Discussing Student Engagement Programmes with Chadwick Lawrence

Chadwick Lawrence litigators, Zoe Allen, and Kathryn Hunt, head up Chadwick Lawrence’s Student Engagement Programmes. These initiatives target schools, sixth forms, colleges, and universities, offering alternative pathways for people to get into the legal profession.

Zoe and Kathryn’s alternative routes into Law

We have known Zoe since 2011, when she was an A-level student interested in a law career. 

After one week of work experience at Chadwick Lawrence, Zoe discovered her affinity with law. She then came back to work for us during school holidays, keeping a relationship with the team at Chadwick Lawrence throughout her studies.

Doing part-time study, and full-time work, Zoe qualifies as a Legal Executive next year and was recently promoted to Associate. Zoe says this is the best decision she has ever made.

We hired Kathryn as a Paralegal, which she worked as while studying a traditional law degree part-time at BPP University London. She worked with us full-time for a year before starting a training contract beginning the formal process of becoming a solicitor.

Kathryn did her Legal Practice Course (LPC) at the University of Huddersfield and qualified in 2017. Since then, she’s worked ‘seats’ in several of our departments, including family, litigation, employment, and conveyancing. She discovered a passion for litigation where she now works as an Associate.

What are our Student Engagement Programmes?

Professional development and personal growth are at the heart of everyone’s individual career journeys with us and that’s a journey we love to support people through. We want the best people regardless of their routes into law. It is an integral part of our ethos to build foundations and relationships with the future generations of lawyers.

We have a variety of Student Engagement Programmes that we run across schools, sixth forms, colleges, and universities, all tailored to make our presence as beneficial to students as it can be.

Including:

•   Careers fairs. These provide us with the opportunity to talk to students one on one and offer personal advice about the options available.
•   Career talks for students. At this time in life, during GCSEs and A-Levels some students can feel ‘rabbit holed’ into certain routes out of school. For example, if a student shows a strong academic ability, they are encouraged to pursue a university education. We provide an alternative opinion.
•   University of Huddersfield mentor scheme. This gives students the ability to talk one on one with our legal experts for career advice. We also have a pro bono scheme where students can shadow local firms, such as us, giving free legal advice. Finally, we offer students free training sessions with our lawyers on their respective areas of legal interest.
•   Work experience placements. We offer work experience and placements where we try and give them a well-rounded summary of life as a lawyer throughout their time with us. We offer practical work experience either full-time or part-time whilst they are studying. They may then be presented an option to succeed with us via the CILEX route, like Zoe.

These programmes really excite and interest students, allowing them to hear about and experience what a career in law can involve. Students often feel they must have everything worked out by the time they turn 18, or even younger, we offer real options for them to consider.

Careers & Higher Education Advisor Dina Mistry reached out to us following a talk at Heckmondwike Grammar School and says: “The students said they found your Apprenticeship talk really inspiring, they enjoyed hearing about your career path and for some students who originally wanted to study law at university, they have said that your talk has resulted in them looking into law Apprenticeships! I really like the way you deliver your talk; your demeanour is so welcoming and the students felt very much at ease with you and able to relate to you. You had the whole hall of students engaged in your talk! Thank you so much, your contribution to our Careers Event was so valuable, I really appreciate you giving up your time for us.”

Zoe and Kathryn say they both felt like they didn’t come from backgrounds that automatically lent themselves to a career in law.

“We’re both from families with parents who didn’t attend university or have business connections as such,” says Kathryn.

“But we each had this amazing opportunity because of Chadwick Lawrence. And now we feel like it’s important for us to give back to other students and the future generation of our profession. By sharing our career journeys and the work of the firm, we can help others – and our firm.”

2023 Schedule

The team at Chadwick Lawrence are attending various Student Engagement Programmes in 2023, including the Annual Mentoring Scheme with Huddersfield University and the University of Law. If you would like our firm to visit your school, or to learn more about our Annual Work Placement opportunities, please get in touch.

Pathways to Progression

Click here to read about alternative routes into legal careers and our Pathway to Progression.