Helping hand

“A lot of firms will give you work experience, but they're not going to help you with the stage that you're at in your career,” says Chloe. “My mentor Rachel Hearn has helped me with writing CVs and how to prepare for interviews, and she has also given me valuable information that you don't necessarily get from college because the teachers don't have the time to do one-to-one training with you in your specific career path. She has also given me insight into studying at university, life as a lawyer and how a law firm works.”

Rachel Hearn, Senior Associate in employment law, says she wanted to participate in the Career Start programme because, like Chloe, she was state school educated and she recalls how daunting it was starting a career in law. She was the first member of her family to go to university and she didn’t have any contacts to call on who could give her a helping hand.

“I thought that if I could help at least one other person with a similar background to my own, it would be worth doing. I wanted to offer someone the support I wish had been available to me when I started out and reassure them that going to a state school and not having parents in the profession are not a barrier to becoming a successful lawyer,” she says.

She adds that she formed a strong bond with Chloe instantly and seeing her develop and progress has been a rewarding process. “I truly believe that the legal profession needs to be more diverse and this includes having more people from different socio-economic backgrounds. Chloe gives me hope that the future can be different.”

For her part, Dixon says that she is still keen to pursue a career in law and the programme has instilled in her a new-found confidence. “Before I went to Charles Russell Speechlys, I wouldn't have been able to walk into a room and start talking to people to find out what they do within a business, but after doing the networking and the work insight week with SMBP, I've now got the confidence to go up to people and ask them what they do for a job. I don't think I would have been able to do that had I not had that experience through the Career Start programme."