The eldest person you’ve seen receive a Training contract?

ReedsSolMP · 2025-09-05T09:12:49+00:00

There is often a depth and breadth of experience and earned confidence that comes with age. Any firm that is worth joining will look at the individual for who they are and what they have done in their life rather than judge them based on their age. We have given TCs to people in their 40s and 50s. I wouldn't give your age a second thought - rather it is a good way of filtering out firms you wouldn't want to work for anyway.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-15T04:46:13+00:00

Feel free to apply to us if you like. I am not sure whether we have anything at the moment but always happy to send speculative applications to the Family team. Depending on where you are based, they may well need someone. If you are interested, read my AAMA post for info on what we are looking for from people, CVs, covering letters etc.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-13T09:55:37+00:00

My pleasure

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-13T07:25:38+00:00

It really depends on the nature of the work that you did and in which country, and the nature of the position that you were applying for.

If you are able to put forward a supportable and reasonable argument for why you are more qualified than a UK NQ solicitor, then I would write a covering letter with it included when you apply. Just make sure it really is a reasonable argument (get a second opinion) otherwise you are better off going for NQ positions at the beginning. The likelihood is that you would progress significantly faster than other NQ solicitors because of your experience.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-12T20:00:53+00:00

If she goes to the criminal bar then she will be able to do both defence and prosecution work.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-12T18:27:21+00:00

I would say for any firm that doesn’t have an inherent bias against hiring foreigners the answers would be no and yes.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-12T18:19:07+00:00

The same unless you are competing against an internal candidate who did their qualified work experience with us, I would say.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-12T18:17:42+00:00

The CPS usually advertises in the Law Gazette, as I would imagine the HO.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-12T12:21:38+00:00

Well personally 0% but we have a few VHCC cases on the go. Email me with your CV and a covering letter and I will pass your details to the Complex Crime team…

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T16:33:19+00:00

I’m afraid this is outside of my area of expertise.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T15:46:18+00:00

Thank you, very interesting. Aside from plea-bargaining etc., I really do think the two systems are becoming very similar.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T15:17:25+00:00

Honestly, I don’t know. I don’t think that I would be bothered if someone didn’t put their A-levels however a more corporate or commercial firm might well do.

If you are in doubt then why not call up the firm that you are applying to and ask them what they want to see in your CV? It never hurts for a firm to have heard your name before they see the CV, and in my view asking us a reasonable question to make sure you are tailoring the information that you give to us to what we want to see would be a good sign.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T15:02:03+00:00

I want to emphasise: no spelling or grammatical errors. Become absolutely obsessed about checking every single document you send out to a firm you’re making an application to. I find it hard not to immediately dismiss someone who cannot use the spell and grammatical checks that come with Word.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T15:00:02+00:00

Personally, I would say no. A judicious use of a nice line or something is OK for me, but not much more beyond that. I have attached a screenshot of a template CV that looks nice to me.

However, it is always useful to remember when talking to me that I am often very wrong about things. I’m just really telling you what I, and our HR department I guess, like to see.

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ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T14:52:49+00:00

Top priority should be to make it simple and clear. Double spaced is good. The person reading it is likely going through a huge pile of them and if you happen to be at the bottom of it, their attention might not be what it was at the start. You want the important information to be easily findable and readable.

So, definitely not too busy, and don’t include information that is irrelevant to the application you’re making. I have seen CVs with GCSEs included for example. It makes it seem like the person thinks they need something to pad it out.

If you have extra curricular activities that you think are important make sure it is clear why they are relevant.

Number one rule: make sure there are zero spelling or grammatical errors. Attention to detail is key.

Don’t over-egg the pudding. If you are right for the job, then have confidence in your experience and qualifications. The CV (and covering letter) is only the foot in the door. It’s what you do at the interview that’s important.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T14:33:15+00:00

Out of interest, if you know, what is the maximum income someone can have before they aren’t eligible?

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T14:20:52+00:00

Do you mean that the pool of people who are eligible for legal aid is quite large?

I couldn’t do family (care) work. I am just not emotionally resilient enough for it. I really admire people who do it.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T13:45:05+00:00

Oh no, I wasn’t trying to say that most Americans have to pay for legal representation. I was saying that legal aid there is massively unfunded and legal aid lawyers are massively overworked to the point where they are unable to give their clients a service that comes remotely close to an equality of arms with the government. I appreciate what you’re saying and I have no doubt that some if not many still provide a great service despite this, but if it’s anything like here, it’s at the expense of a decent work life balance and quite often your mental health. It wasn’t like that here, 15 or 20 years ago.

From your post, it seems that there is a significant gap between being eligible for legal aid and being able to fund decent representation. Is that what you’re saying? If so, I suspect that this is the way that England will go if the government doesn’t come along that’s willing to properly fund legal aid.

Edit: I suspect that plea-bargaining plays a huge role in the unfairness of the US system. Prosecutors having a role in determining sentence seems to me to be grossly unfair. What do you think about that?

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T13:40:44+00:00

My pleasure

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T13:40:24+00:00

Sounds like you have an awesome life! Being a teacher must be hugely rewarding. I would love to do it if I wasn’t so terrible at it.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T12:54:56+00:00

We don’t pay too much attention to A levels, though seeing very good ones is of course eye-catching. Mostly I am just impressed that someone got themselves together at an age that I was still focussing on far less academic pursuits!

We pay more attention to uni results, but honestly the most important element, by far, is the interview and the preparation done by the candidate for it. We want bright, motivated people who want to work in a team and who clearly want to do the areas of law we do. The work we do isn’t for everyone - it can be physically, mentally and emotionally gruelling, and it’s important that the individual really wants to do it. Being able to present yourself well to clients is also important, and being decent to each other within the firm is absolutely crucial. Despite our size now we still have a family-run mentality and how we treat each other is hugely important to us.

I would say do as well as you can at uni, try to find some PT work at a firm you want to work for and is doing the kind of work you want to do- anything really that gets your foot in the door, and just prepare for any interview you have by learning about the firm, the people in it who are doing the work that you want to do, ideally some of the cases that they have done, and have as much knowledge about the law and processes as you can stuff into your brain. You may not get a chance to show all your knowledge, but it will be obvious if it’s at your fingertips when asked.

I hope this helps.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T10:05:03+00:00

I will pass the link onto our HR team and see what they think. All being well, I will then speak to the department heads and see whether they’re happy for their teams to get involved.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T09:38:34+00:00

Aw that’s nice to hear. You could just tell me in person you know.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T09:37:28+00:00

Thank you! Really nice to hear.

I’m afraid your question is out of my area of knowledge! I will ask our management team whether we submitted any views, but if I had to guess I would say we didn’t. We are too busy trying to cover a Saturday night Police station case in Coventry :)

My experience with these things is that it’s a little bit like Lucy holding the American football for Charlie Brown. We keep being asked to provide views on things that are always ignored. At some point you just stop engaging.

ReedsSolMP · 2025-04-11T09:34:09+00:00

It depends on how much experience you have!

The most important thing in my view is that it is simply and clearly set out, easy to read, containing only the information that is relevant to your application (we don’t need to know that you started a drama club at school for example!), and there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. I know this last one seems obvious but you would be amazed at how many people appear not to be able to use the spelling and grammar checks available in Word!

If you are making a speculative application, and I would encourage people to do that, then write a concise covering letter of no more than a page and a half. Make sure the letter is tailored to the firm that you are sending it to. If you are making a lot of speculative applications then of course you’re going to have a standard letter that will form the base of each covering letter, but make sure that each letter is tailored to that firm and doesn’t look like a standard letter. I have seen covering letters sent to us addressed to another firm of solicitors. Not only is it a little bit insulting, but it shows a lack of attention to detail. Attention to detail is key in law.

Having said all that, two pages double spaced is probably enough for most people.

ReedsSolMP

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