Pros
- Good colleagues, generally easy to approach people and you might even make some good friends. - Depending on the team, you will get some good quality work (This is not the case in every team or even every office) - Great training video resources and opportunities for further learning (such as workshops suited to your role) - The firm really encourages tech and innovation, you can use approved AI and they are constantly looking for new ways to improve systems, which makes the job easier. - Very good yearly holiday allowance, great perks around Christmas time and one extra day off for your birthday. - HR support for mental health and queries about company benefits is really good and quick. - Depending on the team, it is relatively a good work-life balance and people tend to be understanding when you have commitments outside of work. It is not often that you have to stay past 5-5.30pm. Overall a good firm to work in, particularly compared to others, if you land in a good team with great mentors you will really enjoy it here.
Cons
HOWEVER.... - Pay is veryyyyy low, at least at junior level, and is not like they expect less work than other similar firms. At paralegal level, with most paralegals having university degrees and some even with a masters (plus the responsibility of your role in some matters) the pay does not reflect that. - Linked to the above, it seems like they consider the paralegal role more of a "stepping stone" to become a solicitor, rather than an actual job, and regardless if it is or not a stepping stone, people still need to be able to live on that salary. Therefore, using that almost as an excuse for such a low pay should not be the case. - Early careers service is quiet bad, they rarely reply to emails and queries, sometimes it takes months of chasing, and they do not give the best advice. It does not look like they know how the legal profession works, they give very vague guidance and no support. - If you do not land in a good team, which has happened to some (even though rare), you will not have a good mentor, you will be left to figure it out and be expected to just know what you are doing. - At the time of writing this, they do not provide full funding for the SQE route if you are looking to qualify. They do give a certain amount for the exams, but the rest for the course is only a loan which you will have to repay back. On top of this, if you want a day off a week for studying (which is allowed) they do take it off your salary (which is already very low) and do not offer any type of maintenance grants like other firms. But this is the case in other firms too. This is only a negative if you are not necessarily in a good financial position. - You are expected as a junior (Paralegal or Trainee) to participate in a lot of things and help with many events mainly during your free time. To clarify, this is not mandatory, you can chose not to do it. But if you want partners to have a good impression of you it is an expectation, regardless of what they say, they do note who usually does not participate. So on top of the low salary, financial strain, the general difficulty to qualify as a solicitor nowadays and extremely difficult SQE exams, you still have to "volunteer" your free time (unpaid), otherwise it will be brought to your attention, possibly during performance meetings.
