Apprentice Paralegal Review

I work in a busy team alongside our team of paralegals, assisting the solicitors with running their cases. I am involved in obtaining records, arranging meetings, drafting letters, sorting Court bundles, attending Court hearings, the list goes on. Every day is different and the variety means it's very interesting.

I am constantly developing skills all the time. My communication skills within a team have improved, as well as my oral and written communication on a daily basis and understanding my audience, Court, client, barrister etc. My time management and planning skills have improved balancing a busy case load and meeting Court deadlines is crucial.

I really enjoyed my programme and developed a lot of personal skills and improved my legal knowledge.

The programme was quite well structed but there was definitely room for improvement from the external organisation.

My employer has provided me full support from the moment I started my apprenticeship. From my line manager to the Partner of the team, I have been supported throughout my apprenticeship and even now I have finished. They are keen for me to progress in my career and have given me the opportunities to do just that.

I did receive a fair amount of support from the training provider but this was more ad-hoc rather than the employer on a daily basis.

I think it does massively help with the skills you learn and develop. As stated above, the skills I have developed come through the training but the qualification also improves your legal knowledge.

Yes, within our organisation we have various committees like the charity foundation who organise office events to support our national charity partners, social committee who arrange Christmas and end of financial year parties (and adhoc social events), we get 14 hours of volunteering to use per calendar year, we attend networking events with charities and barristers chambers. There are groups like IM Aspiring, IM enable, being even better etc which can be joined. There are also a lot of other paralegals and juniors within each team/office to arrange social events and support each other.

Yes

Excellent opportunities to progress both as an individual and in your career with promotions. As a market leader, we get interesting and a good quality of work, meaning we can work with the top medical experts, barristers and other external professionals.

Be yourself, make sure you prepare and keep your options open to what area of law you are interested in.