Member Article

Asons Solicitors' executives compete to become new solicitors

Greater Manchester-based law firm Asons Solicitors have opened applications to help two more of its legal executives to go one step closer to making their career dreams come true, by offering them training contracts to become fully-fledged solicitors.

The contracts signal the start of their two year final journey to becoming qualified as a practicing solicitor. 17% of all the training contracts in the North West are provided by Asons, contributing to it being an attractive employment destination among law graduates. The Law Society’s statistics for 2014-2015 showed that 5,457 training contracts were given nationwide, which was a 9.1 percent rise on the previous year.

Training contracts are a final requirement that a law graduate must undertake to become a qualified solicitor. In many cases, students apply to a law firm for a role with a training contract attached before they have even graduated. Asons’ successful previous legal executives have been granted training contracts after achieving their key performance indicators over a period of 18 - 24 months with the Bolton firm.

After contracts are awarded, a senior solicitor in the firm takes trainees and mentors them for two years. At the end of that period, the Solicitors Regulation Authority assesses the candidates to ensure they have met the standards to fully qualify.

The University of Central Lancashire in Preston published research for 2010-2011 which showed that 36% of the university’s law graduates found roles in the legal sector within six months of graduating which also offered them a training contract. It’s a competitive market. There are around 5,500 training contracts available in the UK each year but there are more legal practice course students than this annually.

The coveted contracts are also open to outside applicants, in addition to the hundreds of employees at Asons. Interested parties can call 01204 521133 or drop an email to Asons to enquire.

Commenting on the importance of training contracts, Asim Majid, manager of the holiday illness department at Asons, said:

“Asons has always been dedicated to supporting its staff and it’s inspiring to know that individuals have reached a level in the firm where they now possess training contracts and can go on to become the next generation of lawyers.

“Gaining a training contract was one of my proudest achievements and it’s great to see Asons still providing hope to graduates out there looking to qualify as solicitors. The innovative flare within the firm has helped us to stand out and appeal to personalities who are looking for something different within the legal field.“

Asim is one of four employees that have reached the end of their training contracts and qualified yesterday, Wednesday March 1. One other employee at Asons is still currently under the contract. The firm’s current legal teams will next discover who among them will be awarded with a training contract later in March, with five applications in so far for two places.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Justin Richards .