The law is not just a young person’s game. Rachel Rothwell discovers that age is no barrier to becoming a solicitor


One potential hotspot for law firms when age discrimination legislation is introduced in October 2006 will be the recruitment of trainees.


Right now, firms run ‘graduate’ recruitment programmes geared towards gifted and fresh-faced students in their early 20s. But there are many talented if wrinklier people out there who choose a legal career later on in life.


For most of them, the search for a training contract can seem like an endless game of musical chairs, where every time the music stops the bright young things have already taken all the seats. Is the profession letting stereotypes cause it to miss out on the experience and enthusiasm these people have to offer?

Made it: Dunnico at his admission ceremony


Certainly in the City, older trainees are something of a rarity. Of the five magic circle law firms, only Clifford Chance would reveal details of the age of its trainees to the Gazette. It has seven trainees who are over the age of 30.



Peter Wright, chairman of the Trainee Solicitors Group, says there are far fewer opportunities out there for more mature would-be lawyers. He says: ‘It is an established fact that 40% of training contracts go to first and second-year LLB students. As a mature student, your avenues are severely limited.’


Could recruitment that targets the young fall foul of the new age discrimination laws when they come in next year? Ashley Norman, an employment partner at national firm Pinsents, says: ‘There is a school of thought that says that by just doing the university milk round as your marketing, you are excluding older applicants. It is a good idea to think about ways of including more mature applicants, for example by liaising with the Open University or advertising in certain journals.’


Despite the odds stacked against them, some persevering older applicants do secure a training contract – and their firms find they bring many advantages. Clive Dunnico qualified as a solicitor this month at the age of 63 after securing a training contract with Dowse Baxter in Wimbledon, south London.


As a 17-year-old in 1959, he entered articles of clerkship but struggled at law school with just seven O-levels. He was advised that he may have entered articles too early and should obtain some A-levels. This he did and then entered the banking sector instead, building a successful career. However, he says that on turning 50, he found himself regretting never having qualified as a solicitor and a few years later gained a law degree through evening classes and did a part-time legal practice course (LPC). Following his retirement in 2001, he began looking for a training contract, which turned out to be ‘a nightmare’.


‘I sent out 50 letters to high street firms, because I wanted to do family and probate work, and got only three interviews. In some ways I can understand why – because I had been in an executive role in the past, firms might wonder if I would try and change things. But as I said in my interview at Dowse Baxter, when I did my part-time law degree I was happy to abide by university rules along with the 20-year-old students. But I can understand the fears when someone has 40 years’ work experience.’


He adds: ‘When I was 20, I knew it all. But now I’m in my 60s, I know there is still a hell of a lot to learn. The older person can give so much in terms of experience in working with people.’


Louise Nahan, a solicitor at the Leeds office of Pinsents, recently qualified at the age of 42 after working as an engineer in the power industry for 16 years. She says: ‘I wanted a radical change, and I picked law because I had had some involvement in contract conditions in my previous job. I did a distance-learning conversion course and carried on working at the same time. At the end of the course, I was offered a summer placement with Pinsents.


Aspiring solicitor: Dunnico aged 21

‘But of all the students on my course, many of whom were older, there were only two of us who had a training contract by the end of the two years. A lot of older people on the course had the impression that firms – especially the big City firms – wanted someone they can mould.’

She adds: ‘Older trainees may not be as malleable as 22 year-olds, and may not want to move around the country. But we have more experience of talking to clients, we have more world experience, and we have experience of doing a job. So we are great value.’


At Morgan Cole’s Oxford office, Aileen Young is a 43-year-old trainee and former sales manager for Kodak. She says: ‘I had a master of arts at Glasgow University and so had to go back to full-time study 20 years later.


‘Getting a training contract was extraordinarily hard, but having spent so many years in sales I was not going to give up, and in the end I managed to get my LPC paid for. I applied to 30 firms in the south-east, many of which claimed in their brochures that they welcome mature people and their commercial experience. But when you actually write to them, you get rejections.


‘This is a young person’s industry. Firms imagine that it will be hard to get older people to do the running around that they expect trainees to do. But older trainees are more likely to be a team player, and they are less likely to clash with colleagues.’


Ann Emery, human resources director at south-east firm Thomas Eggar, which has a higher number of older trainees than most firms, says: ‘At some of the bigger firms, it seems they just want all the trainees to be the same, because it is easier to manage that way. A more diverse group of trainees may mean more to manage, but you reap the benefits through the skills older trainees have to offer. There is a stereotype about older people that they can’t change, but the fact that they are changing their career shows they are able to adapt.’

Helen Goss, a partner at Morgan Cole, which also takes on more mature applicants, adds: ‘Our older trainees have helped us to move into different sectors such as biochemistry, because of their industry knowledge. Their experience is a real asset.’