Young Lawyers Resilience Training
Building better, more resilient legal professionals
Across the industry, law graduates are requiring more support and structure from their firms in order to perform at a high level. Law schools simply don’t equip students with the practical skills and mindsets they need to thrive in the high-pressure environment of a commercial law firm.
Firms invest heavily in graduate development, meaning the problem isn’t a lack of training or mentoring. The reality is that grads are learning professional skills on the job that previous generations had already tackled at uni.
The support they need has changed.
The program builds graduates’ capabilities in three areas:
Opportunity maximisation:
Taking ownership of their career path by making the most of the personal and professional development opportunities afforded by commercial law firms.
Workplace resilience:
Developing the professionalism and tools to bounce back from challenges at work, including making mistakes, receiving feedback and managing their workflow.
Self-management:
Building the habits they need to consistently perform at a high level, with a strong focus on personal and professional wellbeing.
This program isn’t about adding more support.
It’s about helping grads to make the most of the support you already provide.
The Young Lawyers Resilience Training is flexible, personalised, and addresses the challenges graduates struggle with in the workplace.
This program is designed to complement existing training by strengthening self-management, resilience, and professional skills early, so they have solid systems in place to perform at a high level as a solicitor.
The problem your graduates are facing
Law grads finish university with a strong theoretical foundation, but they lack the tools to translate this into practice. Without these skills, many graduates are crumbling or experiencing burnout soon after they enter the profession.
This training gap has created an industry-wide retention and wellbeing challenge that’s showing no signs of slowing down. It poses significant issues for firms, including:
Burnout as a retention risk, wellbeing problem, and WHS concern
Slower ramp-up times as graduates struggle with building soft skills
Lower return on investment (ROI) as grads take longer to adjust to their roles
A solution that works
The Young Lawyers Resilience Training prepares graduates to tackle the challenges of the high-stress legal profession with determination and resilience.
Upon completion of the program, graduates will:
Develop a high-performance, opportunity maximisation mindset.
Foster soft skills and professionalism to make the most of early career opportunities.
Appreciate the importance of building their network & engaging in BD opportunities.
Learn how to self-manage in the fast-paced legal environment.
Take accountability and ownership over their career outcomes.
Cultivate long-term career sustainability through practical coping strategies.
How the program works
The Young Lawyers Resilience Training is split across three key pillars.
Pillar 1: Opportunity maximisation
Grads begin their careers at Solomon Brothers with access to exceptional training and mentorship, and they need to learn how to make the most of it. This module helps grads to develop an opportunity maximisation mindset and focuses on setting clear expectations around professionalism, effort, and engagement.
The module reinforces that graduates get the most out of their role by giving 100% to every opportunity, and viewing each experience as an opportunity to grow, contribute to the firm, and develop their professional network from the outset of their legal career.
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Giving 100% to every task, interaction, and opportunity
Adopting an opportunity maximisation mindset
Developing a strong, resilient work ethic
Leveraging mentors and professional development opportunities
Pillar 2: Workplace resilience
For new grads, there’s more at play than just the pressure and pace of a commercial law firm – they’re also learning how to operate in a professional environment, often for the first time.
This module is highly practical and delivered in a small-group format. It focuses on workshopping the real challenges grads are likely to face in their first year, and proactively preparing them to handle these situations. Grads learn how to ask for help, receive and apply feedback without taking it personally, manage workflow and competing priorities, and communicate effectively by managing different senior lawyers’ preferences.
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Making mistakes (and learning from them)
Handling feedback
Failing fast and forward
Asking for help
Coping when overwhelmed
Pillar 3: Self-management
For many grads, this is their first professional role, and they are learning the expectations of legal practice while completing PLT and managing increased responsibility.
In this module, graduates focus on getting their self-management foundations in place early, developing practical skills to deal with stress, build coping strategies, coordinate time and priorities, handle high-pressure situations, and manage their personal and professional wellbeing in a way that supports sustained performance and avoids burnout.
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Dealing with stress
Developing self-awareness around coping strategies
Coordinating time and priorities
Handling high-pressure situations
Managing personal and professional wellbeing
Building proactive strategies to avoid burnout
Program delivery
The Young Lawyers Resilience Training is designed to be flexible, making it easy for busy firms and graduates to fit into their schedules.
Supplement their experience with:
Ad-hoc lunch and learn sessions throughout the graduate program
1:1 or small-group coaching throughout the graduate program, with a focus on empowering grads to drive their own careers
Choose a delivery method that suits your firm’s needs and desired outcomes:
Half-day training as part of an induction program,
Full-day training as part of an induction program, or
Up to six one-hour training sessions over the first six months of the graduate program
Coaching for career clarity
While young lawyers often have buddies, mentors, and lines of communication with senior practitioners, most aren’t comfortable or empowered to discuss their career ambitions with their managing partner or other internal stakeholders.
Senior practitioners often have access to external coaching, but junior practitioners rarely have the opportunity to work with a coach at such a formative stage of their career.
Are you ready to foster strong, efficient, resilient grads? Let’s chat about tailoring this program to your firm’s needs, and make a plan to equip your graduates to put the most in – so you can get the most out.
My 1:1 coaching puts graduates in the driver’s seat of their career, empowering them to take responsibility, set ambitious goals, and take steps towards bringing them to life – all in a supportive environment.
Quarterly coaching check-ins give junior practitioners the opportunity to take ownership of their career growth, set ambitious goals, and work through challenges with a third party in a confidential and supportive environment.
1:1 coaching is one of the best ways to accelerate junior practitioners’ growth early in their careers, helping them to gain momentum and champion their own career paths.
Building better, more resilient legal professionals
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Building better, more resilient legal professionals •
Why Paris McNeil?
I’m a workshop facilitator and career coach with a legal background, who is passionate about helping young professionals to thrive in their careers.
I understand the issues recent grads are facing, and the support they require to address them, because I was in their shoes, as a law grad, just a few years ago. As a current session academic, I see students graduating from university who are less and less prepared to tackle the challenges of working in a firm.
With the right training, I know we can change this.
As a program facilitator in your firm, I’ll:
Appeal to your grads as an impartial third party with a relatable, down-to-earth perspective
Draw on years of experience working with young professionals, and my own experiences in the legal profession, and as a sessional academic
Use evidence-based frameworks and relatable stories to make training engaging and informative
It’s time to prepare graduates to tackle the challenges of the high-stress legal profession with determination and resilience.
Register your interest for Young Lawyers Resilience Training
Are you ready to foster strong, efficient, resilient grads? Let’s chat about tailoring this program to your firm’s needs, and make a plan to equip your graduates to put the most in – so you can get the most out.