Solicitor apprenticeships are creating new routes into the legal profession, but opening the door is only part of the story. Samantha Hope, Senior Emerging Talent Manager at Shoosmiths, reflects on the importance of building a community around apprentices once they begin their careers, and how City Century is helping the next generation of solicitors build connections, confidence and a sense of belonging from the very start, with Shoosmiths solicitor apprentice Jenna sharing her own experience of becoming part of that wider community.

Published: 8 October 2026
Author: Samantha Hope, senior emerging talent manager, and Jenna Surridge, solicitor apprentice

Starting your career is a big moment. Starting it through a route that is still relatively new to the profession makes the community around you even more important.

That is one of the reasons I am such a supporter of City Century and the community it is creating around solicitor apprenticeships.

At Shoosmiths, we have seen first-hand the value that solicitor apprenticeships can offer individuals, employers and the wider profession.

We launched our programme in Birmingham in 2024, before expanding into Leeds in 2025 and welcoming our first London cohort in 2026. As a firm with a national focus, creating different routes into law across our locations matters to us. Talent isn't confined to one city, one background or one route into the profession.

But creating the route into law is only part of it. As employers, we also need to think carefully about what happens once apprentices join us: the people they meet, the networks they build and whether they feel part of a community that extends beyond their own organisation.

It is something that Joanna Hughes MBE, Patrick McCann, Joanne Gubbay and the wider City Century team continue to champion. Their work doesn't stop at encouraging talented young people to consider solicitor apprenticeships. It is also about creating opportunities for apprentices to connect and develop once they have started their careers. City Century describes this as supporting apprentices not simply to get "in", but to get "on".

Recently, we encouraged our newest solicitor apprentices to get together in London for the City Century and City of London Law Society Afternoon Tea at Ironmongers' Hall. The event brought together first-year solicitor apprentices from City Century member firms, providing an opportunity to make connections right at the beginning of their careers.

Our first year apprentices may be based in Birmingham and London, but they are one Shoosmiths cohort. Bringing them together, while also introducing them to the wider community of apprentices and organisations championing this route into law, helps them see the network of people developing alongside them.

Rather than just tell you what the afternoon meant from an employer's perspective, I asked one of our new solicitor apprentices, Jenna, to share hers…

Jenna's experience

The event was a brilliant opportunity for us to meet and network with fellow solicitor apprentices from all types of law firms, build new professional connections and share experiences with others who are also at the very beginning of their legal careers.

Throughout the afternoon, we heard from Dev Desai, Sienna Horrigan and Paul Leamy, who shared their experiences and offered some really valuable advice. Sienna Horrigan, a second-year solicitor apprentice, reflected on her own first year and encouraged us not to compare our journeys with others, to recognise that we belong and to make the most of opportunities to step outside our comfort zones.

We also had the chance to learn more about City Century and the wider legal community around us, while building our confidence in networking and developing professional relationships.

Having only recently completed our first month at Shoosmiths, we found the afternoon both informative and inspiring. It reinforced how valuable it is to build connections across the profession and gave us a broader perspective on the different career journeys and opportunities within law.

We left feeling motivated and excited about what lies ahead as we continue developing both professionally and academically.

Creating routes into law, and communities around them

Jenna's reflection gets to the heart of why opportunities like this matter.

A solicitor apprenticeship is much more than a different way of achieving the same qualification. It gives someone the opportunity to develop their professional experience and legal education alongside one another, earning while they learn and becoming part of the profession from day one.

But alongside that structured learning and development sits something that is perhaps harder to put on a programme timetable: belonging.

As a profession, we rightly put a lot of energy into attracting talented people into solicitor apprenticeships. We need to be equally ambitious about supporting them once they arrive.

For an apprentice joining an individual firm, particularly as part of a relatively small cohort, being introduced to a much larger community of people following the same route can be incredibly powerful. It gives them peers to learn alongside, experiences to share and relationships that could continue throughout their legal careers.

That is one of the things I am most grateful to City Century for facilitating.

Bringing apprentices together across different organisations reminds them that, while their day-to-day development might happen within one firm, they are part of something much bigger: a growing community of future solicitors and a profession that is increasingly embracing different pathways into law.

Thank you to Joanna Hughes MBE, Patrick McCann, Joanne Gubbay and everyone involved in City Century and the City of London Law Society for continuing to create these opportunities and communities for our apprentices.

We're incredibly proud of what our solicitor apprentices already bring to Shoosmiths: their curiosity, ambition, fresh perspectives and willingness to learn. I'm equally excited about what they, and the growing solicitor apprentice community across the profession, will bring to law in the years ahead.

Interested in a future career at Shoosmiths?

We're currently redesigning our emerging talent pathways, and we expect to relaunch recruitment in autumn 2027, when we'll be accepting applications from aspiring solicitors looking to begin a solicitor apprenticeship with Shoosmiths in September 2028.

In the meantime, aspiring solicitors can subscribe to our careers updates through the Shoosmiths Emerging Talent website to hear about future opportunities, events and news from our Emerging Talent team.

Explore more of our recent blogs for insights and inspiration. If you have questions, our FAQ page is a great place to start.

Still curious or need advice? We would love to hear from you – email us at joinus@shoosmiths.com and our team will be happy to help.