Wants to travel

In the latest instalment of our Career Conundrums series, a solicitor apprentice seeks readers’ opinions on whether taking a gap year upon qualification would harm her career.

“I am a Solicitor Apprentice nearing the end of my first year at a mid sized law firm. Since I haven’t had the ability to have a gap year and go travelling and gain life experience, I wonder, would it be harmful to my career to take a year out upon qualification? Will I be less appealing to firms if I have taken a gap year immediately upon passing the SQE? Or will my six years’ experience negate that? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.”

If you have a career conundrum, email us at tips@legalcheek.com.

Nearly half cite lack of info for not switching

Just over a quarter of small and medium (SME) law firms are yet to take up the Solicitor Qualifying Exam (SQE) as a route to qualification, new research has shown.

Of the 27% who haven’t yet adopted the pathway, nearly half (44%) cited a lack of information for not making the switch. A quarter additionally reported a lack of “buy-in” internally as a barrier, with 6% concerned about the cost.

With the transition windows from the Legal Practice Course to SQE running officially until 2032, nearly a third of firms (31%) said that now was simply not the right time to make the transition across to the new scheme. “However”, the report states, “the reality is that the LPC window of opportunity is closing quickly with a real shift expected over the next couple of years”.

The research, undertaken by legal education provider BARBRI, also noted that 53% of SME firms have taken on apprentices, with the majority doing so to bring in new talent and up skill existing lawyers, and a smaller number only looking to achieve one of those objectives.

Of the 46% of firms not to take up the pathway, 36% said that they “prefer more traditional routes”, with 28% concerned about the time required for recruits to acquire skills, and 16% worried about the quality of candidates on offer.

The report surveyed 127 figures across SME law firms, 84 of whom were senior decision makers, with the other 43 paralegals or people in similar roles.

SME law firms were defined as those with less than 250 employees and an annual turnover under £50 million.

‘Deeply honoured’, says Amy Marren

A solicitor apprentice has been awarded an MBE in the King’s Birthday Honours 2024 for her contribution to further education and apprenticeships.

Amy Marren, a final year solicitor apprentice at BPP and former GB Paralympian, has been made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

After taking a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in the 200m individual medley, Marren made the switch to law, taking up a solicitor apprenticeship with BPP’s legal team.

Noted in her citation as “a tireless promoter of the opportunities apprenticeships offer”, Marren has established and run the first Legal Apprentice Society, served as a panel member for the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education under the Department of Education, and is an Apprentice Ambassador for the London Apprenticeship Ambassador Network.

“I am deeply honoured to receive this MBE,” she said.

“It has been incredibly rewarding to see the growth of the Legal Apprentice Society and to be part of initiatives that support apprentices across the country”, she continued. “I am grateful for the support from BPP and my colleagues, and I look forward to continuing our work to enhance and expand apprenticeship opportunities.”

Alongside her Rio success, Marren also took home a host of medals three years earlier at the 2013 IPC Swimming World Championships.

Want to find our more about solicitor apprenticeship opportunities? Check out The Legal Cheek Solicitor Apprenticeship Most List 2024, your go-to guide on everything from pay and locations to number of places and training structure.

London uni in early talks with possible partner firms

Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) is set to become the first member of the Russell Group to launch a solicitor apprenticeship programme in partnership with BARBRI.

The six-year pathway for aspiring solicitor apprentices involves splitting their time between their training firm and university, where they complete a certificate of higher education in the first two years, covering topics such as the English legal system, research, drafting, client communication, and an introduction to business finance.

Still in its early planning stages, the programme will see apprentices progressing onto an undergraduate law degree before they embark on the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), with preparation support from BARBRI during the final two years.

Additionally, over the six years, QMUL School of Law says apprentices will develop their work place skills through various learning projects in collaboration with their training firms. This will likely include areas such as pro-bono and practice innovation.

QMUL is currently in early stage conversations with law firms, in-house legal departments, and legal services providers to explore potential partnerships, with the aim of taking on its first cohort of solicitor apprentices in Autumn 2026.

Separately, BARBRI has partnered with Canterbury Christ Church University, offering discounted access to its SQE prep courses for the university’s students and graduates. This builds on the prep provider’s tie-ups with the likes of Edge Hill, Anglia Ruskin, London South Bank, Leicester De Montfort and King’s College London.

Christopher Howard, university partnerships director for BARBRI, said: “We are delighted to have established this new partnership with the leading team at Canterbury Christ Church University to support students and alumni across their dynamic range of degree programmes on their journey to solicitor qualification.”

Want to find our more about solicitor apprenticeship opportunities? Check out The Legal Cheek Solicitor Apprenticeship Most List 2024, your go-to guide covering everything from pay and locations to number of places and training structure.

More firms embrace TC alternative

Trowers & Hamlins is launching a new solicitor apprenticeship programme, with the first intake set to arrive in the office in September 2025.

Future lawyers will be able to join any of Trowers’ UK offices, London, Birmingham, Exeter or Manchester, with applications open from autumn 2024.

By the end of their six-year course apprentices will have gained an LLB law degree and completed the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), whilst also spending four days a week at work. Matching up with the typical trainee model, apprentices will complete rotations across the firm’s practice areas.

The number of spots on offer has not yet been decided.

News of the offering follows hot on the heels of the launch of our new Solicitor Apprenticeships Most List 2024, a go-to guide covering everything from pay and locations to number of places and training structure.

Commenting on the new apprenticeship route, Trowers senior partner Sara Bailey said:

“In order to attract the best people to Trowers we know that we need to recruit from the broadest pool of talent. For some a university education is a barrier to practising the law — we need to remove that barrier and level the playing field. Our new apprenticeship programme is a great equalizer for any aspiring lawyer hoping to enter the legal profession.”

“We have several initiatives within our ED&I strategy to support this approach and I am proud that we have signed up to ‘The Solicitors Apprenticeship Pledge,’ she continued. “I look forward very much to the first cohort of apprentices coming onboard and seeing the positive impact I am sure they will make both on the firm and their new colleagues.”

Trowers will now join Magic Circle duo Freshfields and Slaughter and May, both also taking on their first cohort of solicitor apprentices in 2025.

Apprenticeships aside, The Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows Trowers recruits around 28 graduate trainees each year on a starting salary of £45,000 in London and £31,000 in Birmingham, Exeter and Manchester.

£7,200 bill

A solicitor apprentice who failed in an employment claim after showing “complete and utter disregard” for the tribunal and her former law firm has been handed a £7,200 costs order.

Forzana Khanom, who filed the claim against London-based firm Mishcon de Reya, hit headlines earlier this month when her case was dismissed after she disregarded the tribunals orders in a “persistent, long-lasting, and egregious” manner.

The final straw appears to have come when Khanom failed to turn up to a case management hearing, only notifying the court 25 minutes beforehand that she couldn’t join the hearing “because she was at the airport about to board a flight for a family trip abroad to celebrate her birthday”.

To make matters worse, she has been handed a £7,200 costs order.

Having written to Khanom after her claim was dismissed asking her to make representations as to the costs application made by Mishcon and provide information on her ability to pay, an employment Judge Klimov said that she again failed to contact the tribunal.

“I am more than satisfied that the Claimant has acted unreasonably in the way she conducted the proceedings,” Judge Klimovv said in a short judgment deciding the issue of costs.

“I am also satisfied that the nature, gravity and extent of the Claimant’s unreasonable conduct justifies me exercising my discretion and making a costs order against her.”

Continuing, he noted the apprentice’s continued lack of contact with the court. “In the absence of any representations from the Claimant I see no mitigating circumstances to sway my discretion in her favour,” the judge said.

“I considered whether it would be appropriate to make an award in the full amount sought by the Respondent. Ordinarily, I would have considered £7,500 to be a too high brief fee for a case management preliminary hearing, as to be awarded against the Claimant in full. However, the fee was incurred by the Respondent in anticipation that the hearing on 27 February would be the first day of a 4-day full merits hearing, which had to be vacated on short notice due to the Claimant being in persistent breach of the Tribunal’s orders and her ongoing failure to engage with the Tribunal and the Respondent,” the judge continued.

“The Claimant did not provide any information as to her ability to pay, despite being invited by the Tribunal to do so. Therefore, I have no “ability to pay” information I can have regard to in deciding whether to make an award and if so in what amount,” the judge added.

Concluding, he said that it was “just and proper” to make a costs order for the full amount of £7,200.

Judge not impressed

A solicitor apprentice has had her employment claim dismissed after displaying “complete and utter disregard” for the tribunal and her former law firm.

Forzana Khanom, who filed the claim against London-based firm Mishcon de Reya, consistently disregarded the employment tribunal’s orders in a manner described by the judge as “persistent, long-lasting, and egregious”. She also failed to comply with orders on multiple occasions and neglected to provide evidence to support her claim.

Khanom wrote to the tribunal to give her reasons for not complying, partly blaming her former solicitors, her ill health and technical problems with her laptop.

However, the tribunal remained unconvinced, labelling this reasoning as “wholly unpersuasive and insufficient.”

The tipping point appears to have come when the tribunal canceled a final hearing due to Khanom’s “total failure to engage” with her case, replacing it with a three-hour case management session.

Despite this, the aspiring solicitor failed to attend the virtual hearing, emailing the tribunal at 9:35 am, just 25 minutes before the session was due to begin. She stated that she was unable to join “because she was at the airport about to board a flight for a family trip abroad to celebrate her birthday”.

The apprentice said, as noted by the tribunal, that she had instructed her former lawyers that she would be unavailable for the entire week when the hearing was scheduled. However, she still received communications from the tribunal leading up to the set date.

Dismissing the claim in Khanom’s absence, Judge Klimov said:

“The claimant showed a complete and utter disregard to the Tribunal’s process. She caused the respondent to incur substantial and unnecessary costs, and all that due to her failure to engage with her own claim. She took a wholly disproportionate time from the limited Tribunal’s resources, with at least six Employment Judges having to deal with her case at various stages. At the same time, she barely exerted any effort herself to progress her case. Due to the claimant’s unreasonable conduct and complete disregard of the Tribunal’s orders, the case is no further forward than where it was in August 2023.”

The judge also noted the impact of the final hearing, vacated at short notice, on both Mishcon, and other applicants “who have to wait longer for their cases to be heard”.

Judge Klimov added: “The claimant is an apprentice-solicitor. It appears she aspires to join this profession. Therefore, she who would (or at any rate — should) be aware of the importance to follow due legal process, and how she should conduct herself towards her opponent and the Tribunal. Her conduct of this case demonstrates the opposite of what could be expected of someone in her position.”

Mischon will be seeking a costs order, the judgment states.

School leavers starting on up to £28k

Legal Cheek has compiled an official round-up of solicitor apprentice salaries across the UK’s leading law firms.

There’s no doubt that solicitor apprenticeships are on the rise, with 2024 seeing Slaughter and May become the fourth Magic Circle player to announce an apprenticeship programme. But, have you ever wondered what law firms across the UK are paying their fresh-faced school leavers? Well, wonder no more.

Compiling the data from almost 40 firms across the new Legal Cheek Solicitor Apprenticeships Most List, we’ve broken down how much new recruits earn in their first year, and how this might progress over their journey to qualification as a solicitor.

With the typical apprenticeship lasting six years, rookies can expect to earn the salaries listed below whilst completing a fully-funded law degree and SQE qualifications, spending one day a week at university, and four with their firm.

A far cry from the National Apprenticeship Wage, which currently sits at £5.28 an hour for first-years, Legal Cheek data shows that some apprentices in London earn in excess of £25k in their first year.

You can view all of our salary data on our Legal Cheek Solicitor Apprenticeship Most List.

How much will I earn as a first-year apprentice?

Law firm	First year salary
Norton Rose Fulbright	£28,000
Bates Wells	£27,352
Osborne Clarke	£27,000
Dentons	£26,500
Ashurst	£26,000
Gowling WLG	£25,500
Pinsent Masons	£25,400
Mayer Brown	£25,000
Mischon de Reya	£25,000
Taylor Wessing	£25,000
Fieldfisher	£25,000
Charles Russell Speechlys	£25,000
CMS	£25,000
Wedlake Bell	£25,000
Bird & Bird	£25,000
Simmons & Simmons	£25,000
Allen & Overy	£25,000
Wiggin	£25,000
Linklaters	£25,000
Stephenson Harwood	£25,000
Eversheds Sutherland	£24,000
Farrer & Co	£24,000
Bristows	£23,950
DWF Group	£23,300
Weightmans	£23,000
Kennedys	£22,000
Burges Salmon	£22,000
Irwin Mitchell	£21,749
Womble Bond Dickinson	£21,480
Hill Dickinson	£21,255
Shoosmiths	£20,000
Cripps	£20,000
Michelmores	£19,850
Addleshaw Goddard	£18,500
Express Solicitors	£15,171
Brabners	Undisclosed
Bevan Brittan	Undisclosed
Gateley	Undisclosed
TLT	Undisclosed

With scores of solicitor apprenticeship programmes still in their infancy, many firms have yet to confirm their salaries for years two, three and four. But, there are a selection of outfits, including those with more established programmes, who have been able to provide us with a more detailed breakdown.

How will my salary progress?

Viewing on a mobile? Please scroll right to view the whole table

Law firm	Second year salary	Third year salary	Fourth year salary
Stephenson Harwood	£30,000	£35,000	£40,000
CMS	£27,000	£31,000	£36,500
Bates Wells	£30,000	£35,000	£35,000
Burges Salmon	£24,000	£28,000	£32,000
Weightmans	£24,000	£26,000	£29,000
Cripps	£23,000	£26,000	£27,500
Addleshaw Goddard	£19,500	£24,000	£27,000
Express Solicitors	£15,171	£22,000	£22,000

In their final two years, apprentices will typically progress onto the firm’s training contract programme, where they usually move to the same salary scales as their graduate trainee colleagues.

Legal Cheek explains…

With more avenues opening up into a career in the legal industry, questions likely abound about the various options available to gain Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) and what they mean. So, here’s a comprehensive overview of all things training contract and apprenticeship to help clear things up a bit.

Solicitor apprenticeships

Solicitor apprenticeships provide aspiring solicitors with an ‘earn as you learn’ route to qualification, as an alternative to the traditional path through university. These programmes are usually five or six years long and are aimed at post A-Level students, with each employer usually having their own entry requirements to assess candidates. The costs of training and assessments over the course of the apprenticeship are not borne by the students, but rather, are paid for by the apprenticeship levy fund. This fund is paid into by businesses with an annual pay bill exceeding £3 million, and those providing apprenticeship-level training are able to recoup their contribution.

Those completing a solicitor apprenticeship are required to spend 80% of their time receiving on-the-job training, and 20% on off-the-job training. The former typically entails rotations through the various departments of the firm, like that of a traditional training contract. What the latter means in practice is that solicitor apprentices typically spend four days a week working with one day allocated as a ‘study day’, during which they first complete an LLB, and subsequently study for and take the SQE1 exams. Additionally, they also take the SQE2 exams towards the end of their apprenticeship. Upon completing the apprenticeship and passing both SQE1&2, candidates are ready to qualify as a solicitor.

Solicitor apprenticeships have been gaining significant traction in recent times, with Magic Circle firms, global and national players offering this alternative route to qualification. Check out the newly-launched Legal Cheek 2024 Solicitor Apprenticeships Most List for valuable insights on what life as an apprentice is actually like at over 30 law firms.

Also read about Holly Moore’s experience of starting out her career at ITV as the UK’s first in-house solicitor apprentice, her motivations for pursuing this route and how she balanced work and study.

Graduate solicitor apprenticeships

This is a newer route to qualification and sits somewhere between the solicitor apprenticeship and training contract options. It allows candidates to start gaining on-the-job experience and earning a salary straight after their law degree or conversion course, and usually lasts between two and three years. During this period, they complete the SQE1&2 and their QWE simultaneously.

As with the solicitor apprenticeship route, those seeking to qualify through this path gain on-the-job and off-the-job experience through an 80-20 split, usually spending four days a week working, and one day a week studying for the SQE. The training and assessments for the SQE are paid for by the firm using some or all of their contributions to the apprenticeship levy, as appropriate.

Emily Ross, a graduate solicitor apprentice at Astra Zeneca spoke to Legal Cheek in autumn 2023 about her experience of studying for the SQE1&2 alongside completing QWE.

Training contracts

This is the traditional, long-established route to qualifying as a solicitor. Candidates typically apply for vacation schemes in the penultimate year of their law degree, or in the final year of their non-law degree, and if successful, get offered a training contract after completing a short placement (the vacation scheme) at their chosen law firm. Alternatively, some firms allow candidates to apply for a direct training contract and there is also the option of completing a training contract in-house.

The firm pays the course and exam fees for its future trainees’ SQE1&2, and upon completing these assessments, candidates begin their two years of QWE at their chosen firm. Candidates are also often paid a maintenance grant by the firm to assist with living and other costs during the period of SQE study.

Roles open in Birmingham

Shoosmiths has added to the growing list of law firms embracing solicitor apprenticeships, opening up four positions to begin in September this year.

The national outfit is piloting the new programme within its Birmingham hub, with a view to including more locations in the future.

New apprentices will complete a fully funded LLB and SQE over the course of six years, whilst spending four days a week in the office. They will join the firm on a salary of £20,000.

You can find out more about the Shoosmiths apprenticeship, as well as the programmes at over 30 other firms, on the new Legal Cheek Solicitor Apprenticeships Most List 2024.

Eleanor Tanner, director of people at Shoosmiths, said:

“At Shoosmiths we are committed to nurturing talent and developing skills and expertise through providing relevant vocational and professional apprenticeships. We believe that talent can come from anywhere — it doesn’t have to be through the traditional university route. We are very excited for the launch this pilot and are looking forward to meeting the first cohort in September 2024.”

Apprenticeships aside, the Legal Cheek Firms Most List shows Shoosmiths takes on around 36 graduate trainees each year, offering Birmingham based recruits a salary of £31,000 in year one, £33,000 in year two, and £60,000 upon qualification.

Exclusive research

Legal Cheek’s inaugural guide to life as a solicitor apprentice at the UK’s leading law firms is now live.

The Solicitor Apprenticeships Most List 2024 features over 30 law firms, from Magic Circle giants and UK-based global elite players, to the leading national and specialist firms. You can search for which firms offer the most apprenticeships and how much they pay.

The launch of new list coincides with start of National Apprenticeship Week, which runs from 5-9 February and aims to shine a light on the positive impact that apprenticeships make to individuals, businesses and the wider economy.

The Solicitor Apprenticeships Most List serves as an interactive guide for aspiring apprentices, allowing them to assess their preferred law firms based on apprenticeship numbers, pay, office locations, and more. Each firm profile, featuring a distinctive Legal Cheek View, provides a comprehensive analysis contributed by apprentices within the organisation. This offers sixth formers valuable insights into the actual apprentice experience at each firm.

The Apprenticeships List complements our popular Firms Most List, which offers deeper insights into life at the firms and is geared towards university graduates pursuing qualification through the more traditional training contract route.

Each profile on the Apprenticeships Most List also provides crucial information about the structure of each apprenticeship, the approach to studying the LLB and SQE, office culture and social scene. It also highlights key deadlines for applications, insight days, and other apprenticeship-focused recruitment events.

From 2025

Magic Circle law firm Freshfields will take on in its first solicitor apprentices in September 2025, as the list of City outfits embracing the training contract alternative continues to grow.

Freshfields says it will recruit up to six apprentices who split their time between the office and the classroom, gaining a law degree and the SQE before qualifying as a solicitor. They will be based in the firm’s London office.

The move sees the firm join fellow MC rivals Linklaters and Allen & Overy, with the former taking on its first apprentices in September of this year, and the latter launching a similar scheme back in Autumn 2022.

Freshfields currently runs an apprenticeship programme within its Manchester support hub, although this leads to qualification as a paralegal rather than a solicitor.

Earlier this summer the firm lent its support for CityCentury, an alliance of over 50 top firms that have joined forces with the aim of recruiting at least 100 solicitor apprentices into London within the next year or so.

Speaking at the time, Freshfields’ London managing partner Mark Sansom, and early careers partner Craig Montgomery, said: “We are delighted to be working with CityCentury and to continue our efforts to diversify access routes into the profession. Alongside other participating law firms, we will continue to modernise and develop our routes to qualification and to help preserve the City of London as a world leading hub for diverse legal talent.”

The Legal Cheek First Most List 2024 shows Freshfields is one of the largest graduate recruiters in the City with an annual trainee intake of around 100.

Other firms to announce apprenticeship plans in recent months include HFW, Weil and Hogan Lovells.

Two spots for September 2024

Weil Gotshal has become one of the first major US headquartered law firms to embrace solicitor apprenticeships in its London office.

The outfit will shortly begin the process of recruiting its first two apprentices to join its new six-year pathway to qualification as a solicitor in September 2024.

The first four years will see apprentices rotate through various departments in the firm’s London office, before joining up with graduate trainees (those on the firm’s traditional training contract pathway) for the final two years. During the course, the apprentices will gain a law degree and will also complete the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).

The firm — which offers around 15 TCs each year — says it will be encouraging everyone who is eligible to apply, as well as targeting applicants who may not have the financial or supportive means to attend university.

Commenting on the launch of the new programme, Weil’s London managing partner Mike Francies said:

“Many people in the UK face multiple barriers to becoming qualified solicitors via the traditional path, and this route offers an opportunity for those with the drive, intellect and ambition to train and qualify with a leading law firm without the financial barrier of attending university. We are keen for people to apply as we believe we can offer an exceptional opportunity for our new apprentices to start their legal careers.”

Applicants will have achieved at least AAB at A Level and those who are successful will start on a salary of £25,000. The firm will also cover law schools fees and offer relocation support for all non-London-based apprentices.

The number of law firms offering solicitor apprenticeships has risen sharply over the past year or so. Legal Cheek reported earlier this year that over 50 top firms had joined forces to recruit at least 100 solicitor apprentices into London within the next 12 months as part of collaboration led by the City of London Law Society (CLLS).

The alliance, known as CityCentury, is spearheaded by Joanna Hughes, CLLS training committee member and founder of a solicitor apprenticeship consultancy, and Patrick McCann, chair of the CLLS training committee and learning director at Linklaters.

Fletchers Solicitors’ Joshua Whittam reflects on his six-year journey from school leaver to fully-qualified lawyer

Formerly one of Fletchers’ first legal apprentices and now a solicitor at the firm, Joshua Whittam could be considered something of a pioneer. He sat down with Legal Cheek to discuss his experiences.

Whittam’s story starts in 2016 when he was finishing sixth form in Southport. A local law firm approached his A-level law class asking for applications to their new training scheme. “Unbelievably, only a handful of us applied for it,” he recalls, “I think, looking back, some of those people who didn’t, must be regretting it now.”

That local law firm was Fletchers Solicitors, now one of the UK’s best-known personal injury specialists and one of the top 100 UK law firms by revenue. Whittam was one of just three candidates selected for the firm’s first solicitor apprenticeships. Now, at the age of 25 and almost one year since qualifying as a solicitor, Whittam has accrued almost seven years of experience in the profession.

Reflecting on his decision to pursue a legal apprenticeship, Whittam has no regrets. “I was considering my options, one of which was to go to university full-time, which I wasn’t particularly keen on — I knew I’d be back in the same position in three years’ time competing with graduates for entry-level training jobs.”

An apprenticeship just seemed to offer the best all-around package, he recalls: “The freedom of full-time university where you start to lead your own life was appealing, but I wanted to get started on a career. I wanted to save for a house and have a family one day, and being able to earn a wage whilst getting real experience just seemed perfect.”

Over the six-year scheme, he spent four days a week at work and one day a week attending university, working through a degree, then the SQE, and most recently a master’s. Being part of a small three-person cohort meant that his studies were always strongly supported and tailored through regular feedback.

But like any journey there were challenges. “You go to university to learn black-letter law and famous cases but that doesn’t always translate into what you’ll do day-to-day” he says. There was also the difficulty of balancing work alongside study on the apprenticeship scheme: “That was the hard bit”, he explains, “gaining more responsibility and slowly learning how to organize myself.”

The SQE regime change came into effect during Whittam’s journey to qualification and he found himself in the first cohort to sit both SQE exams. “We started the apprenticeship with the intention of doing the LPC,” he explains, “but our university prepared us for the change and we were kept up to date all along. We took the stoic approach to it: “it’s gonna happen, there’s nothing you can do about it — don’t think, just revise!”

Despite being guinea pigs for the regime change, this stoicism and a positive outlook helped Whittam and his peers through the process. “It was new for us, but it was also new for the SRA and the university, so everybody was stepping into the unknown and I took a little bit of comfort in that,” he says. “My understanding of the marking for the SQE is that it’s marked on a bell curve, so we just needed to be as good as everybody else.”

It has been widely reported that students are finding the SQE1&2 exams challenging, especially as they cover such a variety of formats. “The best way to prepare for the multiple-choice exams is to do lots of practice questions,” he advises. “Then for the written SQE2 exams, you need to be specific, and you’ll be fine. I must confess, the advocacy exam was the most nervous I’ve ever felt for an exam because it’s something that I don’t have the opportunity to do in practice,” he says.

“On the face of it when you stand at the bottom of the hill, it’s a huge mountain, but it’s not so bad when you break it down,” he explains.

Listening to Whittam, the benefits of training whilst in practice are clear. “There are certain things, intangible elements, that you cannot teach,” he says, “sitting next to a senior solicitor, talking to a barrister or talking to a client about what’s happening in that case is the sort of education you can’t pay for.” Plus, he adds, the firm is very supportive: “They gave me so much time to focus on education. I was allowed a day off work every single week as a minimum, and then more when it came to exam time.”

After training at the Southport office, Whittam made the move to Manchester when he joined the Employers’ Liability and Public Liability (EL/PL) team. “It’s a team that provides exposure to the most diverse type of work,” he says, covering everything from unsafe working practice injuries to trips and slips over potholes on defective highways.

When it comes to what it takes to be a good EL/PL lawyer, he emphasises three skillsets: the ability to remain calm and think about things logically, good customer service skills and being able to deal with a caseload efficiently.

Finally, what advice does Whittam have for school leavers trying to decide if a legal apprenticeship is the right route for them? “If you’ve done your research, spoken to people in the industry, and you’ve decided that it’s the career for you, then go for it,” he advises. “It can be stressful, but the right firm will support you through it. Fletchers is a great place to be as we have such a great group of people.”

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