The solicitor apprenticeship is 10 years old, reports Joanna Goodman. Has the scheme lived up to expectations?
The low down
From the 16th century, a traditional trade apprenticeship lasted up to seven years. At its conclusion, the subject became a ‘journeyman’ and, upon submitting a ‘masterpiece’ example of their craft to their guild, a ‘master craftsman’. By that measure, the solicitor apprenticeship system, now 10 years old, should be at or near the top of its game. Apprentices perform strongly in the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, with 800 having already passed. They qualify having done the hard yards of combined work and study, and their quality is not in question. But has the apprenticeship system delivered on other aims such as improving diversity and social mobility? And will missing out on the wider university experience disadvantage these lawyers later in their careers?
On the Solicitor Apprenticeship Scheme’s 10th anniversary, how is it meeting its original aims of providing quality training and broadening access to the profession? And how does the apprentice experience now compare with the graduate route?
The scheme itself has been around for a decade but solicitor apprenticeships take six years, so 2026 is only the fourth year in which apprentices have qualified as solicitors.
In terms of training and qualification, the scheme is a resounding success, with more than 5,000 people starting an apprenticeship between 2018 and 2025. According to the Solicitors Regulation Authority report, The SQE Four Years On, solicitor apprentices consistently perform best in the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). More than 800 apprentices have passed SQE, with an overall pass rate of around 71% for SQE1 and 93% for SQE2, compared with 66% and 85% respectively for the full cohort.
Apprentices generally come from less privileged socio-economic backgrounds, with little difference in performance between school-leaver and graduate apprentices.
Funding and social mobility
While this indicates that the solicitor apprenticeship scheme is delivering in terms of performance standards and social mobility, significant funding challenges remain.
On 1 January changes took effect limiting government funding for new Level 7 apprenticeships to people aged 16 to 21.
Although current apprenticeships remain funded, eligibility now leans heavily towards school-leavers. The funding cuts are also affecting recruitment. Smaller firms with limited training budgets tend to prefer younger candidates, limiting access to the profession for people over 22.
Jonathan Bourne, CEO of Damar Training, which delivers apprenticeship programmes, sees access declining for two main reasons. ‘First is the age cap,’ he says. ‘Anyone whose academic or work career has taken even a minor detour is likely to be 22-plus on enrolment, and almost no employers are commercially funding the programme. Second is a general tightening of entry-level recruitment.’
Victoria Fearne is head of strategic client partnerships at SQE training provider BARBRI. She observes that although apprenticeships are designed to broaden access to the profession, big City firms recruit the highest-performing candidates academically. ‘While the apprenticeship route broadens access, it doesn’t necessarily remove all barriers [to entry] when you have candidates who are weighing up an offer from Oxbridge against a Clifford Chance apprenticeship,’ she says. She adds that as the SQE is a national licensing exam, all candidates are judged by the same standards. Top echelon City firm apprentices have a clear advantage.
Wales: a legal brain drain
Another ongoing difficulty around apprenticeship funding is regional inequality. In England, funded apprenticeships have supported diversity and social mobility by improving entry into the profession for just over a decade. However, Wales still has no funded Level 7 solicitor apprenticeships or Level 6 Chartered Legal Executive apprenticeships. Funded legal apprenticeships are restricted to Level 3 (paralegal) and Level 5 (advanced paralegal). Both the Law Society and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX) have lobbied the Welsh government to change this, particularly given Wales’ ageing legal workforce, where 38% of private practice legal professionals are over 50.
The lack of apprenticeship opportunities is exacerbating the legal brain drain to England. Research by the Law Society and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David shows that 91% of law students in Wales would have considered a Level 7 apprenticeship, and Welsh school-leavers are applying for legal apprenticeships in England. This threatens access to justice in Wales. Law Society president Mark Evans says: ‘Fully funding a Solicitor Level 7 apprenticeship programme would allow Wales to grow its own talent, particularly in rural and high street firms, and help reverse the spread of legal deserts.
‘The Welsh government cannot afford to delay investment in the Level 7 apprenticeship. The status quo is not an option if we are to maintain equitable access to justice in Wales. With many areas of Wales having fewer than one solicitor per 10,000 residents, the Level 7 route would provide a much-needed boost to local access to justice by creating a pipeline of local talent from diverse backgrounds.’
Ahead of the Senedd election last May, the Law Society asked the Welsh government to ‘introduce funded legal Level 7 apprenticeships, matching the offer available in England over the past decade’. CILEX president Sara Fowler told Legal News Wales: ‘Funding high-level apprenticeships offers an opportunity to strengthen routes into law and other professional occupations, giving aspiring lawyers from all backgrounds the chance to qualify while continuing to work.’
Growing their own lawyers
A wide range of firms run solicitor apprenticeship programmes. Large firms use the apprenticeship route to grow their own lawyers from scratch and introduce diversity into their workforce without compromising quality.
Dentons is the world’s biggest law firm by headcount, with over 11,000 lawyers across more than 80 countries. Its solicitor apprenticeship programme is one of three routes to qualification into the firm, alongside its graduate training contract and QualiFLY, an internal SQE sponsorship programme for paralegals.
Dentons typically takes on four or five solicitor apprentices each year. This cohort is smaller than the graduate trainee cohort and the two merge for the final two years of the training programme. Apprentices complete four year-long seats before joining the graduate trainees for an additional four six-month seat rotations.
Apprentices therefore get a broader experience of the firm than graduate trainees, says solicitor apprentice Leila Roche. ‘I believe that having experienced more seats and being able to sit in four teams for a year’s duration each, as opposed to six months, allows for the opportunity to get a good understanding of the work that each team does,’ Roche says. ‘This additional experience will be invaluable when it comes to deciding which area of law I would like to qualify into.’
Dentons hails the programme’s success. ‘This September, 100% of our solicitor apprentices reaching qualification have been retained as associates,’ says early careers development partner Eleanor Hart. ‘That’s a strong indication that the apprenticeship isn’t simply an alternative way into the profession: it’s developing high-quality lawyers who are progressing successfully into qualified roles.’
Farrer & Co is an independent law firm best known as the longstanding legal adviser to the royal family and representing high-net-worth private clients, charities and educational institutions.
Katherine Wilde, partner and director of knowledge, learning and development, and Rebecca Reese, senior graduate and solicitor apprentice manager, run three apprenticeship programmes. Ad hoc business services apprenticeships were introduced in 2017, an annual solicitors apprenticeship scheme began in 2022 and the second cohort of practice assistant apprenticeships has just started. Farrer & Co recruits two solicitor apprentices each year, so although the cohort has grown, none has yet qualified.
Reese explains that the scheme starts by familiarising school-leavers with the workplace, before they join the graduate trainee cohort for the final two years. That way, by the time they join a legal team, they have two years of solid office experience.
‘Apprentices complete four six-month seats with our business services teams: knowledge, learning and development, IT, finance and risk, and marketing and business development,’ Reese says. ‘This helps ease school-leavers into the workplace, helps them understand the law firm as a business and builds their commercial awareness.
‘Years three and four are spent in two different legal teams. Then for the last two years, they join our trainee cohort. Our first solicitor apprentices have just started that, and they will be doing our usual trainee rotation of six four-month seats.’
Wilde says that there are usually 10 or 12 trainees in the firm at any one time.
At high street firms, apprentices are integrated into smaller teams, picking up commercial and client communication skills alongside their legal and professional training.
Tracy Hatswell leads the trusts and estates practice at Potters Bar firm Wason Male & Wagland (WMW), which employs solicitor apprentices, paralegal apprentices and business services apprentices. She has found that most candidates apply for apprenticeship schemes to avoid the cost of qualifying as a graduate trainee – and not everyone wants to work in a big City firm.
Hatswell agrees with Roche at Dentons that deciding which field of law to qualify into is a key decision; and an apprenticeship provides the practical experience to make an informed choice.
WMW has run a two-tier legal apprenticeship programme for six years. ‘We only consider people for solicitor apprenticeships once they’ve done the paralegal apprenticeship,’ says Hatswell. ‘It gives them an opportunity to see if they can cope with balancing study and work, and it gives us an opportunity to see how they perform. Most of my apprentices do their paralegal qualification in 18 months.’
They then have the option to do the solicitor apprenticeship in five years. While they spend a little longer overall, ‘they also have the opportunity to take a break after the paralegal qualification’, Hatswell notes. ‘Or if they find that work and study is just too much, they can get out with a qualification, which is particularly useful if they left school before A-levels.’ WMW currently has three apprentices, two on the paralegal scheme and one solicitor apprentice.
Apprenticeships are helping to maintain excellence in consumer law, she continues: ‘People visiting high street firms should still get excellent legal services, and the way to ensure that continues is to give people coming into the profession different options. The City isn’t for everyone. If [the] university [route is so expensive that it] means the City is your only option because your debts are so high, [the system] is putting the high street [firms] at risk.’
WMW benefits from the long-term commitment that apprenticeships require. ‘I’ve got an excellent apprentice who is going to be with me for five years,’ says Hatswell. ‘Recruitment and staff turnover are expensive, so investing in someone who you’ve vetted and interviewed provides continuity, which is a huge bonus for a small firm. [Apprentices] are loyal and appreciate the opportunity, so it is a positive and motivating experience.’
Hatswell says apprentices adapt to the workplace more quickly than graduate trainees: ‘School-leavers are used to working in a structured way, whereas once you’ve gone off to university, you’ve got to manage your own time. Working in an office is quite rigid, with set standards of behaviour and even set times for lunch, so it is closer to the classroom.’
Apprentices at a high street firm join small teams that regularly deal with clients in distress. ‘Even though [apprentices] may not be exposed to [those situations]… they work in a team where they’re seeing three or four personality types dealing with problems in different ways,’ says Hatswell. ‘They are attending meetings, listening to senior solicitors discussing cases and problem-solving respectfully. Those skills will stand them in good stead beyond their apprenticeships. And because we’ve created close working relationships, if they stay on after their apprenticeship, we know exactly what we are getting.’
Following a different path
On 1 January, changes took effect that limited government funding for new Level 7 apprenticeships to people aged 16 to 21. However, current apprenticeships continue to be funded and there are exceptions for some applicants under 25.
Older candidates can now only join employer-funded apprenticeship programmes, reducing the scheme’s ability to meet its social mobility and gender diversity goals, excluding career changers and women who tend to have less linear career paths.
Level 6 apprentices receive funding regardless of age. Damar Training, a longstanding provider of legal apprenticeship programmes, has partnered with professional training organisation BARBRI to introduce a new Legal Professional qualification embedded in its Chartered Legal Executive apprenticeship. This is open to all and creates an alternative funded qualification pathway for candidates.
The Chartered Legal Executive Apprenticeship, which is approved by CILEX, takes about 30 months to complete. The course covers SQE1 content and the assessment can be taken during the programme (paid for separately). ‘This doesn’t attempt to replicate the solicitor apprenticeship, but is built with clear line of sight to the SQE – and apprentices can progress/cross-qualify easily if appropriate,’ says Damar CEO Jonathan Bourne.
Victoria Fearne, head of strategic client partnerships at SQE training provider BARBRI, explains that while the new qualification covers SQE1 preparation, the employer would then need to support a candidate through SQE2. ‘It would get them through CILEX and halfway through the SQE, providing a suite of options for employers who might have a mixed cohort, some of whom might be paralegals over 22,’ she says.
The first cohort, which includes several former Damar paralegal apprentices, started in September.
Social network
While solicitor apprenticeships allow school-leavers to earn while they learn in a workplace environment, are they missing out on the social and community aspects of university life?
Dentons’ Roche thinks not: ‘We still attend university, albeit part-time, and we have the option to get involved in societies and socials and meet other students. The universities that offer solicitor apprenticeships often have apprentice-specific social groups so people can build a network with other apprentices.’
Apprentices also benefit from joining workplace groups and communities, she adds: ‘Dentons has a Black Professionals Network which I have joined as well as other communities and social groups. I would say there is potentially more you can get involved with via the apprenticeship route than via the traditional route.’
Hart outlines Dentons’ networking opportunities for apprentices: ‘One great example is ApprenticeLink, an initiative set up by our apprentices, which has brought together more than 130 apprentices from across different organisations and sectors. They run networking, development and wellbeing events, as well as informal opportunities for apprentices to connect and share their experiences of balancing work and study. We’re also part of City Century, which gives our solicitor apprentices further opportunities to network and develop alongside apprentices at other law firms.’
Farrer & Co also offers networking opportunities at every level, as well as social activities like sport and even a choir. And because the cohort is relatively small, ‘one of the great pleasures I’ve had as apprentice partner is watching the friendships spring up among the cohort,’ says Wilde.
Zach Downey, a solicitor apprentice at Farrer & Co, highlights the value of the firm’s social and networking opportunities: ‘Alongside working with colleagues across the firm, I have been involved in organising and supporting business development initiatives including the firm’s cricket, hockey and football teams.’
Downey says such activities ‘have enabled me to build relationships with people from different practice areas and seniority levels in a way that would not always be possible through day-to-day work alone. I have also attended a variety of client-facing events… which have provided valuable exposure to networking and business development. The breadth of these experiences has allowed me to build an excellent network and accelerate my professional development’.
Talent war
Competition for solicitor apprentice places is fierce and firms are confronted by a large pool of candidates.
‘Firms need to think carefully about outreach, where and how they recruit, and whether their assessment processes allow people from different backgrounds to demonstrate their potential,’ says Hart.
What motivates firms to offer apprenticeships in the first place? ‘Apprenticeships allow us to reach a different talent pool and invest in developing people over a longer period,’ Hart says. ‘After 10 years, we see the route as an established part of how we attract and develop our future lawyers, rather than an alternative to our graduate recruitment.’
‘Motivations vary,’ observes Bourne. ‘Accessing great talent, from a wider pool, early – or before your competitors; attraction/retention, particularly for regional/small firms, in-house and public sector [legal departments] that have good work but can’t offer big firm salaries; and cost – apprentices make a contribution very quickly, but at a lower salary than trainees.’
What type of candidate tends to choose the apprenticeship route over the graduate trainee route to qualification? ‘There isn’t one type and the reasons can be very different,’ says Hart. ‘For some, avoiding the cost of university is a major factor. For others, university may not be the expected route within their family or community. And some simply know that they learn best by doing.’
Last year, 900 candidates applied for two apprenticeship places at Farrer & Co. Wilde reiterates that apprenticeship is not an easy option: ‘We need to see commitment, resilience, time management and so on. But loads of applicants have that, so we have a really rigorous assessment.’
Reese adds that because competition is so fierce, many candidates who apply for apprenticeships also apply to university as a back-up option.
Hatswell at WMW uses a specialist recruiter who works with school-leavers and college students: ‘I have worked with her for six years now, so she makes sure that we get quality applicants with the right skills and aptitude. We invite a shortlist of around six applicants for each place to come in for an interview and a practical exercise.’
As a high-street firm serving the local community, WMW participates in local schools’ career days and work experience placements.
Damar’s Bourne identifies three main groups of candidates who choose apprenticeship over the graduate trainee route.
The first is school-leavers, who ‘often follow a solicitor apprenticeship pathway, starting with a paralegal apprenticeship then progressing to the solicitor apprenticeship before their 22nd birthday. This group tends to be academically very strong and savvy – they see the financial gulf between the two routes and the likelihood of a full-time job as a solicitor at the end’.
The second group comprises law graduates under 22 who can access a short-form solicitor apprenticeship, which is cost-effective for them and their employer.
The third group is more diverse and ‘includes people who joined law firms as administrators and progressed; people who did a paralegal apprenticeship… non-law graduates who are working in paralegal roles; and unqualified lawyers who have been working as paralegals… without the means to qualify.’ This is in addition to academic high performers who choose to earn and learn, avoiding college debt.
Winning a place
'A lot of people who want to do the apprenticeship genuinely want to get ‘hands-on’ practical legal experience alongside studying law at university'
Leila Roche, solicitor apprentice at Dentons
Downey found competing for a place on Farrer & Co’s apprenticeship programme motivating. ‘The competitive nature of the solicitor apprenticeship application process was both challenging and enjoyable,’ he says. ‘Having come from a background in high-performance sport, I was already familiar with environments where commitment, resilience and continuous improvement are essential. This meant I viewed the application process as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. The experience reinforced the importance of preparation and gave me confidence that I had earned my place on the programme.’
Roche at Dentons outlines the motivation for applying for an apprenticeship: ‘A lot of people who want to do the apprenticeship genuinely want to get “hands-on” practical legal experience alongside studying law at university.’
She emphasises the need for stamina and commitment: ‘As the apprenticeship is long, and unlike university students, apprentices do not get long holidays… [they] have to have particularly strong and consistent commitment throughout the apprenticeship to get through it.’
Potential and agility
While firms recruit lawyers based on post-qualification experience, apprenticeship schemes recruit on potential. ‘A school-leaver and a graduate will naturally have had different opportunities and experiences, so our focus is on potential rather than expecting candidates to have followed a particular path,’ says Hart.
Wilde agrees: ‘We’re also testing that they understand what it means to be a solicitor at Farrer & Co, so they need to have looked at the type of work we do and who our clients are. It’s a rigorous process with an assessment day and an interview panel that includes partners, senior associates and senior members of our business services team. It’s a joint effort across the whole firm.’
As artificial intelligence is increasingly used for work formerly done by trainees and juniors, some firms are reducing their graduate trainee cohorts. However, this raises questions about succession. When AI-enabled firms choose not to retain all their trainees, apprentices who the firm has already invested in for six years are likely to be in an advantageous position when competing for NQ roles.
Agility remains the key differentiator for apprenticeships, because they offer current practical experience. ‘One of the most exciting things for me is how well the apprenticeship model lends itself to a profession that is changing quickly,’ says Hart. ‘Apprentices are learning the law while simultaneously seeing those changes happen in practice. They have the opportunity to build their legal knowledge alongside the technology, commercial awareness and adaptability that the lawyers of the future will need.’
Joanna Goodman is a freelance journalist
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