Meet the apprentice
Ellie Clarkson Irwin Mitchell LLP
Ellie Clarkson is a paralegal apprentice at Irwin Mitchell LLP, currently working in the firm’s commercial litigation department.
How did you find out about/research the legal apprenticeship route?
I originally heard about the route while completing my final year at sixth form college. Legal apprenticeships were pretty new at the time, so I did a lot of research online, including on the government apprenticeship website and CILEx. That gave me an insight into what a legal apprenticeship is, which area of law might be right for me, and whether I could still qualify as a solicitor through the apprenticeship route. I then started to look for vacancies through traditional recruitment sites and on firms’ own websites.
What about the route appealed?
From working since I was 13, I have always had a strong work ethic, so although I attended open days at universities and was offered places at four Russell Group universities, I decided that it wasn’t the best route for me. I didn’t want to be told about the law in a lecture theatre – I wanted to do it! The opportunity to obtain practical experience in such a competitive sector was appealing. I spoke to lots of people at university who were concerned about attaining a job after their degree as they felt they lacked practical experience. In comparison, I now already have two years’ experience in a law firm, working on my own client files. You are also earning while you learn – the four-year degree that I was considering, inclusive of student living costs and the LPC, would have been around £60,000. Compare that to an average apprentice salary of between £15,000 and £19,000 annually, I can earn in four years what I would have accrued in debt in the same period.
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