Growing trend towards hiring Paralegals? E.g. Shoosmiths 2023…

[trainee25_]

Hi all,

Interested to hear what you think, a friend of mine and I were discussing applications recently and this topic came up.

We have been noticing a growing trend among firms who seem to openly advertise vac schemes and TCs but then end up just hiring from paralegals. The friend in question had applied to Shoosmiths and they are an excellent example.

They run a vac scheme for external applicants, they then run an assessment day. However, from that they simply hired two paralegals that already work there. My question is, why would a firm invest time and money into these recruitment activities when they clearly are aware they have able candidates they want to hire?

More widely, do you think this is a growing trend? Should applicants now be looking to be paralegals as a route into firms they want to apply to and will this replace the traditional route. Certainly, it begs the question with Shoosmiths, should anyone be applying at all if they clearly hire from paralegals, and have Shoosmiths now shown that by becoming a paralegal there, you have a much higher chance of being selected.

Interested to hear peoples thoughts on this! @Jessica Booker

 

[Jessica Booker]

There are no guarantees that the internal applicants will be hired - they may not pass assessments and could quite easily turn their firm down for another TC offer.

Also, Shoosmiths recruit far more than 2 people a year - think it’s about 30-35 trainees a year they recruit. So they clearly won’t recruit all of these from their paralegal roles.

It sounds like this is just one instance where they did fill two specific roles from internal candidates.

 

[Jake Rickman]

Hi all,

Interested to hear what you think, a friend of mine and I were discussing applications recently and this topic came up.

We have been noticing a growing trend among firms who seem to openly advertise vac schemes and TCs but then end up just hiring from paralegals. The friend in question had applied to Shoosmiths and they are an excellent example.

They run a vac scheme for external applicants, they then run an assessment day. However, from that they simply hired two paralegals that already work there. My question is, why would a firm invest time and money into these recruitment activities when they clearly are aware they have able candidates they want to hire?

More widely, do you think this is a growing trend? Should applicants now be looking to be paralegals as a route into firms they want to apply to and will this replace the traditional route. Certainly, it begs the question with Shoosmiths, should anyone be applying at all if they clearly hire from paralegals, and have Shoosmiths now shown that by becoming a paralegal there, you have a much higher chance of being selected.

Interested to hear peoples thoughts on this! @Jessica Booker

That's an approach taken by certain US firms operating in London. Simpson Thacher comes to mind. Keeps costs down because recruiting trainees requires an entire sub-department.