Two law centre apprentices will be able to re-sit the Solicitors Qualifying Examination after a solicitor's LinkedIn plea led to a stranger donating £2,006 to cover the resit fees.
Joanna Hughes MBE, co-CEO of City Century, discovered that the Law Centres Network was urgently trying to raise the money needed for their two apprentices to re-sit SQE1. City Century is a coalition of law firms led by the City of London Law Society to boost the number of solicitor-apprentices in the capital.
Hughes told her followers she could not bear the thought of the law centre losing two apprentices because of a £2,006 financial barrier.
‘Further, law centres do the kind of work that I for one could not have coped with. The on-the-ground, acting for clients in life and death situations work that is messy and sometimes scary. For example, young mothers who are trying to keep a roof over the heads of their babies, or people with disabilities trying to find out what they are entitled to in order that they can have mobility to work, or young refugees who are actually children, not adults, and who need help showing this to the authorities (these examples are all from young lawyers I have met who work at a law centre),’ she added.
Someone answered Hughes' call for help. The Law Centres Network thanked the anonymous donor for keeping two apprentices 'on track to qualify'.
However, the donation is another reminder of the financial struggle faced by law centres, which are increasingly being forced to spend more time raising money as traditional funding sources dry up.
Noella Gooden, workforce programmes and EDI lead at the Law Centres Network, said: ‘I'm grateful to Joanna for rallying support when we needed it and to the donor for their generosity - truly. But I don't want to work in a profession where a talented apprentice's future turns on whether a stranger happens to see a LinkedIn post that morning.
‘[The apprentices] are exactly the people we say we want in law - capable, committed, from the communities they serve. The apprenticeship route is one of the best tools we have for opening the profession up, and the way the SQE is built and supported is quietly undermining it. Opportunity can't be a matter of luck or generosity - it has to be something the system delivers.'
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