Two out of 12 TCs will go to graduates already employed by national giant
Major national law firm Hill Dickinson has confirmed that two out of its 12 training contract places starting in 2018 will be made available to its existing paralegals who are on its internal ‘Growing Talent’ programme.
With glam offices in Monaco, Singapore and Hong Kong, the full-service firm — which has represented premiership football team, Everton — has already put a total of four of its paralegals onto its 2016 and 2017 trainee schemes. But now this policy has been formalised.
Internal candidates will not need to fulfil the usual trainee minimum academic standards of a 2:1 at degree level and ABB at A-level or equivalent.
In its London office, trainees at Hill Dickinson start on a salary of £32,000 per annum and in regional offices on £24,000.
The firm’s head of talent and development, Sarah Pickerill, has issued this statement via Lawyer2B:
Developing our people is a top priority for us. Our Growing Talent programme not only gives our top paralegals general development opportunities, it also provides them with an alternative route to securing a training contract.
Hill Dickinson isn’t alone in its strategy. City firm Trowers & Hamlins confirmed to Legal Cheek that it operates a similar policy unveiled in 2015 in which it holds back two out of the 23 training contracts it offers annually for its paralegals. The first of the firm’s successful paralegals started their training contract in March this year.
However, most big law firms require staff members to complete the same two-year-in-advance training contract application process as everyone else.
There has been a reluctance within firms to offer training contracts to internal candidates because of concerns that those candidates would spend their time canvassing for the traineeships rather than getting on with the job in hand but it looks as if these attitudes are changing.