More law firms to offer part-time training for aspiring lawyers

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Bates Wells, Browne Jacobson LLP and Freeths LLP have become the latest firms to back Project Rise – “a cross-firm enterprise” initiated by the Law Society’s Disabled Solicitors Network that aims to encourage more part-time training opportunities across the legal sector.

As part of the project, which was started in 2021 and is supported by Aspiring Solicitors, interested firms will meet to discuss the motivations and challenges of offering part-time training, and can begin offering part-time options when they’re ready. The part-time training refers to training contracts, qualifying work experience, graduate apprenticeships and other forms of training that individual firms use to recruit.

Law Society President Lubna Shuja said: “I am delighted to welcome Bates Wells, Browne Jacobson and Freeths to Project Rise. They have committed to offering all successful candidates the opportunity to train on a part-time basis to provide more accessible routes to qualification for people from diverse backgrounds.”

The first two firms to back the project, Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP and Osborne Clarke LLP, have committed to offering all successful candidates to train part time from September 2024.

With five firms now part of the project, Shuja is keen to encourage other firms “to join the initiative as a way of providing different ways of training to aspiring solicitors” who aren’t able to train full time, whether that’s due to caring responsibilities, disabilities or other reasons.

Bates Wells, Browne Jacobson, Eversheds Sutherland, Freeths and Osborne Clarke now all offer part-time training as a matter of course.