Even though many of our graduates will have progressed in their careers since completing a case study, they are still of interest to students who wish to gain an understanding of the world of work.

I am a newly qualified solicitor within the employment law team at the firm's office in Birmingham.

I run a varied caseload of tribunal matters on behalf of NHS trusts in England. My case load includes claims relating to unfair dismissal, discrimination, whistleblowing etc. I conduct claims from initial receipt up to attending an employment tribunal.

Typically I would arrive at the office between 08:30 - 09:00 and review emails.

Depending upon my tribunal caseload, I could be required to interview witnesses, draft witness statements, advise a client in conference or attend tribunal for a preliminary or final hearing.

I am also often involved in delivering client training to HR teams within hospitals and trusts relating to employment law issues.

I enjoy working with the HR clients to aid the delivery of healthcare services within the NHS.

I find that although I act for Respondents, the NHS is an organisation which thrives off its staff and being able to combine the fun of litigation with making improvements to work place practices through the delivery of training is ideal.

A busy caseload!

I was attracted to employment law as practitioners have to consistently use their legal knowledge to apply the law to complex facts. I gained experience of this area on my training contract and found that in comparison to other areas of law, employment lawyers must be resourceful as they are expected to advise on all aspects of a claim without much, if any, input from a barrister.

Aside from this, the area of law is interesting and applies to everyone!

Law degree.
LPC.

2011 - BA Law.
2012 - BPTC, Northumbria University. I commenced a role working for the University of Law supervising their pro bono clinics.
2013 - Commenced employment as a Paralegal for a personal injury firm in Northwich.
2014 - Commenced employment as a Clinical Negligence Paralegal working in-house for NHS Wales.
2015 - I was offered a training contract in-house with NHS Wales to commence in September 2015. I therefore had to commence the LPC and completed the LPC at the same time as my training contract.
March 2017 - graduated with a distinction on the LPC from University of South Wales.
September 2017 - completed training contract and commenced role at Capsticks LLP as an employment solicitor.

In five year's time, I would hope to be accepting a Senior Associate role within a law firm, ideally at my current employer!

I hope to complete an LLM at some point in the future, specialising in employment law. However, this is not essential to my career and would be for interest purposes only.

Having completed both the LPC and the BPTC, I would advise students to not only consider the differences between the role of a solicitor and a barrister but also the similarities.

As a student, I focused on a desire to see a lot of courtroom action and to take part in oral advocacy. This naturally led me to prefer the role of a barrister. However, the reality is that many solicitors who work in litigious areas also see the inside of a courtroom a lot and there are opportunities to conduct advocacy.

It is difficult to obtain a training contract and even harder to obtain a pupillage. If I could do things differently, I would have gone into practice for a year as a Paralegal before deciding which route to take.

The LPC and BPTC can both be completed part-time and the work experience you obtain by doing so is very valuable on applications. If you go straight from law school to the LPC/BPTC, then when you apply for training contracts/pupillages, you have very little real life legal experience to rely upon.

Being in practise for a year also allows you to test the waters with applications, which will give you an indication if you are likely to obtain a training contract or pupillage in your chosen area/field of law.

The LPC/BPTC can be a lot of money to spend without the confirmation of a training place at the end.

Kirsty  PGDip Legal Practice Course (2008)
Solicitor  (Law, defence and public protection)

Accepts questions from students about their career