The Legal Cheek View
This is the Foot Anstey profile for those considering solicitor apprenticeships. Students looking to apply for training contracts should check out Legal Cheek’s main Foot Anstey profile.
The five year legal apprenticeship scheme at Foot Anstey offers two pathways to qualification for candidates: traditional SQE training contract and legal executive (CILEX). Before you make that decision, the aim of the game is to earn while gaining boots-on-the-ground experience as a paralegal to make sure you have that practical exposure and firmwide support to serve as a foundation for qualification.
Here, you’ll be supported before you even start, you’ll meet your supervisor, buddy, and the early careers team with an induction and skills masterclass to prep you for your career. Once you get stuck in, you’ll learn the ropes on the integrated paralegal apprenticeship through years one and two, based in either Bristol or Taunton. These years will serve as a foundation in the “fast-paced” managed legal services team, where you’ll collaborate across the firm’s practices.
After completing your paralegal apprenticeship, you’ll begin to look towards qualification and that means choosing between the SQE and CILEX pathways. You won’t be going in blind — besides two years experience, with practical exposure alongside that, you’ll have support from the firm to make an informed decision going into year three.
Year three is when you start your studying, all the while continuing to work as a paralegal. You’ll work in different practice areas across the firm so you can gauge the types of work they do, what works for you and where you’d prefer to qualify. Once you hit years four and five, depending on your chosen route, you’ll proceed into the training contract cohort or remain working to ensure until qualification.
Foot Anstey looks for students on-track for or who have already attained BBB or equivalent at A-level, though they are sure to recruit contextually for all candidates. This means academics are not the be-all end-all for applicants, and mitigating circumstances are also considered in the human-reviewed applications.
This is Foot Anstey’s Solicitor Apprenticeship profile. Read Foot Anstey’s full Legal Cheek profile here.