Enhancing the employability of law graduates

In this article from the Spring 2002 issue of Directions Jeanette Nicholas of London Guildhall University (LGU) describes the work of LAGREN, established in August 2000 with the aid of project funding from the HEFCE Innovations Fund.

Note: LAGREN has now been superseded by the Law Employability Network at London Metropolitan University.

There is a widespread recognition that the legal profession has not yet achieved equality of access. Women and ethnic minorities are disproportionately likely to miss out on training contracts and pupillages, and this bias is reinforced at higher levels of the profession. In preparing students at London Guildhall University (LGU) for progression we are mindful of this context.

LGU has a strong record of successfully widening participation in higher education. This cross-departmental project addresses the challenge of progression. Having recruited students from hitherto under-represented groups, LGU is working to ensure that they access high quality employment. LAGREN has developed models of good practice that will be widely replicable and will help students achieve their highest potential.

The main aims of the project are:

• to enhance the employability of law undergraduates from disadvantaged groups, both in and outside the mainstream legal professions
• to address the initial barriers to entry to the profession
• to develop pathways to alternative job opportunities in which legal skills can be deployed

The need to create a mechanism to enhance the employability of law students stemmed from the following factors:

• increased competition in the legal employment market
• the emerging gap between academic achievement accessed through widening participation initiatives championed by universities such as LGU and entry into the legal profession
• lack of resources to encourage students’ career and learning development

LAGREN offers students careers guidance (drop in sessions, one-to-one interviews, workshops), work experience (placements, freelance work) and customised training (City Fringe paralegal/outdoor clerk training course plus intensive careers guidance). During May-November 2001 LAGREN generated 223 work experience opportunities, from solicitors (47%), NGOs/charities (16.6%), courts and local authorities (10% each) and law centres (8.5%). Over 40 presentations have been made by employers, including KLegal, the Society of Black Lawyers, the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, the Environmental Law Foundation and the Disability Law Service. A unique mentoring scheme has been created with the City firm Simmons & Simmons, whereby law students are paired with a solicitor to gain an insight into working in a City law firm.

89 students have participated in LAGREN’s customised training course since February 2001, with a groundbreaking 42% finding paid work in the legal sector since taking it. 61% of Level 3 students have seen a careers advisor, compared with 33% the year before. There has been a 35% increase in the uptake of career and learning development activities since the project began, such as court/prison visits, entering mooting competitions etc, and a 47% increase in the number of undergraduate law students using the careers service since LAGREN began (72% increase in LPC students). LAGREN and the customised training scheme were nominated by the City Fringe Partnership for the Lord Mayor of London’s Dragon Awards for corporate involvement in local regeneration. This is an impressive achievement for a project, which at the time of nomination was only six months old!

LAGREN success story:

J, a refugee from Rwanda, who has been in the UK for only four years, is a third year law student. In December 2000 she started volunteering four hours per week on the telephone help line of the Disability Law Service, a Whitechapel based charity.
 
In April 2001 she took the LAGREN customised training programme, which she identified as “the turning point…which helped me feel it is possible to pop into a solicitors office and ask for paid work, not just volunteer opportunities, and explained how to do it.”
 
Within two months she was working as an outdoor clerk for four firms on several criminal cases (fraud, drugs and firearms, family law), and attending immigration interviews.
 
“I have learned to feel confident in the way I do things, in relating to solicitors, and to feel confident enough to ask how to do something I feel unsure about. I feel an enormous sense of achievement after each case, and now I can see how it’s done I feel clear this is what I want to be doing professionally.”

The opportunities generated by LAGREN are boundless! The team had anticipated that the uphill task would be in persuading employers and practitioners to engage with the project. In fact the difficulty has been the reverse. Likewise, student enthusiasm, participation, ownership and end user impact is key.

However, one size doesn’t fit all. The development and tailoring of schemes to adapt to the individual needs of employers (mainly small firms) and student competence and learning needs is a complex art. Similarly, targeted advice and appropriate role models have greatly improved student confidence.

Anecdotal evidence from students attending LAGREN’s customised courses shows that practical skills training keeps them motivated to continue with their degree courses, as they can see a professional future beyond academic studies.

Last Modified: 4 June 2010