Our weekly guide to unlocking new, diverse and often overlooked pathways into a legal career.
While so much attention is placed on training contract opportunities in London at a small handful of firms, there are thousands of pathways and careers in law that rarely get the attention they deserve.
Meanwhile, plenty of capable and hard-working aspiring lawyers are being overlooked, often not because of ability, but because of access.
This newsletter shines a light on those careers, offering a more inclusive view of the legal profession and helping you make informed decisions about your future.
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
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
Let’s get into it 👇
Career opportunities spotted this week 👀
📚 Training Contracts
⚖️ Public Defender Service (Cheltenham/Darlington)
For candidates who have completed the LPC. Deadline: 11th May. Be quick!💼 Reed Smith (London)
Direct applications for their training contract are still open. Deadline: 27th May. They’re also hosting a virtual open evening on 12th May at 5pm covering the application process.
🏢 Liverpool City Council (Liverpool)
Hiring up to five trainees to start in September. Requires LPC/SQE 1. It’s clear they value community impact in the advert so highlight any related experience in your application! Deadline: 13th May.
📍 Work Experience & Insight Schemes
📍 Clapham & Collinge (Norwich)
Weekly work experience placements running July-August, offering hands-on experience across legal teams. Open to 18+ applicants (paid status unclear). Apply with CV + cover letter.🎓 Goodwin (London)
For state school Year 13 students meeting eligibility criteria. Includes a £3,750 annual scholarship, mentoring, and work experience. Deadline: 3rd July.💻 Trowers & Hamlins/Uptree (Virtual)
Virtual webinar on 2nd June for Y12 students meeting eligibility criteria interested in a solicitor apprenticeship. Spots are limited.
⚖️ Browne Jacobson (Various locations)
Mini pupillage opportunity for those who are studying (or have studied) an undergrad or postgrad in Law, including GDL. Deadline: end of May.
💼 Paralegal/Legal Admin Roles
⚖️ Access to Public Law (Lancaster)
An exciting opportunity to work in a new firm in Lancaster as an Education Paralegal, working closely with Imogen who has been working in this area for c.30 years.🧑⚖️ Stephensons Solicitors LLP (Wigan)
Family law paralegal role available. Simple application process (cover letter + CV). Make sure to demonstrate your interest in family law!📄 Rothley Law Limited (Birmingham)
A hands-on Court of Protection paralegal role with close client contact and meaningful responsibility.🏢 Warwickshire County Council (Warwick)
Paralegal role supporting the court team on child protection cases. It is 6 month fixed term and predominantly work from home. Deadline: 18th May.📊 Geldards (Cardiff)
A hands-on, private client paralegal role. Doesn’t appear to require any prior experience.⚽ Norwich City Football Club (Norwich)
A rare in-house legal opportunity in the sports sector (plus free matchday tickets)! Deadline: 15th May.📈 Birketts LLP (Norwich)
Paralegal role available in the Costs Team for those interested in Litigation. Hybrid role. Previous experience desirable but not essential.🛠️ Screwfix (Somerset)
In-house legal role supporting corporate governance for a major UK retailer.🧩 Lego (London)
Lego Digital Play are hiring a Senior Paralegal in a generalist commercial role. Experience as a Paralegal or similar role in IP/media/entertainment is listed as essential.
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 an insight into 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 regularly 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 hanging the washing out. 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 and bid. 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 confirm next steps by email and answer any other emails that have landed in my inbox which require a quick one sentence reply. Those are pretty common in-house!
It’s also 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. Teamwork is crucial even in Sole Legal Counsel roles.
5:10pm: Logging off
It has been a quieter day today, although I do try to log off before 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 there’s someone you’d like to hear from, 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, research your interviewer beforehand and tailor your questions to them, helping you finish the interview on a confident and memorable note.
If you don’t know who your interviewer will be, you could prepare one or two questions related to the firm or company. Perhaps you could ask questions relating to any recent developments, notable cases they’ve worked on, or ask about wider geopolitical and market issues that may impact their clients, customers or employees.
That’s all for now. See you next week!
Emma
P.s. This is our first ever edition and I’d absolutely love to hear your feedback - good or constructive! Please email [email protected] with your feedback & suggestions for future newsletters and webinars. Thank you!
The careers advice shared in this newsletter is intended as general guidance and should not be treated as formal legal or recruitment advice. I do my best to keep all opportunities and deadlines accurate and up-to-date at the time of writing, but always double-check the employer’s website before applying.