- GLD is offering law sandwich placements for the first time
- Students will join GLD from September 2024 for 10 months
- Part of a national social mobility scheme
The Government Legal Department (GLD) is for the first time offering law sandwich placements for university students. Available through a social mobility scheme, the placements are intended for those from lower socio-economic backgrounds. From September 2024, GLD will welcome students who will stay with the department for 10 months.
Partnering with the University of Bradford, University of Salford and Queen Mary University, London, students going into their third year of study have the chance to work alongside government lawyers across GLD's specialist areas, including Employment, Litigation (contentious) and Advisory (non-contentious).
Aimed at improving access to a career in law, students are placed across GLD's national offices, including Leeds, London and Salford. The scheme, which has been approved following a successful pilot in Leeds, provides applicants with unique legal work experience and firsthand knowledge of public law at the heart of government.
Placements will include varied and diverse work, from visiting prisons, developing client relationships, working on negligence claims to creating bundles, sourcing counsel and drafting instructions for barristers. Likewise, the students will receive training and guidance on working in the Civil Service and close line management and pastoral support.
They will also be able to work with senior leaders, including the Treasury Solicitor, Attorney General and Solicitor General. GLD looks to provide the students with the skills and experience required to embark on a legal career, either as a government lawyer or in the private sector.
This offer builds on GLD's existing training opportunities, including the Government Legal Profession Trainee Scheme and the Diversity Summer Scheme.
Treasury Solicitor and Permanent Secretary to the Government Legal Department, Susanna McGibbon, said:
We can only start truly improving diversity of the legal profession when we improve accessibility to the sector early in peoples' studies.
I am proud of GLD and the Government Legal Profession leading the way in offering placements through schemes like this one, providing students with much needed work experience for future applications.
Likewise, these schemes encourage students to consider and realise there are opportunities for them not only in government but in the legal sector.
Notes
- GLD is the government's principal legal adviser, helping the government to govern well, within the rule of law.
- GLD intends to offer the scheme from our Bristol office from September 2025.
- Recruitment for pupillage opens in January 2025 on the Pupillage Gateway.
- Recruitment for the Government Legal Profession Trainee Solicitor Scheme will open in spring 2025.
