Post quickly vanishes
A partner at City law firm RPC has come under fire for offering mentoring sessions to young aspiring and junior lawyers at £75 a-time.
Rachel Ford made the offer in which sees mentees book 45 minute slots at £75 a time through her personal TikTok page where she documents life as a lawyer while offering advice to those seeking enter the profession.
Ford — who uses neither her full name nor discloses her RPC connection — made her account private just hours after posting, making the video no longer publicly visible.
Legal Cheek obtained a copy of the video before the account was locked down over the weekend, in which she explains that as an aspiring and junior lawyer, she “really would have loved to chat to someone in the industry who was experienced.”
“I felt like there was no one really like that back when I was trying to get into the industry or training,” says Ford, who specialises in cyber and tech insurance. “I really love passing on knowledge and experience to more junior members in this industry. Love building people up, love giving people the tools for success, love just connecting with people. I find it very, very fulfilling.”
Ford — who has spent nearly 10 years at RPC and made partner in 2024 — goes on to say that she is running “one-to-one mentoring sessions” and directs interested viewers to a Linktree (a landing page that allows you to share multiple links on social media) in her TikTok bio, which shows that 45 minutes of her time will set you back £75. The page (see screenshot below) no longer appears to be live.
“I’m actually only going to do four this month because life is just chaotic over here and I balancing a lot,” she continues. “But I don’t want to let this bit of me go so I am here if anyone wants to chat.”
Unsurprisingly, a City law firm partner charging for mentoring has not gone down well.
Future trainee solicitors who saw the TikTok told Legal Cheek they were puzzled by the apparent contradiction between the partner’s stated passion for mentoring and her decision to monetise that support. Some noted that partners at major City firms are hardly struggling financially, and questioned why someone who claims to love giving guidance would charge people for it.
The criticism also spilled over onto the message boards of Reddit. “The fact that she is doing this and there are so many of us that do this for free is absolutely pathetic,” wrote one user. “Shame on her.”
“Imagine being a partner at a mid-size commercial law firm and charging anyone £75 an hour…” a second commenter posted. “£75/45 minutes, to be clear,” a third clarified.
“I feel like RPC are surely going to have something to say about this!” a fourth remarked.
In a statement to Legal Cheek, RPC’s managing partner Antony Sassi said:
“We recognise that everyone has a life outside work and value the diversity of thought and experience that brings. Our social media policy accepts that there is often a fine line between personal life and professional, particularly online. At RPC, we take our professional responsibilities and the reputation of the firm incredibly seriously and make it clear that we all need to exercise caution in treading that line, even when clearly operating in a personal capacity and with the best of intentions.”
He continued: “As a firm, we are deeply committed to supporting people at different stages of their careers — whether they are aspiring lawyers, those in the early years of practice, or professionals balancing the demands of work and family life — through a range of established initiatives. These include structured mentoring opportunities that we actively encourage people to participate in, alongside longstanding and highly regarded pro bono and community engagement programmes.”