Firms issued guidance on work experience following negative response from students
updated on 09 March 2016
The Law Society has published guidance for employers providing legal work experience.
A survey run by the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) found that nearly 80% of respondents had gained some unpaid legal work experience, but that fewer than half believed that their experiences had benefited their career prospects. Working with the JLD, the Law Society has now decided to issue guidance to employers on how make legal work experience fair, accessible and beneficial to both parties.
The Law Society guidance states that work experience placements should:
- be clearly defined;
- be openly advertised and fairly recruited;
- be remunerated to national minimum wage or above, where possible;
- be of no more than four weeks’ duration where work experience is unpaid; and
- cover reasonable expenses.
Jonathan Smithers, president of the Law Society, said: "Legal work experience has become a defining and important step towards a legal career, so competition for work experience can be intense. The Law Society guidance on work experience supports law firms to promote fair, equal access to the legal profession and good working practices."
Leanne Maund, chair of the JLD said: “While work experience is generally considered to be a good thing for aspiring trainee solicitors, sometimes the reality does not live up to expectations. In some cases, candidates we heard from appear to have been taken advantage of. We worked with the Law Society to produce this guidance to ensure that a line is drawn between circumstances where a prospective trainee is gaining a valuable insight into an organisation for a short period of time, and those where an individual is simply working unpaid. We are thrilled to see that this guidance has now been produced.”
