[sabiah]

I applied to an advert by Aston Carter Solicitors in Hammersmith,London.
The position is as follows:

Pay upto 9,500 for a 6 month course which qualifies a person as a paralegal whilst getting practical experience. Paralegal position at the firm with salary between £15,000 - £18,000 will the next step following completion. Potential for a TC (upto 60 tc's per year according to the company) for those who they deem fit. In return, they will fund the LPC part-time (at that later stage). (all applicants must be non-LPC holders for the position)

I recieved a call today inviting me for an interview on Thursday (.i.e. physchometric tests, group interview). I have to travel 200 miles, which i am willing to do providing it is sensible.

I randomly googled the firm and there is various criticisms on the firm in regards to the way they are recruiting undergraduates. Has anyone heard about this firm? If so, what are your opinions in regards to their recruitment process? Some people have opined as it as ' a person must be mentally unsane' to pay £9,500 for a paralegal course.

[SevenStars]

My suggestion: take the 9k and find a provider of the LPC that charges that or less.

[Norton1]

Why - if the firm was newly established in 2009 by chaps named Telewa and Rana - is it called Aston Carter? From looking at the website I don't think I'd want to be associated with them.

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by sabiah)
I applied to an advert by Aston Carter Solicitors in Hammersmith,London.
The position is as follows:

Pay upto 9,500 for a 6 month course which qualifies a person as a paralegal whilst getting practical experience. Paralegal position at the firm with salary between £15,000 - £18,000 will the next step following completion. Potential for a TC (upto 60 tc's per year according to the company) for those who they deem fit. In return, they will fund the LPC part-time (at that later stage). (all applicants must be non-LPC holders for the position)

I recieved a call today inviting me for an interview on Thursday (.i.e. physchometric tests, group interview). I have to travel 200 miles, which i am willing to do providing it is sensible.

I randomly googled the firm and there is various criticisms on the firm in regards to the way they are recruiting undergraduates. Has anyone heard about this firm? If so, what are your opinions in regards to their recruitment process? Some people have opined as it as ' a person must be mentally unsane' to pay £9,500 for a paralegal course.

This is a firm with 5 solicitors. It doesn't have Lexcel accreditation (the Law Society's practice management standard) which is the norm now for successful non-City practices. It only has one legal aid contract for crime in Birmingham. There is no way the SRA would let a firm of this size take on 60 trainees.

[emmings]

You'd have to be insane to do this. Total exploitation, send it to RoF to be exposed!

[Rancorous]

This can't be right because this is 'a law firm that genuinely cares about people and not simply maximisation of profits.'

I spent a good 10 minutes amusing myself on their website, and checking it is actually a real law firm.

http://www.aclaw.co.uk/wp-content/up...nt-package.pdf

This was the highlight. I particularly think ROF would love to publish their chart displaying the 'traditional path' and the 'AstonCarter path'.

[Shearn]

I love that chart!

The traditional route, in an ideal situation is apparently:

LLB -> LPC -> 1 year, unemployed, job-seeking period -> paralegal employment

[Wildcard]

I don't know about the rest of you, but that's how my career path has been progressing so far. Are you all just jealous that I found a paralegal job within twelve months of self-funding my GDL and LPC? I'll have paid off the debts by 2030!

[maminushka]

Oh my Lord! I hope that nobody will buy their " WONDERFUL" offer. Is this kind of behavour even allowed? I wouldn't mind working part-time for free for a while to get more experience but I would never pay £ 9.5 for a paralegal course!!! Are they insane?

[maminushka]

Sabiah- I hope you are not insane and too desperate to attend an interview with those jerks.

[Wildcard]

(Original post by Wildman)
they are talking about it on rof

http://www.rollonfriday.com/Discussi...0/Default.aspx

I think we're going to have to duke it out at some point - can't have two avatarless users with names as similar as ours, posting primarily in the same subforum.

[jacketpotato]

What is a "qualified paralegal"? I didn't know such a thing existed...

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by jacketpotato)
What is a "qualified paralegal"? I didn't know such a thing existed...

You have led a sheltered life.

http://www.paralegaldistancelearning.co.uk/

[jacketpotato]

(Original post by nulli tertius)
You have led a sheltered life.

http://www.paralegaldistancelearning.co.uk/

I have indeed!

Although I'm not quite sure why the "Aston Carter" course costs 9k when the CLT course costs 2.2k, but there we go.

[LegalLiz]

What are they offering that is so so so different to the well recognised Paralegal courses?

[LegalLiz]

Ahh I see thats what makes them different lol

[nulli tertius]

(Original post by LegalLiz)
Ahh I see thats what makes them different lol

Aston Carter ought to have a trip to the Advertising Standards Authority now that they are advertising these posts on their website.

The key point is the up to 60 training contracts on offer.

Regulation 6.1 (h) of the Training Provider Regulations provide that training providers

take no more than two trainees for each partner or senior solicitor with a current and four previous consecutive practising certificates.

This is a firm with 5 solicitors. How do they make good on their advertising claim?

[sabiah]

Thank you everyone! saved me 9 k !!!! Yes, i am somewhat naive to this oh so corrupt world. I did not go to the interview today and are so glad i did not! Surely, what they are doing is wrong? fresh out of University taking this route, for those like myself who don't know, this would be a scar for life and maybe one which i would probably never want to go into law again. Thank you guys for your opinions : ) me is a very happy bunny and im glad my father hasn't found out, if he'd have found out, had i have told him what the situation was with this firm now; yikes no hair left lol

[Norton1]

(Original post by nulli tertius)


This is a firm with 5 solicitors. How do they make good on their advertising claim?

Charge NQ's who haven't been retained £19500 for a post qualification experience package within Aston Carter?

(Yes, yes I'm fairly sure you need a certain level of seniority to be the supervising solicitor)

Edit: Looking at their solicitor profiles it's interesting to note the Universities they went to (http://www.aclaw.co.uk/our-team/) The senior partner's isn't listed but apparently he went to Keele.

2nd edit: And finally, Amber Jervier is their Legal Secretary / PA to Senior Partner. I'm sure she's a lovely girl. The website describes her thus:

Amber has had a great extent of experience within the administrative side of many different companies, within the law, charity and health sectors, working directly with Senior Directors and Chief Executive Officers.

Her Linkedin on the other hand :

Legal PA to Senior Partner
Aston Carter Solicitors
Public Company; Myself Only; Law Practice industry
March 2012 – Present (4 months)

PA to CEO
Bowel Cancer UK
Nonprofit; 11-50 employees; Nonprofit Organization Management industry
June 2011 – February 2012 (9 months)

Administrator
South West London and St George's Mental Health NHS Trust
Government Agency; 1001-5000 employees; Mental Health Care industry
September 2009 – May 2010 (9 months)

Not really appropriate to victimise her for something she presumably didn't write but if the receptionist's bio is this full of **** it doesn't say much for the trustworthiness of the other bios.

[LegalLiz]

Haha that's funny Norton. Don't start with Legal PA's and Secretaries my sisters one and she's not a receptionist, she's a dam stress head.

But yeah I am not convinced by any of their profiles to be frank! LOL at the MuG shot looking photos or Roger and Amber! !!!!

Sabiah - I am pleased for you to see sense! x