Society launches strategy for would-be lawyers

Initiative aimed at supporting students and trainees

News, 15 October 2007

The Law Society of Scotland is today launching plans to help would-be lawyers find out more about what it takes to become a solicitor, and support them from the very earliest stages of legal education.

The New Lawyers' Engagement Strategy is designed to raise the profile of the Society among this group, provide valuable careers advice and develop ongoing training specifically for newly qualified lawyers.

The strategy will encourage new lawyers to find out more about their future profession, and represent themselves as an important demographic in the profession, while in turn, practising solicitors are invited to get involved in helping those who are planning to follow in their footsteps.

A number of initiatives to encourage this have been devised, including issuing e-newsletters, recording podcasts, and publishing a monthly blog illustrating the highs and lows of trainee life. John Geddes, who joined Aberdeen firm Raeburn Christie Clark & Wallace as a trainee this year, has promised a "warts and all" account of how his traineeship progresses.

Every first-year law student in 2007 will also receive Law Society of Scotland/Scottish Young Lawyers Association (SYLA) diary containing useful information about the Society and becoming a solicitor, and key dates in the legal calendar.

From the outset

Collette Paterson, appointed as the Society's New Lawyers' Coordinator last year to develop ways to engage with new lawyers, said it was vital that the Society "works to develop a relationship with those who want to become solicitors from the earliest opportunity and not solely when they have already successfully completed all the steps required to qualify. We wish to assist new lawyers through the various stages".

Paterson added: "The legal profession is going through a period of rapid change - for example by 2011 the average solicitor in Scotland will be female, under 30 and educated in a state school - and although it is an exciting time to be entering law, competition to enter the profession is fierce.

"Part of my role is to ensure that students know exactly what they need to do to qualify as solicitor as well as what to expect once they get there. They have the right to expect the Society to engage with them early on as they make a considerable investment and commitment in working towards their goal."