A different route to a different destination: from graduate to probate practitioner

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I’d always wanted to pursue a career in the law, despite initially choosing to study English at university. After a year, I changed paths to study a law degree, even though it meant I had to complete my first year again. However, having secured my degree, I was keen to get my career underway so took up a position in the post room at a large local firm. I then qualified as a legal secretary hoping to get my foot in the door and speed my route to a fee-earning role.

Unfortunately, I discovered that rather than helping me transition to the career I wanted as a solicitor, there was no clear route to progress from legal secretary to fee earner. Firms typically hire legal secretaries with the intention that they remain legal secretaries. It was only through a stroke of good fortune and, of course, a strong commitment to becoming a fee earner, that I secured a role as a trainee legal executive.

That good fortune was that the HR manager at the hiring firm had previously worked at my current firm and knew how well the legal secretaries at the firm were trained. But even with this, I wouldn’t have been able to balance the demands of a full-time job while studying for the qualifications I needed to become a fully-fledged legal executive without access to a flexible online education at Law Training Centre for my CILEX qualification and the chance to take an alternative path to qualifying.

I’m not saying that studying remotely makes qualifying easy. The pressure on time and the focus on the law can be relentless. I’d already completed the study stage of the qualification before undertaking the qualifying work experience (QWE) while studying for my Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners qualifications, and working as a trainee legal executive. Without the option to study my qualifications online, allowing me to follow a more flexible schedule that I could balance with my existing personal and professional commitments, an uphill struggle would’ve become an unscalable mountain.

But the rewards for me and my firm were huge.  I qualified by studying CILEX rather than the Legal Practice Course, so I was able to work while I studied. By chance, a maternity secretarial role opened up for me in the private client team. I saw a chance to gain some experience and learn about a new area of law I hadn’t encountered before. I discovered a passion for private client. I found acting for individuals on wealth management, wills, trusts and probate fascinating. No two clients were the same, meaning each day was new and exciting and I was able to forge deep, rewarding relationships with my clients.

When I was able to secure QWE, I spent more than three years working in the private client team at my firm and became an invaluable asset to the partners and senior lawyers.  I even eventually helped to train the trainee solicitors who rotated in and out of the department every six months.

Working while training also helped me with my studies as it gave me the chance to combine the theory of the law with its practical applications. I had access to experienced practitioners, allowing me to broaden my understanding of the topics I was studying by speaking with more senior colleagues.

So, given the choice to roll back the clock, would I do it all again? Absolutely! I’d never have been able to become a fee earner within six months through the traditional route and specialising in the area I wanted to practice in accelerated my career by years. And my hard work is paying off – I won the Junior Lawyers Division (now the Junior Solicitors Network) Junior Lawyer Award 2022 and the Kent Law Society Junior Lawyer Award 2023.

Want to learn more about alternative routes to qualifying? Check out this blog post about qualifying via the CILEX route.

Sophie Wallace is a chartered legal executive in the private client team at Tassells.