The Tiffin Girl’s School wins Legal Apprentice competition 2020

The final took place today with four teams* battling it out to win the chance of an apprenticeship at the firm, as well as prize money for themselves and their school.  

The Legal Apprentice was conceived to encourage more pupils from non-traditional backgrounds to consider a career in the law. 

The 2020 competition attracted entries from more than 2000 students from 200 schools across the UK. They had to complete three tasks before teams were shortlisted for the final. The tasks included preparing a witness statement, preparing advice for a fictional client and producing a video to pitch their service to a potential client in a ‘right to be forgotten’ matter. The aim was to test pupils’ drafting, negotiation and interpersonal skills. 

Whilst the final of last year’s competition was held at the headquarters of News UK with impressive views across the City of London, this year proceedings were held via Zoom for obvious reasons. Finalists were treated to a masterclass from the Regulatory and Family & Divorce teams at Kingsley Napley to help prepare for the ultimate task – negotiating a divorce settlement on behalf of a fictitious client. 

The judges were:  

• Stephen Parkinson, Senior Partner, Kingsley Napley LLP 
• Christina Blacklaws, former President of the Law Society of England and Wales 
• Julie Brannan, Head of Education and Training at the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA) 
• Charlotte Parkinson, Chair of the Law Society’s Young Solicitors Group.  

Stephen Parkinson comments:

“Once again the quality of the finalists made this incredibly hard to judge and impressed us all. Each of them demonstrated the versatility, quickness of thought and ability to build relationships which are the foundations of a successful career as a solicitor.  However, The Tiffin Girls’ School pupils stood out for their ability to work together as a team and for the way they approached the negotiation, both listening to the other side and engaging with the detail to put across their points. We wish them many congratulations.” 

“I would like to thank all those who took part in the competition and hope they learnt something during the process which will spur them on to choose a career in the law. It is important to my colleagues at Kingsley Napley and fellow judges involved in The Legal Apprentice initiative that we have helped to dispel misconceptions about lawyers and to inspire more young people to see law as a fulfilling and rewarding career than would otherwise have done so.”