BPP’s Deputy Director of Legal Apprenticeships Clare Wardell on why empathy, judgement and professional confidence matter just as much as SQE results
Clare Wardell is particularly well placed to tackle one of the trickier questions facing law firms and legal educators today. A criminal barrister turned Deputy Director of Legal Apprenticeships at BPP, she has seen the journey into law from both sides — from entering the profession herself to preparing the next generation for it — and is focused on how best to support future talent through the SQE and into early practice, while ensuring they are genuinely ready for its professional demands.
It is a timely discussion. Since the pandemic, firms have become increasingly alive to concerns around professional etiquette, workplace confidence and the softer skills that young lawyers need to thrive in practice. The issue is not just whether early-career lawyers can pass demanding exams, but whether they can communicate well, build relationships, take feedback, exercise judgement and understand the sometimes-unwritten rules of professional life.
“Gen Z lawyers work just as hard as previous generations — actually harder, because the competitive environment is even greater now,” Wardell says. “To succeed, they take on extra commitments, such as volunteering to develop skill sets that complement their academic journey.” The difference, she suggests, between the newer and older generations of lawyers is that success is no longer defined solely by the traditional career ladder. “It is more about purposeful working.” Young lawyers still want to be intellectually challenged, but they are also looking for work that aligns with their values.
This shift, she believes, is one of the defining features of Gen Z legal talent. “The development of soft skills is crucial, especially with the advent of AI in the workplace,” she says. In particular, “they want to develop communication, empathy and networking skills.” Wellbeing also plays a central role: “Wellbeing and finding a good work-life balance are vital to them; their work is important”. They are also “keen on being mentored, developed, and receiving feedback”, Wardell adds, “but they also want meaningful time outside the workplace.”
The focus on development marks a clear generational shift, according to Wardell. “When I was called to the Bar in 2000, I wasn’t thinking much about getting feedback; I was more focused on getting to ‘the next step’ as were my solicitor peers,” she says. “For Gen Z, at least in the early part of their careers, it’s less about climbing the ladder and more about developing their own skill set. I find this approach to their development really admirable.”
Wardell thinks there’s plenty the profession can learn from today’s junior talent. “They’re much more receptive to feedback and have a strong desire to develop”. They “embrace technology brilliantly, having grown up with digital tools”, and are highly adaptable. The importance they place on “self-care and well-being”, she says, “will stand them in good stead for both personal and professional success”.
But while the strengths are clear, so too are the challenges — many of which centre on the transition from academic success to professional competence. “Emerging talent is used to working hard academically, but learning professional etiquette and relationships takes time,” she says. That task has “become harder in an age of hybrid working because so much can now be done remotely; but they still need those ‘water cooler moments’ to build a professional community, and to learn from those who came before them.”
Some of these issues become more pronounced in the apprenticeship space, where fledgling lawyers are entering firms at just 18, straight from school or college. “The biggest challenge is hiring someone who has never been in a workplace before.” That can mean helping apprentices develop confidence in everything from “email etiquette to meeting conduct”. But she is also keen to stress the strengths of the model. Apprenticeships, she says, are “brilliant because they combine working and learning to develop these skills”.
This is where close collaboration between firms and education providers becomes critical. “The solicitor apprenticeship space aligns coaching support with the competencies required by the SRA,” she explains. “In progress review meetings, a coach meets with the learner and their supervisor to identify skills gaps and use real workplace examples to develop, and ultimately, embed those skills.” This collaboration ensures “the employer and education provider are supporting the apprentice throughout their journey”.
When asked about skills gaps in young lawyers, she is quick to reframe the question. “I wouldn’t call it a ‘gap’, but rather an area for skills development.” One example is legal research, particularly with the rise of AI. “The challenge now is less about finding the information: “it’s much more about turning legal research into reliable professional advice.” As she puts it, “developing the judgement to deliver advice takes time and mentorship, which is why the supervisor relationship is so important.”
That point goes to the heart of BPP’s session at next week’s LegalEdCon 2026. Passing the SQE is a major milestone, but it does not instantly produce polished junior lawyers. Early practice demands judgement, communication, accountability and resilience — all skills that develop through support, supervision and experience. Wardell’s own move from practice into legal education was motivated by precisely that desire to pass on the practical skills she developed in her years as a barrister. Practice, she says, teaches “accountability and good judgement”, qualities she now brings into her work at BPP.
Wraparound support, in her view, “is absolutely imperative to future lawyers.” At BPP, she points to skills sessions and support for “commercial awareness, well-being, digital literacy, neurodiversity, teamwork and time management.” For SQE learners in particular, she highlights the fact that BPP provides “structured support to help students manage their workload and to help them manage themselves through the high-stakes SQE assessments”.
The broader message is not simply that students need to work harder or that firms should lower expectations. It is that the transition from legal education into practice is more complex than ever. The SQE, apprenticeships, hybrid working, AI, well-being concerns and shifting career expectations are all reshaping what early-career professional development looks like.
BPP’s session at LegalEdCon 2026 will explore that reality in more depth. What motivates emerging talent, what they say they need, what firms are seeing, and how educators and employers can work together to bridge the gap between passing exams and becoming confident, capable professionals. As she puts it, the aim is to deliver “the best learning and development programmes for the next generation”, because doing so “opens so many opportunities for great emerging talent”.
Clare Wardell will be speaking on BPP’s panel, ‘Understanding what motivates Emerging Talent in an ever-changing world’ at LegalEdCon 2026, Legal Cheek’s annual future of legal education and training conference, which takes place in-person on Thursday 14 May at Kings Place, London. Final release tickets for the Conference can be purchased here.
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