Two Leeds Law School work experience students hired as paralegals at Thrive Law after completing placement

Our work experience students have spoken very highly about how much this module has helped them as it provides a real insight into a working day and the role of a paralegal in an employment law.

At Thrive, we normally offer two or three students a work placement each year. The students will be interviewed by me, and I then select those who would be a great fit within in the team. The selected students then work at Thrive once a week for about three months. They get involved in all the different types of work we do, from legal work, to writing blogs, to researching legal matters, attending tribunals and coming along to our networking events. We like to get the students involved in as much as we can to enhance their experience.

We have now employed two of our previous work experience students from Leeds Beckett, Deborah Norbury and Uthman El-Dharrat, as full-time paralegals at Thrive.   From both the firm’s perspective and the individuals, it is a great way to get to know each other, see whether they fit into the team and check their values align with the firms’. 

Deborah and Uthman are amazing.  We were very impressed with all the work they produced during their placement and how much they learnt and grew as individuals in such a short space of time. They both went over and above their one day a week by helping us at our marketing events and coming along to our team outings which meant as a team we built a close relationship.  After their hard work and enthusiasm, offering them a role was easy.

Our team are currently working from home and adapting really well to remote working.  So far it is great for the team, although it does have its challenges and we have regular team meetings to ensure everyone is okay.  Uthman joined last year but Deborah has joined during lockdown.  But she is doing so well working from home and has “settled in” already.

The firm is ‘Thriving’; the team are very busy with legal work, much of it stemming from our free coronavirus crisis helpline to help employees and businesses during this difficult time with employment law enquires.  We also have a free BLM (Black Lives Matter) advice line too.  All is all, it is a great time to be joining Thrive.