Celebrating Level’s Second Newly Qualified Lawyer: Georgia Wray

What has been the highlight of your training contract at Level?

The highlight of my training contract at Level was the variety of the work I was able to get involved in. Throughout my training contract I worked with close to 20 of Level’s partners, meaning that I was exposed to a multitude of practice areas. I was happy to experience a mix of litigious and non-litigious work, enjoyed attending court in person and also being present in meetings with clients and Counsel!

Another few highlights I can’t fail to mention are Fraser’s Toastie Friday’s (I didn’t realise a cheese toastie could taste so good!), all of the adventures with the incredible Level team (both in London and Switzerland), and the office visits from the firm’s dogs!!

How does Level differ from traditional law firms in terms of training and opportunities?

Training at Level is very different to a traditional firm. Given it is a boutique firm, I feel I was able to get to know everyone at the firm throughout the two years, which enabled me to experience the diversity of work I mentioned above. I also enjoyed the ability to organically take work from partners rather than the structure of the training being overly rigid, which gave me a greater ability to pursue work I was naturally particularly interested in.

Given many of the partners have extremely close relationships with their clients, I enjoyed being able to be one of only a few people in the room in client meetings, and getting to know some of our clients, and the barristers we work with, face to face.

Tell us a little more about your secondment at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA)?

I feel very lucky to have gone on secondment to CAA; the dynamic and fast paced nature of the agency and the work they are doing made it a very exciting place to be! I worked across two departments, so enjoyed being able to see the business from multiple angles. It was a great opportunity to gain greater commercial acumen and develop my contractual drafting skills, and I absolutely loved the opportunity to be part of a motivating, and highly personable, in house legal team for a few months.

What advice would you give to aspiring lawyers considering a training contract at Level?

My advice to aspiring lawyers considering training at Level would be to focus on how you can demonstrate what it is about how law is applied to sport that interests you; rather than stating that you want to be a lawyer and that you enjoy sport! I think candidates stand out when they have used any opportunity they can to delve into how law actually applies to sports in reality, and nowadays there are so many podcasts, LinkedIn posts, articles and blogs out there that even those new to the world of sports law can delve into it!