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29 April 2021 / Jason O’Malley Lunn
Issue: 7930 / Categories: Features , Profession , Training & education , Diversity
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The case for solicitor apprentices

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Jason O’Malley Lunn, director of talent learning & knowledge at Plexus Law, explains why it’s time to embrace the solicitor apprenticeship pathway
  • Explains how solicitor apprenticeships can benefit a legal services company or law firm.

Solicitor apprentices have been working in the legal sector for nearly five years now and, in 2022, we will see some of the original cohort admitted to the roll after taking the Solicitors’ Qualifying Examination (SQE).

Parts of the profession have been quick to embrace apprenticeships, and apprentices can now be found across the legal sector from the high street through to large corporate law firms. In 2012 my firm, Plexus Law, took on seven of the first legal services apprentices, four of whom are now on the solicitor programme. We have since grown the scheme, recruiting more than 170 apprentices with an 85% retention rate.

For legal services firms, apprenticeship programmes have several benefits.

Retention

The solicitor apprenticeship lasts about six years, and the first benefit is retention. This is

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NEWS
The Attorney General, Ellie Reeves KC MP, and Solicitor General, Andy Slaughter KC MP, marked the 25th anniversary of Pro Bono Week by joining lawyers, charities, students and parliamentarians at events celebrating voluntary legal work
Witness evidence can be compromised by AI before a solicitor sees the draft, leaving safeguards focused on authorship incomplete
Possession claims are entering a new digital era, with procedural traps awaiting practitioners who assume familiar rules still govern every step
A polished legal defence may owe more to artificial intelligence than legal merit—and creditors risk paying the price in delay and expense
An indemnity costs battle with a £20m gap could reopen an important question: what weight should an approved budget carry?
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