Solicitor apprenticeships: North East firms collaborate; Charles Russell Speechlys gets hiring

A group of firms in the North East have teamed up to develop a collaborative approach to promoting legal apprenticeships in schools. Meanwhile, international commercial firm Charles Russell Speechlys has launched its solicitor apprenticeship programme, with two apprentices set to join the firm’s London office in September 2017.

McDaniel & Co. Solicitors, Muckle LLP, QualitySolicitors Smith Roddam and Sintons LawApprentices are working together to employ apprentices from schools in the North East, while Charles Russell Speechlys is part of the PRIME initiative, in which law firms work with the Sutton Trust to visit schools and promote apprenticeship vacancies. In all cases, apprentices will ‘earn while they learn’, with training toward their formal qualifications to be delivered by CILEx Law School and City Law School. Apprentices at Charles Russell Speechlys will also benefit from working in all the firm’s core practice areas over the course of their training.

Jenny Pelling, director of Business and Apprenticeships at CILEx Law School, commented: “This innovative approach makes sense for the employers and for the solicitor apprentices by establishing a strong network in the North East.”

Elaine Emmington, director of HR at Charles Russell Speechlys, said: “We have already had talented young people from the Legal Social Mobility Programme join us on work experience and can see the potential for us to recruit school leavers. It’s an exciting prospect for us to reach out to local schools in this way.”