No more training contracts as Clarke Willmott takes paralegal route
Related images
South-West firm Clarke Willmott’s future trainees are to be drawn exclusively from its paralegal pool.
This unusual change to the graduate recruitment process has no set intake dates but paralegals will be selected as and when needed by various departments.
There is no guarantee that all of the firm’s paralegals will go on to become solicitors as this will depend on the needs of the business and also on the individual performance of the paralegals.
To receive a training contract, paralegals must have 12 months experience at the firm and have completed the Legal Practice Course.
Clarke Willmott declined to comment on whether they would be funding their paralegals’ LPCs.
During training, they will work in three areas of law, including contentious and non-contentious work as set out by Solicitors Regulation Authority training contract guidelines, but will qualify into the department in which they previously worked as a paralegal.
A Clarke Willmott spokesperson said: “It is an evolutionary step … we always made our training applications open to staff with the LPC within our paralegal pool.
“We have done this because it works and because we have been very impressed by the quality of staff seeking paralegal employment who have been unsuccessful in securing training contracts through the more traditional approaches.
“We do not keep statistics but there are a minimum of nine qualified staff with us currently who were paralegals with us before undertaking training contracts and successfully qualifying into the firm. One of these is now a senior associate.”
The spokesperson added: “Anyone who thinks that the traditional approach is perfect or that an alternative method is in any way second-rate clearly has no idea of the pressures facing those seeking to find their way in the profession and the talent pool within the profession currently without a training contract who deserve a chance to impress within a work environment.”
Co-operative Legal Services, which in May announced plans to offer 100 training contracts annually within the next five years, draws its trainees solely from its paralegal team. (24 May 2012)
Readers' comments (10)
Lydia | 24-Nov-2012 8:02 pm
Best avoided.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 25-Nov-2012 11:09 pm
A sign of things to come? It certainly makes fiscal sense to have prospective trainees undergo a 12 month "assessment," allowing them to generate revenue for the firm whilst the cream of the crop are taken in as trainees.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
anonymous | 26-Nov-2012 11:16 am
we have been doing this for years. its a perfect way to get the best trainees on board to invest in them and their future
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Nov-2012 1:35 pm
I went through this route. I can honestly say it didn't make me a better solicitor.
All it achieves is hungry cut price labour for 18 months. Whilst you do the firm's admin work you lose your mental sharpness and also your enthusiasm for working in law.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Nov-2012 3:07 pm
I have just finished my LLB with the Open University and have since decided NOT to enter the legal profession. Instead, I'm saving the money I would have spent on the BTPC and now working towards my MA with a view to completing my PhD!
Whilst studying for my degree over 5 years on a part-time basis and still working 40 hours a week, I have developed in my current career in social care and would now be taking a pay cut of at least 60% to start my career as a paralegal or trainee solicitor. My partner has worked in three high street firms as a paralegal/legal assistant and commented about the push for more ILEX and more paralegal doing the 'leg work' and qualified solicitors acting as case supervisors to a team of 6, 8, 12 paralegals.
Why have a team of 10 solicitors all on £35,000-50,000 when you could employ 2 supervisor solicitors looking after a team of 8 paralegals, all with their new LLB and LPC or BVC and pay them £15,000...More money for the Partners!
Good luck to anyone who has yet to open their eyes to changing legal profession!
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Nov-2012 4:46 pm
I worked as a paralegal at Lovells which steadfastly and blindly refused to recruit trainees from among its paralegals. It struck me as foolish but I was soon thankful for it when I was offered a training contract by a more prestigious (and higher paying) firm.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 26-Nov-2012 4:48 pm
I undertook paralegal work to win a training contract. Honestly it didn't make me a better lawyer.
It simply meant that I did administrative work for 18 months. I lost much of my enjoyment / interest in the law. When I qualified, staff still saw me as the admin support.
Unfortunately, firms do this because they want low-paid hungry workers who are unlikely to cause a fuss. As Lydia writes, such firms are best avoided.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 27-Nov-2012 9:22 am
Most of the brightest and best will have training contracts secured long before they graduate from the LPC.
Guaranteed training contract offer v 12 months as a paralegal at Clarke Willmott, followed by the possibility of a training contract. It's a bit of a no-brainer, isn't it?
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 27-Nov-2012 9:07 pm
I was a paralegal for 12 months at my firm. I shared the team's secretary and did very little admin. I ran my own files and billed more per month than some of the NQs.
'Paralegal' doesn't always equals 'admin'. Far from it. This scheme allows you to hit the ground running when you do start the TC.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment
Anonymous | 9-Apr-2013 6:37 pm
If the "brightest and best" are the ones getting training contracts why do the lawyers here find that we constantly have to refer our trainees to be taught the most basic of skills by our paralegals? The myth that A'Level grades are a great indicator of the best talent persists in most graduate recruitment departments... I feel a little envious of the lawyers at Clarke Willmott where the academically qualified but practically incompetent will have been weeded out during the paralegal stages.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment