Trainees ‘exploiting’ aspiring lawyers by monetising advice on social media
Trainee lawyers are taking to social media to monetise their “advice” and offer “mentorship” to aspiring candidates looking to land training contracts and apprenticeships, sparking backlash from industry veterans who claim the practice is exploitative.
Paul Leamy, a solicitor at Temple Bright and former Winston Taylor partner of ten years, told Morning Wire there is “a growing trend” of candidates who have successfully landed competitive training contracts at law firms offering advice on how to succeed in the process on social media in exchange for fees.
Leamy said those monetising their advice are “exploiting” aspiring candidates. “It’s creating another barrier to access into a profession which historically has had enough barriers which many of us within the profession have spent years trying to break down,” Leamy added.
The lawyer also highlighted how competitive the market is, as there are not enough roles for the number of applicants. “I see this as a cottage industry chasing people who are desperate for that break and preying on them, saying, ‘I can share my magic formula with you’ for a fee.”
According to UCAS, the number of students accepted onto law courses in the UK hit 27,150 last year, marking a record high. However, fewer than 3,000 training contracts were offered to keen applicants across 67 City law firms this year, according to data from Legal Cheek.
Many hurdles remain before aspiring lawyers can even qualify. Only 53 per cent of 8,000 aspiring solicitors who sat the first part of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) in Janaury, a ten-hour test of the foundational legal knowledge required to become a solicitor in England and Wales, passed.
Students forking out money for advice
Leamy, who left Winston Taylor last year partly to spend more time helping young people get into the legal industry, said it is “an unwritten duty” to pass on your knowledge and experience to the next generation.
“To try and start monetising that doesn’t sit well with me,” Leamy said. Those offering these courses, he said, typically post predominantly content on Instagram and TikTok about applications, which “is the hook” to then click on their website link, which is “enticing people in to pay for services.”
He said law firms are “starting to frown upon this” and that he hopes firms “start saying to incoming trainees they would not look well upon it if one of their offer holders did this.”
Finn Sprakes, a solicitor apprentice at a large City law firm, told Morning Wire he “was flabbergasted” when he noticed the trend and said it “feels manipulative”.
“People are almost panic-buying and wondering what they’re doing wrong and thinking they need to fix that so will pay, ” Sprakes said.
This comes as aspiring lawyers have shared their woes about legal advice being monetised online on platforms such as Reddit. Users have claimed they were tricked on social media into spending thousands of pounds on advice and mentorship, assuming the person was a senior lawyer when they were not; instead, they received “AI slop”.
A problem at the Bar too
This isn’t just a problem those eager to land a place at a law firm are facing.
Ben Keith, a barrister at 5 St Andrews Hill, told Morning Wire it is a growing problem at the Bar too, and has seen a number of posts cropping up on social media from “people who don’t have pupillage themselves but are claiming they can help with pupillage applications.”
There are approximately only 500 places offered each year to barristers to qualify for pupillage, the 12-month training which is required to become a qualified barrister in England and Wales, and Keith said the interest in paying for advice online is due to the training course being “hugely oversubscribed” and so “people are slightly desperate.”
He said he has seen “people trying to exploit” others, particularly around the time of the year when aspiring barristers are chosen to undertake pupillage training.
For those who have secured their pupillage, Keith said monetising their advice is “a social media hubris”. “It’s a false sense of achievement. You think you suddenly know everything just because you’ve done a bar course,” he added.