Pinsent Masons will be launching a paralegal apprenticeship program that it hopes to extend to aspiring solicitors in the future.
The program is the result of an alliance with The University of Law, which is currently the exclusive provider of post-graduate courses for future trainees of the firm. It will have 20 slots to begin with,
Legal Cheek said.
“Providing innovative new pathways into our business and profession through a blend of graduate and apprenticeship opportunities widens the talent pool we have access to and the ways in which candidates can engage and connect with Pinsent Masons,” Deborah McCormack, the firm’s recruitment and graduate development chief, told the publication.
“Longer term, our aim is to support bright legal apprentices through to qualification as solicitors via this new route, and will be looking at how best we achieve this in due course alongside the introduction of the Solicitor Regulation Authority’s (SRA) new Solicitor’s Qualifying Examination (SQE),” she said.
Starting salary will be £18,000 per year in London and £15,500 in Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds.
Some major law firms in the UK have training programs that are also geared towards helping paralegals. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has a similar program at its legal services centre in Manchester and DWF has a paralegal program supported by the UK government. Eversheds Sutherland and Mayer Brown both have programs that train beneficiaries up to the solicitor level.
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