Kennedys launches legal apprenticeship for school leavers

Readers' comments (40)

• Anonymous | 7-Feb-2012 10:53 am

  I hope a generation of bright young minds don’t fall for this ruse. Kennedys are just capitalising on the tuition fee fear amongst the young (and remember, we are talking about impressionable 17-18 year olds here) to get students who have the grades to be a ‘proper lawyer’ to settle to a lifetime of mediocrity, and a salary ceiling of about £30k. Ideas like this one are breeding a future of discontent.
  
  Any young people reading this, if you have the grades to get onto this scheme, and you want to be a lawyer, take the hit on the student loan and fulfil your potential. Be a lawyer, not a scared wannabe.

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• trainee | 7-Feb-2012 12:06 pm

  I could understand this scheme if the kind of people who were applying were those who couldn't make it to university or whom stood little chance of securing a TC and in that respect this would be a great alternative option. But students who achieve the necessary grades (as listed in the article) may as well continue on to apply for TCs than settling at this!

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• Oldie | 7-Feb-2012 12:53 pm

  The sad reality at firms like Kennedys who do sausage factory insurance defence work is that the work is grindingly dull and unsatisfying irrespective of whether you are qualified or not.

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• Barbara Hamilton-Bruce | 7-Feb-2012 1:04 pm

  Lifetime of mediocrity? Couldn't make it to university? The kids haven't even made it to the apprenticeship before they are being judged. Try instead considering it as another opportunity; as diversity in access to the law. Those who enter by this route are taking a different route into the law and will only be confined by their own ambitions or, if they are unlucky, by working with people who only see one path to greatness. Well done Kennedys for taking the leap into apprenticeships and good luck to the candidates.

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• P Doody | 7-Feb-2012 2:02 pm

  @Anonymous
  
  Why are you hiding? Are you not brave enough to attribute your own view?
  
  Perhaps you know that deep down what you have said it rubbish and that mediocrity is only the reserve of those that don't work hard, rather than where you were educated.
  
  Maybe you'd like to deliver your comments to the Chartered Legal Executives who are partners in some of the top law firms and are earning very high wages very early on in their careers?
  
  Is it jealousy or fear that makes you feel this way? Please do reply I'd love to know why you have such ridiculous small minded views.

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• Anonymous | 7-Feb-2012 2:26 pm

  You have missed the point entirely, Babs. Kennedys' apprenticeship entry criteria is on par with that of admission to a red brick university. So what ‘barrier to entry’ is this surmounting exactly? It is in fact profiting on the scaremongering accomplished by the press over university fees.
  
  This is not entry “into the law” as you claim, Babs, but entry, as Oldie so eloquently puts it, into “sausage factory insurance defence work (i.e. Small Track personal injury)."
  
  This type of apprenticeship is a backwards step for an aspiring lawyer, and a backwards step for Kennedys. How do the Kennedys management hope to ever compete with the Clyde’s and Mayer Brown’s of the litigation world when they are still thinking like the Parabis’?!

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• Judith Gordon-Nichols | 7-Feb-2012 2:36 pm

  I really had hoped that this archaic and elitist attitude would become a thing of the past in 2012. I am a chartered legal executive lawyer qualified for over 20 years. I have had an interesting, challenging career - certainly not a "lifetime of mediocrity". My caseload is equivalent in size, value and quality, to that of solicitor colleagues. My salary is considerably more than £30k. This is an innovative scheme to enable bright, hard working, dedicated young people from diverse backgrounds to achieve a worthwhile career in the law. And if they can do that without incurring huge amounts of debt before they even get into the workplace - well, what is wrong with that? Well done to Kennedys and to other firms taking this innovative approach and the very best of luck to the candidates.

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• stephen gowland | 7-Feb-2012 2:43 pm

  i can personally say that starting as an apprentice at the bottom and working your way up the ladder is the best way to become a top lawyer. i started many years ago via the ILEX route on an employment training scheme earning £35 per week. i am now also a qualified solicitor and have ran my own law firm for the past seven and a half years. good luck to the new intake of future lawyers at the firm.
  Stephen D Gowland
  Chartered Legal Executive and Solicitor

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• Anonymous | 7-Feb-2012 4:30 pm

  Barbara, you seem to be a legal Exec! Who would have thought?!
  Please note the name of this website, then go away and join your fellow glorified paralegals!

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• Anonymous | 7-Feb-2012 4:47 pm

  Give the kids a chance. There are bright kids out there who can't do it the traditional way, so go for it.

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