Carly Kinch and Peter Neenan are mentioned in an article in The Times, discussing the career possibilities for a paralegal within a law firm.
Both Carly and Peter are partners who joined Stewarts as paralegals. Carly and Peter started as paralegals in 2006 and qualified in 2009 in the Divorce and Family department and Aviation department respectively. Peter was made partner in 2015 and Carly in 2018.
The article quotes Amanda Hamilton, the chief executive of the National Association of Licenced Paralegals, talking about paralegals’ career prospects:
“For paralegals who join a law firm with a view to a partnership, it really depends on how the law firms value the paralegals they have, and law firms have different approaches to the paralegal career track.”
The full article can be found here.
Journey from paralegal to partner
In 2017, The Times shone a spotlight on the excellent experience gained by paralegals at Stewarts and focused on Peter Neenan and Francesca Carrington-Hughes’s careers at the firm to date. That article can be found here.
Paralegals play an important role at Stewarts and are exposed to a wide variety of legal tasks that they may not be exposed to at another firm.
Peter Neenan, Partner, commented in the Times:
“As a paralegal in the aviation department I was given responsibilities that many magic circle firms would not even have given to trainees.
“The practical exposure meant that I understood the firm and its culture, the aviation department and their expectations — before I even considered seeking a traineeship with the firm. They knew what my strengths and weaknesses were.”
Francesca Carrington-Hughes, an associate at the firm, who was previously a paralegal and trainee before qualifying, commented further:
“I started working as a paralegal in the divorce and family department ten days after my interview in February 2014. I was entrusted with a lot of legal, chargeable work, making the transition to a trainee seamless.”
Paralegal position at Stewarts
Stewarts has a policy of recruiting all of its trainee solicitors from the existing paralegals that work at the firm. Paralegals are valued highly and given the opportunity to get involved with all aspects of life at Stewarts including client-facing work, networking at conferences and events, and charitable activities.
There is a bespoke training programme for paralegals in addition to the legal update training they receive. This has included sessions on public speaking and telephone etiquette amongst other skills essential for any future solicitor.
We have some excellent opportunities open to join the firm as a paralegal, for current vacancies please visit our vacancies page.
Careers at Stewarts
At Stewarts, we aim to recruit and retain the best people at all levels of the firm. The ability, dedication and technical excellence of our people are critical to the successes we achieve for our clients.
We’ve highlighted some of the careers of our people, outlining the diverse paths they have taken to get where they are today, in some career stories. You can view them here.
The principles of inclusion, equal opportunity and diversity are important to us. We aim to create an inclusive culture that respects people’s differences and gives everyone a chance to excel at what they do. To find out more about our approach to diversity and equality visit our page here.
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