hedging against financial risk; the practice and its fallout require a lot of legal work. In this podcast we speak to trainees Ellie McCarthy and Tania Forichon about their experiences of insurance at Clyde & Co, which has a leading practice in this area, offering no fewer than 31 insurance seats across its London and Manchester offices.

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

The world is changing faster than ever, and a new generation of lawyers will need to combine both technical expertise and emotional intelligence to find their feet in the rapidly-evolving landscape. According to the O Shaped Lawyer movement, the “smarts and hearts” of lawyers are key to the profession moving into the future. With that in mind, the group has designed a framework to equip the lawyers of tomorrow with skills that can't be found in textbooks.

We caught up with RVU Head of Legal and The O Shaped Lawyer committee member Natalie Salunke to find out whether the future really is O-shaped.

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

In this podcast we speak to members of the restructuring team at Sidley Austin, an international law firm with a leading practice in this area. We discuss what working as a restructuring lawyer involves; how students can build the necessary skills for a career in this field; and how recent events including Covid-19 and Brexit have affected the practice.

Sponsored by Sidley Austin

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

We speak to Dr S Chelvan of 33 Bedford Row, a barrister and activist who works with queer refugees seeking asylum in the UK. Chelvan is a member of the LGBT government advisory panel and created a model as a determining tool for queer refugees.

Our interview was conducted on 5th March 2021.

Publications mentioned:

• Chelvan's thesis: At the end of the rainbow : where next for the queer refugee? - https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.784565

Organisations mentioned: UK Black Pride, African Rainbow Family

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

We speak to BamLegal CEO and founder Catherine Bamford about the rise of legal tech, and how it can help junior lawyers and trainees starting out in their careers. We also discuss the likelihood of legal tech replacing human lawyers (spoiler alert: not likely), and learn about some of the most promising legal tech tools.

BamLegal's purpose is to improve the delivery of legal services for all. This mission includes helping law firms, inhouse legal departments, lawyers, clients, the 80% plus of people and small businesses who cannot afford legal services, and the next generation of law students and legal engineers entering the legal world.

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

This week we interview Jolyon Maugham QC, the founder and director of the Good Law Project, which has earned fame via its work challenging government process and accountability, in particular on Brexit and the proroguing of Parliament case, and now on the government's response to the pandemic. We interview him about his career and the mission of the Good Law Project.

Topics discussed:

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm

Topics discussed:

• What environment committees at law firms do and can do to shape firm policy and approach to the environment

Everything shared in this podcast is Rachel's own personal opinion and does not necessarily represent the opinion of Bird & Bird.

Relevant links

• https://www.twobirds.com/en/our-lawyers/r/rachel-welch-phillips

This podcast is hosted by ZenCast.fm