McMillan Williams recruits its trainee solicitors by employing them first as paralegals for a 12 month period. Successful candidates are expected to have passed their LPC, to drive, have the use of a car, and live within reasonable travelling distance of the firm's offices.

They are likely to be attached to one of the firm's departments and remain there for the paralegal period. At the conclusion of the paralegal period, the expectation is that the candidate will then be offered a training contract with the firm and at least 3 or 4 seat rotations will be offered. We operate both litigation and non-contentious training programmes and do try as far as is possible, to accommodate the preferences of each trainee when determining which seats are to be covered, as well as the business needs of the practice.

The salary is then increased to the Law Society's recommended minimum salary for the area. However, no guarantees will be given at the commencement of the paralegal contract that a training contract will inevitably be offered. It is of course for the candidate to prove themselves first.

We conduct regular appraisals and reviews of our paralegals and the work that they are doing and would be more than likely to be in a position to indicate, within the first three month's probationary period, whether the candidate would be likely ultimately to "make the grade" as a trainee here. It is neither in this firm's nor the paralegal's interest to leave someone who is unlikely to be offered a training contract, waiting until almost the end of their paralegal period to advise them of this. Our objective is to identify exceptional candidates, train them into our way of working, and retain them here as the next generation of lawyers. Our Senior Litigation Partner was himself a former trainee here. We therefore put a great deal of time and effort into our recruitment process.

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