Consortium of firms create legal tech graduate scheme
updated on 13 October 2021
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A number of City law firms have collaborated to create a legal operations graduate scheme, which includes a four-week course and workshops.
CMS, Dentons, Norton Rose Fulbright, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, Linklaters LLP, and Slaughter and May partnered with The University of Law and Positive Pricing to design a programme that will “accelerate the pipeline” of talent from the firms’ legal ops teams.
The scheme, which will take on its first cohort in January 2022, will focus on innovation, automation, legal tech, process design, and legal project management and is open to law and non-law graduates.
Hebert Smith Freehills’ Chief Legal Operations Officer Richard King said: “Sitting at the junction of the business of law and the practice of law, the legal operations function continues to play an increasingly important role in the delivery of legal services.
“We are all committed to attracting and developing the brightest talent in this field who will, in turn, drive value and innovation for our clients. This is an exciting initiative that we hope will establish an industry standard for training and development of graduates in legal operations.”
Several firms have also launched legal tech graduate schemes independently as the profession’s focus continues to turn towards technology and automation.
Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP recently announced its two-year scheme. With opportunities for six graduates, three starting in March 2022 and three in March 2023, the scheme will offer the opportunity to work within the firm’s legal service design team and on its legal tech applications. Additional opportunities will be made available in the second year of training. Applications for the scheme, which has a starting salary of £25,000, open in November 2021.
The firm’s ‘Techtober’ initiative was also launched earlier this month. A series of training modules, interactive demos and a global hackathon will give its lawyers the chance to “learn about and develop hands-on skills in client-facing legal technology and legal service design”.
