Exclusive: Clarke Willmott no longer accepts trainee applications
Clarke Willmott has confirmed that it will no longer be accepting training contract applications from students. The firm will however continue to take on trainees from its stock of paralegals.
Shock horror – or what?!?
Well, actually, Clarke Willmott have been openly saying that on their website since May or June (and that’s just since I’ve been aware of it; this may have been the case for even longer).
I suppose it still counts as an “exclusive” if it’s been common knowledge for yonks, and nobody is interested in “breaking” it. Just not a very worthy one, that’s all.
It must’ve been a slow news day over at RoF last week!!
At first sight, this might seem a great scheme: CW can try before it buys, as it will be able to thoroughly test its candidates' pagination skills before offering a training contract. And the firm won't have to foot any students' LPC fees.
But how many students will go for a paralegal job at CW if they are offered a training contact at another firm? CW may save a few quid, but it risks scraping the bottom of the grad rec barrel.
That grad rec barrel is a big and deep one, folks. I don’t think legal talent will be in short supply any time soon. And besides that, I’m surprised that more firms haven’t adopted this approach, quite frankly. It strikes me as a logical and meritocratic way of sourcing trainee solicitors.
No comments:
Post a Comment