Member Article

Mills & Reeve support new generation family lawyers

A Leeds-based leading family lawyer and former President of the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (IAML) is supporting the next generation of high-flying family lawyers through its original Travel Studentship Scheme, with a once in a lifetime prize of an internship with an IAML-linked matrimonial firm anywhere in the world

The Scheme, now in its second year, is the brain child of David Salter, Mills & Reeve joint national head of family law, based in the firm’s Leeds office. Cantered round an essay competition, the project has been specifically designed to increase exposure of would be lawyers to family practice and encourage them to consider it as their specialism,

This year’s two prize winners are Maya Kaye (Pembroke College, Cambridge) and Ellie Lowes (Clare College, Cambridge). They will undertake their internships this summer in Santa Rosa, California and Minneapolis respectively.

Last year’s winner, Julia Schulman, took an internship at Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan LLP in New York.

David said: “There is a general assumption that, almost as a natural progression, top law graduates will become corporate lawyers. It is our duty, as the current experts in our field, to encourage and nurture upcoming family lawyers and equip them with the skills to become the leading legal advisors of the future.

“Family law gets little air-time at careers events and is often dismissed as a ‘soft option’. Access to work experience such as that provided through these internships is an invaluable addition to academic studies and will present students with a fuller understanding of what to expect when they are fully qualified.”

Mills & Reeve is the only legal firm outside London which can boast that almost all of its family Partners are members of the Academy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gatehouse .