Lanyon Bowdler is a well-established full-service law firm with a number of offices across the West Midlands and North Wales. They are recognised by the leading legal directories – Chambers UK and Legal 500. Like many professional services firms, they faced the challenge of maximising their Apprenticeship Levy while building a sustainable talent pipeline for the future.
The challenge: Untapped potential
When Emma Harrison, Learning and Development Manager, first joined Lanyon Bowdler there wasn’t a structured approach to their apprenticeship programme. “The apprenticeship service was being used for the likes of business administration positions, but not in the legal team,” she recalled.
For a firm of Lanyon Bowdler’s size and ambition, this represented a significant missed opportunity – not just financially due to underspending their potential Apprenticeship Levy fund but in terms of talent development and succession planning.
Emma questioned why the firm wasn’t making better use of apprenticeships. But identifying the problem was only the first step. She soon discovered that various departments across the firm had reservations about bringing apprentices on board.
The concerns were familiar ones that many employers face:
- Time investment: Departments worried they wouldn’t have sufficient time to get apprentices up to speed with processes and procedures
- Off-the-job training hours: There was uncertainty about how the mandatory training time would impact productivity
- Supervisor workload: Managers questioned whether they had the capacity to properly support an apprentice alongside their existing responsibilities.
Emma’s response was pragmatic and persuasive. “I said it’s exactly the same as having a new employee that’s never worked in a law firm before. So, what’s the difference?”
This reframing was crucial and helped departments see apprentices not as an additional burden, but as a strategic investment that would yield qualified, work-ready professionals who already understood the firm’s culture and processes.
The solution: Partnership with Damar Training
To transform the firm’s apprenticeship programme, Emma needed a training provider who could deliver more than just qualifications. She needed a true partner who understood the recruitment challenges law firms face and could provide proactive, responsive support.
That’s where Damar Training came in.
Emma now works closely with Sabina Adam, Damar’s recruitment specialist, and Kim Powell, who maintains regular quarterly catch-ups to ensure everything runs smoothly. This partnership has become fundamental to Lanyon Bowdler’s apprenticeship success.
“What’s really good with Damar in particular,” Emma explained, “is the fact that you do the shortlisting, only putting people forward who have actually got what they need, in order to do the role we’re advertising for.”
This pre-screening saves Lanyon Bowdler significant time and ensures that only genuinely suitable candidates who are committed to the apprenticeship pathway reach the interview stage.
Another aspect that helps to set Damar apart is the team’s proactive approach to communication. “If you don’t hear from us, you’ll chase: ‘We sent you those over last week. How are they? Where are we with the process?'” she said. This proactive follow-up ensures that recruitment processes keep moving forward and that no opportunities slip through the cracks.
The impact: Addressing internal barriers
With Damar providing quality candidates and a streamlined recruitment process, Emma was able to focus on addressing the internal concerns that had previously held departments back from embracing apprenticeships.
One of the most common concerns was about the mandatory off-the-job training hours but Emma emphasised the flexibility built into the off-the-job training requirement. “It can be a whole day if you want it to be, but it can be two half days or three third days. It can move with work as well; if they’ve got a court date and they want to go, then they can move their off-the-job training to another day.”
This flexibility is particularly important in a law firm environment where client demands and court dates can’t always be predicted. Many of Lanyon Bowdler’s apprentices choose to do their study time at home, where they can focus without office distractions.
Emma also recognised that not all supervisors would feel equally confident in their role as an apprenticeship supervisor and might feel this to be a barrier.
For experienced supervisors who are enthusiastic about the role, Emma takes a hands-off approach. She cites the example of a partner supervising an apprentice taking the Chartered Legal Executive route: “She was absolutely thrilled that somebody wanted to do the CILEX route and she was thrilled to be the supervisor. I didn’t need to intervene at all.”
For newer or time pressured managers, Emma provides more hands-on support. “There are other people where their supervisors are fairly new managers so while I’m doing the reviews and providing feedback from these sessions with Damar, the day-to-day management is being left with the supervisor. This ensures that everyone is on the same page.”
The impact: Creating progression pathways
One of the most strategic aspects of Lanyon Bowdler’s approach is that they don’t simply fill positions with apprentices and then replace them when they qualify. Instead, they’ve created clear progression pathways that allow apprentices to develop their careers within the firm.
Emma has done extensive work mapping out these pathways. “If you come in as a client support assistant at entry level, how you can get to be fully qualified and what you need to do along the way? There is always progression and that’s the whole point of it.”
The firm offers multiple qualification routes to suit different career aspirations:
- Paralegal Apprenticeship for those who want to specialise in paralegal work
- Solicitor Apprenticeship/SQE route for those aiming to become solicitors
- Chartered Legal Executive Apprenticeship/CILEX route for an alternative path to becoming a lawyer.
Emma is particularly proud of one progression story: “We’ve got somebody that came to do a business admin apprenticeship with us and she’s now doing a degree-level apprenticeship. We’re pushing her forward.”
This commitment to progression extends beyond just legal roles. When discussing a compliance assistant, Emma recounted her conversation with that individual’s manager: “I said when she finishes, she’s no longer compliance assistant. She’ll be a compliance advisor – so what are you going to do about the compliance assistant level? And she went, ‘We’ll have another apprentice.'”
The impact: cultural transformation
The impact of Emma’s work and the partnership with Damar extends far beyond the numbers. Apprenticeships have become embedded in Lanyon Bowdler’s culture.
The firm now has 11 apprentices across various roles, with six of them training through Damar. When a department identifies a need for a role, HR get in touch with Emma to discuss “could this be an apprenticeship?”
Emma has become an advocate for apprenticeships beyond the firm as well. She was recently invited to speak at a careers advisor forum, where she gave a presentation about how apprenticeships work in their firm. “Some of them didn’t know that you could be a solicitor through an apprenticeship,” she recalled. “They’ve been saying to people, ‘You need A-levels and a law degree’ – but you don’t even need to do a law degree. You can be a qualified solicitor without the masses of debt, and you’re earning at the same time.”
She’s particularly proud of one example that challenges traditional assumptions about legal careers: “One of our SQE candidates this year has got an alternative degree in a niche area unrelated to the legal sector. He’s waiting for his SQE2 results now.”
The results: Looking forward
When asked to sum up her recruitment experience with Damar in a few words, Emma is clear: “It’s simple, easy to follow – not just the recruitment process, but the sign-up process as well. From start to finish, it flows.”
Through partnership with Damar and really embracing the power of apprenticeships, the firm has:
- Created clear progression pathways from entry-level roles to qualified solicitor
- Embedded apprenticeships into their recruitment culture across departments
- Built a sustainable talent pipeline that reduces recruitment costs and improves retention
- Opened up legal careers to talented individuals who might not have followed traditional routes
- Developed a reputation as an employer that invests in people’s development.
Emma’s role as an internal advocate, combined with Damar’s responsive partnership approach, has created a model that other professional services firms could learn from.
Key takeaways
- Reframe apprenticeships as standard hiring: This perspective shift helps departments overcome initial resistance and see apprenticeships as a strategic investment
- Quality shortlisting saves time and money: Pre-screening candidates for genuine commitment to the apprenticeship pathway streamlines recruitment and improves retention
- Proactive communication drives success: Regular check-ins, responsive support and a training provider who is proactively on hand to answer questions and provide guidance, make a tangible difference
- Build internal advocacy: Designate a champion within your organisation to educate departments, manage concerns and champion apprenticeships
- Create progression pathways for retention: Develop clear advancement routes from entry-level to senior roles to build a sustainable talent pipeline.