Law firm executives on the road to becoming new solicitors

BOLTON, U.K. - Oct. 21, 2014 - PRLog -- Greater Manchester-based law firm Asons Solicitors have helped three of its legal executives to go one step closer to making their career dreams come true, by offering them training contracts to become fully-fledged solicitors.

Recipients Liam Nixon, Faisa Arshad and Bilal Ejaz were amazed and speechless, but delighted, to be receiving the coveted contracts from among hundreds of hopeful employees. The contracts signal the start of their two year final journey to officially becoming a practicing solicitor. 17% of all the training contracts in the North West come from the Bolton firm alone, contributing to it being a very attractive employer among new law graduates.

Training contracts are a final requirement that a law graduate must undertake to become a qualified solicitor. In many cases, students apply to a law firm for a role with a training contract attached before they have even left university. The three deserving recipients at Asons have earned their training contracts after consistently meeting their targets over roughly 18 – 24 months of service at the Bolton firm.

Once these contracts are awarded an existing solicitor within the firm takes the trainees and mentors them for two years. At the end of this period, the Solicitors Regulation Authority assesses the would-be lawyers to ensure they have met the standards to qualify.

The University of Central Lancashire in Preston published research for 2010-2011 which demonstrated that only 36% of the university’s law graduates found roles in the legal sector within six months of graduating that also provided them with a training contract. It’s clearly a competitive market.

Emma Simcox-Oliver, Head of industrial Disease at Asons, said: “Given the number of training contracts offered by Asons the competition is fierce – we do not award contracts dependent upon longevity of employment but on merit alone – Faisa, Liam and Bilal have worked extremely hard and deserve to be recognised by the company and awarded the contract.  We release three training contacts each quarter and only offer these internally – the atmosphere is electric and I’m proud to be part of a company that does so much to safeguard the next generation of lawyers.”

The firm’s current paralegal teams will next discover who among them will be awarded with a training contract during December. Asons has also been awarded with the Skills for Business award for the training and development of its staff, and maintained its now-annual accreditation of the Investors in People gold standard.