Our weekly guide to unlocking new, diverse and often overlooked pathways into a legal career.
While so much attention is often placed on opportunities in London at a small handful of firms, our newsletter is designed to make the journey clearer, more accessible, and more inclusive.
Here’s what to expect from this edition…
Career opportunities we’ve spotted including new paralegal roles, scholarships and work experience opportunities
A weekly Q&A, answering real questions from our readers and webinar attendees
A day in the life from a legal professional, from non-traditional starts to squiggly career paths
And finally, a quick career tip you can put into practice straight away
Inclusie Club is about rethinking the routes into law and supporting you to find the right fit.
Let’s get into it 👇
Career opportunities spotted this week 👀
📍 Work Experience - Clapham & Collinge (Norwich)
Weekly placements running July - August, offering hands-on experience across legal teams. Open to 18+ applicants (paid status unclear). Apply with CV & cover letter.
⚖️ Mini Pupillage - Browne Jacobson
Applications are now open for their scheme. Applications close end of May.
📄 Paralegal Role - Rothley Law Limited (Birmingham)
Court of Protection paralegal position available.
⚽ Paralegal Role - Norwich City Football Club
A rare opportunity to work within the sports sector (with free matchday tickets)!
⚖️ Training Contract - Public Defender Service (Cheltenham/Darlington)
One for those who have already completed the SQE/LPC. Deadline 11th May.
🎓 Scholarship & Work Experience - Goodwin
State school Year 13 students meeting certain criteria can apply for a £3,750 annual scholarship, plus mentoring and work experience.
🛠️ Paralegal Role - Screwfix (Somerset)
Great in-house legal opportunity with a major UK retailer.
💻 2 x Paralegal Role - Attwells Solicitors (Colchester or Ipswich)
Corporate Law and Commercial Property Law roles with SQE opportunity. Does require experience.
Your questions answered ❓
Each week, we’ll answer one of your questions about legal careers. This one comes from Amy…
Question: I’m preparing for a couple of vacation scheme interviews at the moment. A topic that has come up a few times in my research is artificial intelligence. What do I need to know about AI and its use in law firms?
Our response:
Its great that you’re preparing well for vacation scheme interviews, and we agree AI is a subject that may come up. It’s worth bearing in mind that AI is already being used in many law firms. AI tools are helping with drafting documents, research and contract review to make lawyers more efficient. There’s a whole ecosystem of companies building AI specifically for law firms, like Harvey, Robin AI, and DraftWise, and firms are increasingly partnering with or adopting these tools.
That said, it’s important to have an awareness of the risks that come with using AI in a legal context. Law firm clients are often concerned about confidentiality, particularly where their sensitive company, employee and client information could be input into open AI platforms. There’s also the issue of accuracy; AI tools can produce incorrect outputs, so human oversight is still essential.
We’ve already seen real-world examples of what can go wrong. Here are a couple of examples you could read up on…
In Mata v. Avianca, Inc., a lawyer in the US used ChatGPT to assist with legal research and unknowingly included entirely fabricated case law in court filings. The cases looked convincing but they didn’t actually exist, leading to serious judicial criticism and sanctions.
Similarly, in 2023, engineers at Samsung reportedly used ChatGPT for tasks like debugging code and summarising internal meetings, inadvertently uploading sensitive company information in the process. Following these incidents, concerns were raised about data being stored externally, and the company subsequently restricted the use of generative AI tools and explored in-house alternatives.
In summary, we’d suggest included a balanced summary of the benefits and risks of AI if it does come up in your interviews. Best of luck in your preparations!
👩 💻 A day in my life as a sole in-house lawyer
One of the questions I get asked most is what an in-house lawyer actually does day-to-day.
So I thought I’d give you a realistic look at what a quieter day can look like as the Sole Legal Counsel in a start-up or scale-up.
I should caveat by saying that I'm currently on maternity leave, so my real day-to-day is more nappies and nursery rhymes…! However I’ve worked in various companies across the last seven years with my latest role being at Onebright, a mental health services provider.
9:00am: Logging on
I’ve never been a morning person, so I usually start around 9am. One of the perks of working in-house, especially in a smaller team, is that you often have a bit more flexibility over your schedule (as long as nothing urgent is going on).
I’ll read through any new emails and write a draft “to do” list for the day. Being the only lawyer for a company, your to-do list often changes as new matters arise. I enjoy the unpredictability and variety in the job, but its not for everyone!
9:30am: First meeting of the day
My first meeting of the day is with our Data Protection Officer, who helps to ensure our company uses people’s data legally, safely, and responsibly. We discuss topics such as:
training for our employees
the launch of any new services and how they may affect the processing of customer data
any new or emerging risks that we need to deal with early
I take away a few legal points to research and consider.
11am: Coffee break and contract negotiations
A key part of most in-house roles is drafting and negotiating contracts. Today, I’m reviewing a contract for a new supplier. I suggest a couple of changes to the limitation of liability clause and payment terms (these are two of the most commonly negotiated points in supplier contracts) and send the draft back to the supplier’s legal team.
A lot of this work is about balancing risk, protecting the company while also understanding what the supplier needs to make the contract work.
12:30pm: Lunch
I work from home most of the time, as does my partner, so we get to have lunch together. I head out for a walk and do a bit of life admin like putting the washing machine and dishwasher on. Unglamorous but it frees up time in the evening!
1:30pm: Call with the Commercial Team
My first unexpected job of the day is chatting to a colleague in the Commercial team about their latest Request for Proposal. It comes with some terms and conditions that need to be reviewed urgently before they can bid for a new contract. Understanding the commercial aspects, like volume and pricing, is essential for me to provide practical legal advice. We talk through the risks together and decide we’re comfortable moving forward without changes.
3:00pm: Catch-up and non-legal tasks
After the call, I’ll usually spend a bit of time writing things up and confirming next steps by email.
It’s increasingly common for in-house lawyers to take on work that isn’t strictly legal. One example of this is ESG (environmental, social and governance) work.
At the moment, we’re completing an Ecovadis assessment, which looks at our sustainability performance and highlights areas for improvement. I work with colleagues in Finance and Commercial to help complete parts of the questionnaire.
It’s a good example of how in-house roles can broaden beyond traditional legal work and how important building relationships is within in-house roles.
5:10pm: Logging off
It has been a slightly quieter day today, although I do try to log off between 5pm and 6pm most days. I do manage to have a better work-life balance in-house than I did in private practice, although there are still moments where I need to work longer hours.
No two days in-house are ever quite the same, which is one of the things I enjoy most about the role. Some days are packed with back-to-back meetings, others are much more focused, but you’re always learning and problem solving in a job like this.
If you’d like to write a “Day in the Life” or you’d like to hear from someone in particular, please let us know by emailing [email protected].
And finally, career tip of the week ✍️
I spoke to a candidate recently who progressed to the third round of interviews in a role they really wanted. Sadly, they were rejected at the final stage for a surprisingly simple reason: they did not ask any questions at the end of the interview. This left the interviewer uncertain about their genuine interest in the job.
Remember, interviews are a two-way process. Asking thoughtful questions shows curiosity and genuine interest; qualities every interviewer is looking for.
Top tip: Prepare a few questions in advance. Ideally, do a little research on your interviewer and tailor the questions to them, so you can finish the interview on a confident and memorable note.
That’s all for now. See you next week!