Solicitor Apprenticeship

[stubiff]

My DC is starting to investigate this (and other sectors), so thought we'd share some findings which may be of use to others.

YP - getting paid straight after degree!

The firms that pay for GDL do pay the young person. They are an employee. Certainly the ones I know who did the non law route were paid by their employers.

Employed (salary) or the PGDL was sponsored (and not actually employed) (just like the SQE can be sponsored)?
Not heard of the former, but I don't know enough about that route.

I might be out of date but this was not how it worked when I qualified 15 years ago. My firm (US City firm) paid for the GDL and LPC but I don't think I got a salary on top, maybe a small bursary. I certainly had a loan at the time and a part time job and still felt very poor for those two years!

@Butterworths
Think I agree.
And based on this https://targetjobs.co.uk/careers-advice/law/which-law-firms-will-fund-your-sqe-preparation-lpc-and-pgdl-course-fees-and-pay-maintenance-costs

Yes those numbers look about right I think (inflation adjusted). I got maybe £5k a year which was welcome but certainly did not pay my mortgage!

Yes we offer graduate apprenticeship in local govt. So already have a law degree then they work 4 days and 1 day a week at a local post 92 uni doing llm and sqe1&2. They get full wage and all tuition and exam fees paid.
Frustratingly you aren’t eligible if you already have a post degree qualification like lpc.

As ever I always say the divide in law is not between solicitors and barrister but between the big high paying firms and other firms of solicitors and it is similar today. The big city firms including the City Consortium pay for the PGDL and SQE and an allowance in each of those two years and then you do your 2 years of training with them. Most people will continue to operate that way in those firms rather than be apprentices and I expect apprenticeships will be very few and far between. Some medium sized and regional firms have moved completely to a new model where you do post grad law whilst working like the accountancy model that has operated for years - my sons' school friend after his non accountancy degree then started work and has been paid ever since whilst spending 3 years doing accountancy exams - day release as I think we used to call it.

(TrumptonsFireEngine - oops, I meant to type "1890s" - when my great uncle started. He was the oldest of my grandfather's 9 siblings and my grandfather born 1880 the youngest. Grandfather had my father aged 49. So we ended up in my father's case with 2 generations as the fathers were so old where other families would fit in 4 which has made me a bit closer in terms of family records of who did what. My great uncle's first case was one about breach of promise of marriage. When h e died very early in 1916 with 3 small children left behind his obituary mentioned that case and even then it was regarded as a very old fashioned kind of case. I am the first solicitor in the family since he died in 1916 and now we are blossoming into loads of us - 4 of my children now qualified and probably some of their cousins who are studying law now too).

So how could anyone rent a room in London with a small bursary? It would be impossible. I think bursaries are bigger but I certainly thought trainees were employees from day 1. Apologies if that was wrong. If a bursary is £1000 a month on a full time course, I assume the big firms expect students to work to pay for food and transport? Hardly going to attract people not living in London already from poor backgrounds.

@stubiff I personally take 50% pass rate with pinch of salt. I wish they’d release stats per institution. The post 92 uni my apprentice studies at has almost 100% pass rate for the working apprentice students (I asked senior tutor).
I think the stats are dragged down by people having a go with only having done a short prep course. My hunch is that pass for has a 2.1 in law from a top 10 uni and done a proper postgraduate course with uni of law etc is nearly 100% Certainly in old days lpc pass rates varied massively by institution.

Trainees are only employees from when they start their training contract. One of my ex employers in London pays a maintenance grant of £12k for those who did not do an LLB so are converting and £20,000 grand for the year after. I think £20k would fund a shared house room in Ealing for example for a student plus your food, so should be enough. of course most solicitors are not sponsored on their post grad so may need a masters student loan which will only pay the course fees not rent therefore some wait to get a TC which sponsors them.

There are certainly so many choices under the new SQE system it can be confusing for future solicitors.

To be fair I found it extremely easy to work as well as study for the GDL and LPC - neither were particularly intense compared to my degree which I also worked around.

My sibling trained magic circle and received payment of fees for lpc and an allowance to live on. They also dictated where he studied (Nottingham Trent not college of law) If you didn’t have a law degree they would fund pg conversion and an allowance too. You weren’t an employee until started tc.
I worked northern regional for many years and now local government.
I’m seeing solicitor apprenticeships starting to trickle through (especially in areas where you can’t recruit solicitors like crime, adult social care) but norm is working as paralegal and doing sqe 1 & 2 alongside work.

The market has changed so much is a short space of time so be careful of outdated advice.
Exam fee is £1888 sqe1 and £2902 sqe2.
So many options to prep for the exams - in person, online, part of an llm or an online prep course. It’s very achievable alongside paralegal work from my experience of those in my team.

I’ve just looked at barbri to check fees for sqe prep course out of interest and they are advertising a much higher pass rate than average so maybe the stats are now available per provider.

Providers are probably given it directly (to advertise it), but
https://www.legalcheek.com/2024/10/sra-still-unable-to-confirm-timeline-for-revealing-sqe-provider-pass-rates/

Can understand why Law firms want at least a 2:1.
Based on https://sqe.sra.org.uk/exam-arrangements/sqe-reports there are some really low SQE1 pass rates for those with 2:2 or 3rd.

Interesting stats thanks for sharing.

Deleted as not directly answering the question.

@AsTearsGoBy ? You have deleted my question?

If a conversion grad is getting £12,000 a year, that’s not enough for rent and food in London plus travel - even from Ealing. So yes, they would have to work.

I don’t think firms specify where a law conversion is taken so no need for London. City firms did/do have preferences for preferred providers for lpc now sqe prep I believe.

https://www.slaughterandmay.com/media/rs2jvepv/the-city-consortium-solicitor-training-programme.pdf

The city consortium SQE course with BPP is tailored.

I had to use BPP and the firm chose the modules for us - although I think maybe we could chose between a couple. They were all city type thing which is fair enough

No! I deleted my reply.

Another thing to factor in is the rotation or seats.
The flavours seem to be:
Years 1-4 (degree) - 1 dept, years 5-6 (SQE) - 4/6 depts.
Y1-4 - 1 per year, Y5-6 - 1 per year.
Y1-4 - 1 per year, Y5-6 - 4/6 depts.

Each firm is different. The 4/6 depts is the same as the TC, as in the apprentices join the 'training contract' people. But some firms do the 6 seats over the 6 years.
Some have a rotation (or option of one) in a Business dept, and some a client secondment, or abroad is possible.

Yes the big firms offer very structured apprenticeships.
Just to be clear that there’s no need for this with qwe and smaller firms and local government, in house may just offer solicitor apprentice in one area eg criminal.