Are Legal Apprenticeships The Answer To Your Recruitment Woes?

Anyone running a law firm in 2024 will be well versed in the skill shortage facing the legal profession and the barrier this presents to achieving growth targets. Many managing partners and law firm CEOs must dream about trees that grow talented, personable solicitors and legal executives with the magic ingredient of five years of PQE. Unfortunately, there is no ‘solicitor talent tree’, and the dearth of experienced talent does not look like it will soon abate. According to the Law Society, in the year ending 31 July 2021, 5,495 new traineeships were registered. In that same year, 6,981 solicitors were admitted to the roll; 4,181 were female and 2,284 were male. These figures highlight one of the key reasons for the legal skill shortage: a significant drop-off in female retention at the three year PQE level.

Christl Hughes MBE, past president of the Leicestershire Law Society told the Law Society Gazette in 2022:

“There is a very high attrition rate – around a third of female solicitors leave the profession between five and 10 years after qualifying and do not return. Thus these [women] are not there to apply for the top positions. More research needs to be done on why they depart.”

The ‘great resignation’ following the pandemic also hit the legal profession hard, forcing firms to re-evaluate their recruitment and retention strategies and offerings beyond large salaries and bonuses. Given the challenges facing law firms needing to recruit experienced talent successfully, could returning to old-fashioned apprenticeships provide a solution?

An old solution to a new problem

Before Victorian times, most of those who ‘read law’ took Holy Orders and became country parsons. This was because university law schools taught Civil and Canon law and ignored all other subjects that were not expressed in Latin . Those who studied law in the 18th and 19th century worked as articled clerks during the day and attended lectures in the evening. The Attorneys and Solicitors Act 1728, provided that no person could practise as a solicitor unless he (there were no female solicitors until almost 200 years later) had undertaken an articled clerkship for at least a term of five years.

The articled clerk system provided advantages for both sides; law firms acquired and retained cheap labour, and the clerk learned all the practical aspects of the legal profession during the day while studying the theory at night. They were, therefore, productive pretty much from day one.

Modern apprenticeships provide a similar win-win. Employees accept a lesser salary in exchange for learning their craft and having their entire tuition paid for by their employer and the government. Employers also get the chance to employ and train people with diverse educations and backgrounds, for whom the traditional law school path may be financially out of reach. In addition, if an apprentice is integrated into a supportive environment with a clear career progression path, they will become swiftly productive and likely remain with the same employer. By using apprenticeships, employers can also mould their workforce to fit their business’s specific needs, leading to a harmonious, efficient, and diligent workplace.

It is important to note that it is not only solicitors who can choose the apprenticeship route – legal executives, paralegals, and probate technician apprenticeships can also be created.

Apprenticeship funding for legal sector employers

Engaging in legal apprenticeships opens the door to government funding. If your salary/wages overhead is over £3 million, your firm will contribute 0.5% of the bill to an apprenticeship levy towards the funding of apprenticeships. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) must know how much levy you owe monthly. Once you have alerted HMRC, your organisation can access apprenticeship funding by registering for an apprenticeship service account online with GOV.UK. For law firms with wage/salary costs below £3 million, the government will pay 95% of the cost of training and assessing your apprentices. Your law firm will need to pay the remaining 5%, and this funding must be spent on training and assessment rather than the apprentice’s salary or other expenses.

Final words

Legal apprenticeships provide an inclusive and dynamic solution to the need to attract talented people in order to grow an organisation. Although it is true that the benefits to your law firm may not be as immediate as securing a person with five years PQE, treating and training an apprentice well provides a foundation for loyalty that, in some cases, may last a working lifetime.

Albion Legal provides various added-value products and services, from bespoke employment disputes insurance cover to white-labelled HR software. To discuss any points in the above article or how we can help your business, please phone 0113 2471 717 or email our team.