Burges Salmon sets up job site for Halliwells trainees
Students whose Halliwells training contracts were cancelled after the firm went into administration have been offered a potential lifeline by Burges Salmon.
Stephen McNulty
The Bristol firm hopes that every law firm in the country will sign up to a project that will attempt to match trainees with firms located in a region where they are able to work.
The firm has launched a portal on its website for trainees to submit their CVs and offer letters, which will then be sent on to other firms taking part in the scheme.
Burges Salmon senior partner Stephen McNulty has already contacted at least five top 50 firms to drum up support for the scheme, which went live today (2 August). He said it would be “a litmus test for the decency of the profession”.
McNulty pledged that his firm would take on at least one of the 51 students left without training contracts after Halliwells went into administration last month.
“Halliwells won’t have offered contracts to people they didn’t think were good enough,” added McNulty. “It’s a question of matching them to the right firm.”
One trainee who had been set to join Halliwells said: “What Burges Salmon’s proposing for us would really be a lifeline to all the trainees who’ve forked out thousands of pounds to train and have been left jobless.”
The first wave of CVs sent to firms signing up to the scheme will be from those offered contracts beginning this September. There will be further waves for the prospective January and June 2011 intakes.
To access the portal click here.
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Readers' comments (38)
Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 2:30 pm
I work at BS, and was (uncharacteristically) proud to read about this. Nice to see my employers can get some things right, at least. PR-related motivations aside, hopefully it will do some good (which is better than nothing at all, all ye cynics) - that said, it will need the buy-in of others to make it work, and there's plenty of good PR potential to be shared around here. Here's hoping a bunch of other firms step up (although those with poor trainee retention rates may struggle to justify doing so)...
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Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 2:43 pm
I think this is a great move. Undeniably many in the profession have been moved by the plight of Halliwells' former trainees and have been taking steps to help them find work.
It's great that Burges Salmon has has made the leap (no pun intended) to the next level though. Lets hope it does the trick.
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Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 2:46 pm
BS deserve some good PR for taking the initiative and trying to do something positive, in sharp contrast to the SRA. Whilst it is unlikely that all will be placed in the current economic climate, if even a few young lawyers are able to put their careers back on track it will be worthwhile and a success. I hope other firms try and support BS.
TSS
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Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 3:50 pm
Stephen McNulty - if you ever get tired of private practise, put your hat in the ring for Chief Executive role of the SRA...you evidently have the imagination and forward thinking approach that is so desperately needed to give that organisation strong leadership. WELL DONE!
And come on managing partners at other leading law firms...the standard has been set, get involved in this honourable initiative.
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Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 4:17 pm
This is not a matter for the regulator to attend to. The default response of looking to a government department/regulator to deal with something that is ostensibly a private matter is rediculous. This is an example of the recent "Big Society" initiative the government is talking about whereby actually we, as citizens, can actually do something about the issue. It is a credit to our profession in general and Messrs Burges Salmon in particular.
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Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 4:36 pm
What is all the doom and gloom about according to the BBP web site "Law firms have reported an increase in recruitment, so now is the time to further your legal career and study the LPC - the vocational training programme for those intending to practise as solicitors." @
http://www.bpplawschool.com/programmes/lpc/
oh sorry just the unscrupulous preying on the desperate
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NQ who lost job post-Lehmans and has now changed | 2-Aug-2010 4:47 pm
the LawSociety should be taking the initiative to set up this kind of scheme, not the SRA.
Anyway, the LawSoc is an absolute embarrassment of a trade union. It is an insult to compare it to the medical profession's equivalent.
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Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 4:49 pm
i don't agree with some of the comments that only a small minority of the 51 trainees / potential trainees in question will find new 'homes'. what BS are asking law firms to do in essence is to take on one extra trainee. provided the trainees concerened are reasonably flexible as to location, it should be very achievable to secure them training contracts with other firms (each top 50 firm taking on one extra trainee or 1 in 2 top 100 firms doing the same).
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Linda Lee, Law Society president | 2-Aug-2010 4:51 pm
For a number of weeks now, the Law Society has been active in dealing with the fall out from the demise of Halliwells.
I have been very concerned about the very difficult position of those whose training contracts with Halliwells have now been cancelled. They are obviously an extremely talented and highly motivated group. If they fail to secure alternative training it will be to the profession's detriment.
I would hope that their qualities will be recognised and that they will all quickly secure new contracts so that their careers in the law will not be jeopardised. With this in mind, the Law Society Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) has been in direct contact with those trainees to offer advice and direct them to the practical information section on the website. http://juniorlawyers.lawsociety.org.uk/node/2293
To further assist, the JLD is hosting a series of networking events starting on September 16th in Manchester. Further information will be available soon on the JLD website.
We also appreciate that it’s not only Halliwell’s trainees who find themselves in this dreadful situation. The high number of visitors to the JLD’s securing a training contract webinar reflects the extent of the problem. http://juniorlawyers.lawsociety.org.uk/node/2171
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Anonymous | 2-Aug-2010 5:34 pm
Linda, darling, sweet pea, why has it taken the Law Society SO SO long to take any DIRECT action? (web seminars apart...which were utterly usesless BTW, I have been on them all).
While you plan your coffee mornings in Manchester, which no one of influence will attend to be able to help, the mood of the people is blatantly with Stephen McNulty. Why ? - because he has suggested VERY QUICKLY an idea that could actually work!
GET A GRIP SRA/LAW SOCIETY, please!
Can we set up a face book page - "Axe the SRA, down with the law society - and make the bold Stephen McNulty a Knight!"
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