Former ULaw student and now Pinsent Masons trainee Katie Toolan reflects on her journey into law, her training experience so far, and the key lessons she’s learned along the way
When she began her Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) degree at the University of York, Katie Toolan already knew she wanted to be a lawyer. She just didn’t want to study law straight away. “I actually knew I wanted to do law as a career,” she laughs. “But when I was 17, I shadowed a barrister who gave me the best advice I’ve ever received. She told me, ‘If you can do something else you’re interested in, do that first and then do the law conversion course.’”
That advice shaped her path. “I had other interests and PPE gave me that breadth,” she explains. “I didn’t want to be solely legal-focused from the start, and I’m really glad I made that choice. It meant I could talk about different things in interviews. Law students often can’t, because everyone’s done the same degree.” A PPE module in the philosophy of law helped bridge her interests, but she stresses to future law converters that “it’s been really beneficial. I don’t feel at all disadvantaged having not done a law degree.”
That said, not being surrounded by law students meant she missed out on some early opportunities. “I knew about vacation schemes, but not the earlier first-year and spring insight schemes,” she admits. “I just didn’t realise those things existed.” It’s one of the reasons she encourages students to get involved early. “Join the law society, go to events, apply for things in first year, even if you don’t know exactly what you want to do yet,” she says. “The earlier you start, the easier everything feels later on.”
The financial side was another concern. “The extra year for the PGDL is a huge risk if you can’t afford it. You can’t get master’s funding for both years,” she explains. “Some firms only fund one year, so it’s a big cost and a big risk. Luckily for me, my training contract with Pinsent Masons came with funding for both the PGDL and SQE, so it paid off.” But beware, not every firm sponsors the conversion course!
Before that training contract came along, Toolan was already used to juggling study and work. She spent much of her time at York working part-time at Tesco, experience that proved surprisingly useful in her applications. “I think I talked about Tesco more than anything else in my interview!” she jokes. “I worked there during Covid, mostly on tills and the customer service desk. I was speaking to people all day. Now, there’s no room you could put me in where I’d feel nervous about speaking to someone.”
That constant customer interaction, she says, was great preparation for client work. “It’s very similar to speaking to clients. The conversations are different, of course, but you’re still learning how to communicate confidently. I think law students underestimate that kind of experience. Any responsibility you’re given shows trust, and that’s what employers want to see.”
After graduating, she moved on to the PGDL at The University of Law, balancing it with part-time work at Swedish bank Handelsbanken. “I’d done an internship there during my second year at uni because vacation schemes weren’t really an option yet as a non-law student,” she says. “They invited me back and even kept me on one day a week, sometimes more, while I was doing the PGDL.” That experience, she adds, was invaluable. “Working in an office teaches you things people underestimate,” she explains. “Just knowing how printers work, when it’s best to interrupt someone, how office communication works — all of that helped. When I started at Pinsents, I already knew how to work in that environment.”
Balancing work and study wasn’t always easy, but she found it surprisingly helpful. “It was intense, but it helped me focus. Those workdays during my PGDL were almost like a break because they were completely separate from law. I’d treat them as a day off from studying.”
When it came to choosing a firm, Pinsent Masons stood out. “For me, it was their international presence,” she says. “I didn’t want to be in London, but I wanted London-quality work. There aren’t many firms in Manchester that let you do that.” She’s since worked with colleagues in Madrid, Australia and beyond. “It’s been really exciting,” she smiles. “We do large-scale matters here. It’s not like, ‘oh, there’s London and we’re a satellite office’. The work is high quality, and you’re treated the same.”
Now in the third seat of her training contract, Toolan has rotated through property, corporate, and litigation and regulation. Each, she says, has brought something different. “Property development and investment was my first seat. It was a really great one because you get lots of responsibility,” she recalls. “I had small matters I could take the lead on and huge ones that were ten years in the making. Seeing a completion after that long was really exciting.”
Her second seat, corporate, offered a new perspective. “They do a lot of private equity in Manchester, so it was interesting seeing that side of deals. With my background, I found it fascinating to understand how businesses work and how they’re structured and analysed,” she explains. “You can be quite nosy in corporate. You get to see what’s going on across employment, pensions, commercial, everything. It’s great to get such a range.”
She’s now in litigation and regulation. “It’s interesting seeing the other side of the coin. Before, you’re asking how to make a contract come together; now you’re picking apart what it says. I’ve even been preparing training for the corporate team on what we find problematic in contracts and what they can fix. It’s funny seeing it come full circle.”
Among the many highlights of her training contract so far is a deal that spanned both her property and corporate seats. “It lasted a full year,” she says. “I worked on the property aspect for six months, then moved to corporate for six months. It exchanged on the last Friday of my corporate seat, which was really satisfying. The client even included me in the thank-you emails at the end. By that point we all knew each other really well. It was lovely to have that continuity and that level of client involvement as a trainee.”
Toolan admits the road hasn’t always been easy. “The PGDL was short but intense — you just have to get through it,” she reflects. “The SQE, which I also studied at The University of Law, is more full-on, so structuring your time is key.” Her approach was highly methodical. “Before the SQE course started, I went over all the black-letter law I’d done. They expect you to know it already. And I made sure I understood the exam format and timings so I wasn’t wasting the first week figuring it out.”
She’s also big on wellbeing. “If you’re having a rubbish day, give yourself a day off. You’ll work better the next day. The mistake people often make is spending all afternoon stressing and thinking, ‘I should be working,’ and then you don’t rest and you don’t work. At least if you take the afternoon off, you actually relax.”
With qualification on the horizon, Toolan is looking forward to settling into one area and building her expertise. “With seats, you’re reset back to zero every six months. It’ll be nice to really progress in one area and see how far I can go.”
Her final piece of advice for aspiring solicitors? “Be proactive. Apply for things early, even if you don’t feel ready,” she says. “And don’t dismiss non-legal jobs. They teach you more than you’d think. Every experience counts.”
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