Law in 2024: Diverse careers paths enrich profession
Andrew Wild, head of legal at First4InjuryClaims:
Coming from a working-class background shouldn’t define your career choices, but it did for a long time.
Years ago, you wouldn’t have seen the son of a nurse and a toolmaker in Number 10, much less a single mum who left school at 16 with no qualifications as his right-hand woman.
You also wouldn’t have seen the different careers and routes to qualification that have opened up for people wanting to work in the legal industry.
The son of a secretary and a bank manager, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study law at university, but only after I had spent a year learning the ropes as an office junior at a local firm. The grounding that gave me was invaluable and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity.
Many people may not be able to afford the time and funding that the traditional route into law requires, typically several years to complete a degree, Legal Practice Course (LPC), and a training contract – hard to come by and, often, firms will offer them to their paralegals first.
That’s why, at First4InjuryClaims, we’re building a business where the door is very much open for graduates to come in and start earning, learning and building their hands-on experience straightaway.
For us it’s about the person and whether they have the right attitude, drive and desire to do the work and help our clients rather than focusing solely on their qualifications. We have both law and non-law graduates and apprentices in our team who all join as claims assistants, receive the same training opportunities and start on the same level playing field when it comes to progression.
We also recently launched an initiative whereby colleagues can study for CILEX qualifications, funded and supported by the firm, and our first candidate enrolled earlier this year. The ethos behind CILEX is to make the legal profession more accessible and inclusive, enabling people to qualify as lawyers without needing a university degree, and those with degrees to fast-track their qualification, which is in line with our own visions and values.
Separately, for those interested in property law, there are also now diplomas available that individuals can complete in as little as 18 months to become licensed conveyancers.
There is still some snobbery around those who have qualified as lawyers via a non-traditional route, but that is thankfully fading fast as the industry moves towards a more diverse and inclusive culture. Making these kinds of careers more accessible also opens up a much wider and richer pool of talent for law firms, which in the ongoing recruitment crisis can only be a bonus.
First4InjuryClaims continues to thrive and that is down to our team and their commitment to achieving the best outcomes for our clients. We wouldn’t be where we are (or have won ‘Claimant Team of the Year’ at last year’s Personal Injury Awards) without the efforts of each and every one of them.
Diversity, equality and inclusion are very much on the agenda for businesses at the moment and rightly so. Your background should not be a barrier to any job and the legal industry would be a far poorer place to work if it had not started to open its mind and its doors.
