Law
numbers in 2024 were even higher and included a number of applications from students in their first year at university who realised it wasn’t right for them,” Micklewright continues. “We launched the apprenticeship from a social mobility perspective, because the firm wanted to widen access to the law. We wanted to open-up more opportunities in the profession for school-leavers from low income and ethnic minority backgrounds.” To achieve this, the firm uses ‘blind screening’ during the recruitment process, so its recruiters don’t know applicants’ names or their schools. And it uses contextual data to highlight candidates who have grown-up in more challenging circumstances. “For the first four years, our apprentices rotate departments each
apprentices have one day of study each week, which is done remotely through the University of Law. “Our apprentices start on a salary of £25,000, which scales up each year and
We had a number of applications from university students who realised it wasn’t right for them.
matches the firm’s graduate trainee salaries in the final two years of the apprenticeship,” says Micklewright. Graduate trainees are currently paid £50,000 when they join the firm. “So far, we’ve had six apprentices join the firm, five to work in London and one in our Liverpool office, who’s one of the first solicitor
year, to introduce them to several different areas of law. Then in their final two years they undertake six- month rotations, in line with our graduate trainees,” says Micklewright. “One of the challenges has been to put in the right level of support for our apprentices. They each have their own
supervisor within the department they’re working in, plus a champion in another area in the firm and an apprentice buddy too.” Throughout the apprenticeship, Taylor Wessing’s
apprentices to work in the city,” says Micklewright. In the City of London, Linklaters is one of the best- known and most sought-after law firms. Its solicitor apprenticeship programme began two years ago and
Degree Apprenticeships 59
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