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I once worked as an unpaid intern at a firm. I wasn't taken seriously by the firm and it wasn't long before I didn't take them seriously either.

I once worked at another firm, (this time paid), where there were, from time to time, unpaid interns. The firm didn't take the interns seriously, and it wasn't long before the interns didn't take the firm seriously either.

In my day, there was (I think fortunately) an obligatory minimum for trainee solicitors, and trainees at the firm I did my articles were trained up to become real solicitors.

Sadly, therefore, my life experience tells me that forcing firms to pay a meaningful minimum salary might be the only way to get many a firm to take its trainees seriously. Otherwise, it is: make the coffee, photocopy this document, fetch me Mrs Smith's file, ... all essential office skills, I don't doubt, but none of which actually trains anybody to do a conveyance, draft a Will, obtain a grant of probate, handle a boundary dispute in the County Court, handle a case in the Magistrates' Court ...