Apprentice Paralegal Review

On a day-to-day basis, I am tasked with attending client meetings, drafting correspondence, attending court, hearings, reviewing medical records, creating bundles, and attending conferences. I am also involved in case planning, attending and drafting witness statements, and liaising internally with not only my own team, but others throughout the firm

I have not only learned lots of new skills, but developed those that were pre-existing. I am a lot more confident in drafting court documents, as well as simple correspondence to clients and experts. My biggest area of development would be my verbal correspondence with clients - it almost comes naturally to me now!

I really am loving my apprenticeship, and I’m sad that it’s coming to an end. I love working for Irwin Mitchell - my team are lovely and whatever so welcoming, and I love the variety of work that appears in my inbox every day. No two days of the same, and by working as a paralegal, I work across the teams caseload.

In terms of structure, I have a weekly catch ups with the paralegal hub on a Wednesday and then hub capacity on a Thursday. I also have weekly catch ups with just my line manager as well as my one-to-ones. For the bulk of my apprenticeship, I had meetings every six weeks with my external coach, and meetings every 12 weeks with my coach and my line manager.

I receive so much support from my employer, I am very grateful for it. Everybody in my team as well as the early careers department are incredibly approachable. I have catch ups throughout the week with my internal team and quarterly catch ups with the early careers hub and my apprenticeship manager to discuss my progress and any feedback.

I am now coming to the end of my apprenticeship, however, previously I would receive support from my coach every six weeks, and I know that she was only an email away if I needed her in between these meetings. In terms of on program learning, I would have workshops every two weeks surrounding the specific topics that I was studying for my area of practice.

My off the job learning allowed me to really reflect on how far I have come since starting my apprenticeship in September 2021. Collating my portfolio of evidence for my endpoint assessment. Interview allowed me to note just how far I’ve come in not only my confidence, but the development of my skills in a variety of tasks.

I am a member of our offices butcher volunteer team. I am looking to get it more involved in our charities foundation team as well. Our team has some very strong business development relationships with a variety of organisations in the local area and I am keen to attend development events held wherever and whenever possible.

Yes

I really do love working for Irwin Mitchell. The environment is better than I ever imagined, the variety of work challenges me but excites me and I feel that I have really settled in well to the team as well as the firm. I am aware of my progression opportunities and look forward to working further with my colleagues in the future.

My top tip would be to research the firm that you are applying for. Nobody expects you to know everything, but it’s a great idea to have some knowledge surrounding the background the employer prior to your interview also for yourself and don’t centre everything around the legal industry, you are a human as well as a lawyer!