The Legal Cheek View
This is the Bevan Brittan profile for those considering solicitor apprenticeships. Students looking to apply for training contracts should check out Legal Cheek‘s main Bevan Brittan profile.
Small but packing a public sector punch, the starring quality for commercial outfit Bevan Brittan is its close relationship with the UK’s sweetheart – the NHS. Famous for its work on huge deals for governmental bodies, it comes as no surprise that Bevan Brittan’s specialisms lie in clinical negligence, social housing and local government. But for aspiring solicitor apprentices who may not be gunning for a career in public law – do not fret. This infamously “friendly” outfit also serves up a ripe amount of commercial work across core sectors including financial services, construction, and energy & resource management. Solicitor apprenticeships are available at its three offices outside of the Capital for 2024: Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds.
Six years into her solicitor apprenticeship at Bevan Brittan, one seasoned insider gives Legal Cheek the downlow on her route into the law. Having always favoured the path less travelled, this Bevan Brittan apprentice was drawn to the “unconventional route” into qualification. Having set her youthful sights on going into the police force, this apprentice embarked on a college qualification in public services before being lured by the bright lights of the legal industry. “I did some work experience at a company my mum was working for at the time, where they were supporting her through her professional qualifications,” she explains. “I thought to myself – ‘surely they have something similar for becoming a lawyer.’” On discovering the solicitor apprenticeship scheme, it was a bit of a no brainer for this rookie, who cites the obvious “lack of student debt” and the “practical nature of the programme” as initial attractions to the scheme.
But what was it about Bevan Brittan that drew her in? “I’d done some work experience with different firms where I’d sat in the clinical negligence department and realised how much I enjoyed it. Bevan Brittan has a strong reputation within its healthcare team, and this initially attracted me,” she explains. As a firm which was a relative pioneer in the apprenticeship game, the experience that Bevan Brittan can offer also played a major role in her decision. “It showed the firm’s commitment to early learning and development,” she says. “I thought – ‘they must be quite on-it in the legal sector!’”. Also, our insider reveals, “the team in Birmingham is so friendly and it’s such a social office. My buddy on the apprenticeship programme is someone who I clicked with immediately and is one of my best friends to this day”.
Structurally, Bevan Brittan’s apprenticeship programme is divided into three core seats over six-years. The first four years see rookies nestle into one of the firm’s main practice areas, gaining experience and emerging veritable specialists. “You get to a level where you’re a very reliable member of the team with lots of responsibility,” one insider remarks when asked for her thoughts on the structure of the scheme. “Towards the end you gain a huge level of exposure to the cases and matters in your team. My supervisors wanted me to jointly work their cases start to finish in clinical negligence towards the end of my four-years.” Rather than joining the training contract rotations, the final two years of the apprenticeship allow seasoned recruits to embark on two year-long seats in practice areas of their choosing.
Sitting in commercial and infrastructure, one new apprentice tells us that there’s plenty to take in and lots of legal jargon to get accustomed to, but that the support from her team has been second-to-none and the work is “super interesting”. Her day-to-day in this team involves a lot of “drafting documents and contacting clients” as well as “creating instruction notes and attending client meetings”. A transactional seat working with schools and other public bodies, she tells us it’s really rewarding being able to get involved in varied work with plenty of cross-over with other practice areas.
When it comes to the one-day-a-week study on the apprenticeship, sometimes “it’s quite difficult managing the workload,” she reveals, “but it’s great to be able to work alongside studying.” She says, “I’ve had loads of support from my supervisor, who’s always willing to help me to apply my studying to my workload, so I can get a real grip on the synergies between academics and practice.”
Another interviewee who is close to sitting her Solicitors Qualifying Exams (SQE) tells us that “it definitely gets harder over the years and coursework can be quite hefty”. Now, she says, “I find most weekends I’m putting at least some hours in towards my education”. She warns that “especially coming up to exam time, if you want the top grades, you’ll have to sacrifice some evenings and weekends”. Fortunately for Bevan Brittan’s lawyer hopefuls, the firm is particularly generous with its study day allowances, and gives apprentices an extra two days off per exam to study as well as a half-day for taking the exam itself.
Away from the legal work and studying, the firm’s recruits rave about the social scene. One Birmingham-based source reveals the apprentices “are all so close”, adding that they’ve been on ski trips to Austria and France, and regularly go on spa breaks together too. “This is why I think Bevan Brittan really stands out, because you don’t tend to get this level of genuine friendship at other firms,” she says.
On the other “pull factors” of the Bevan Brittan apprenticeship, Legal Cheek’s interviewees emphasise “how supportive and committed the firm are to your learning and to shaping you as an individual”. In nature, Bevan Brittan is said to be a very “friendly and approachable” firm with insiders lauding the supportive culture in each team. On her advice to apprentice hopefuls, one recruit recommends “reflecting on who you are as an individual, your life experiences and what qualities you may have which would be valuable to the firm,” she says, “If you can get this across in your application, you’ll be golden.”
This is Bevan Brittan’s Solicitor Apprenticeship profile. Read Bevan Brittan’s full Legal Cheek profile here.