Some excellent news. I’ve *almost* secured a training contract! RAD are now working in partnership with South West London Law Centres (SWLLC) to provide me with a training contract, as RAD wants to keep me committed to RAD for another two years, and also because they know that being a solicitor is my ultimate dream.
The terms of the training contract will be that I will be a full time trainee solicitor with SWLLC, based at their office in Croydon. I will be carrying outreach work two days a week in RAD centres, doing casework with RAD clients who need specialist legal advice, under the Legal Help scheme. Three days a week, I will be interviewing clients and doing casework at the Croydon office.
It is anticipated that the training contract will last for 18 months, as my two years experience with RAD will be used as “time to count”, thus reducing the contract by six months. I’ll still be employed by RAD, and managed by my current manager, Linda Isaac, while supervised by a senior solicitor at the Croydon office.
The subject areas will be as follows:
- Welfare benefits
- Housing
- Employment
The reason I say *almost* is because the training contract itself needs to be approved by the Law Society, and also Tom Fenton, Chief Executive at RAD, needs to agree to the new arrangements.
So, all being well, I will be a qualified solicitor in April 2007! I would like to say a massive THANK YOU to Linda for making it possible. It’s a dream come true!