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Our support for the Government’s Kickstart job scheme has not only been successful for Duncan Lewis Solicitors but also for the more than two dozen young people it helped into full-time employment here. Recognising the challenges facing school leavers and graduates in gaining experience within a leading Legal 500 ranked City law firm, we fully embraced the chance to sign up to the £2bn programme in January 2021. Kickstart has now closed and has attracted criticism in some quarters for a failure to put in place the means to measure its success. However, from our perspective it proved an enormous benefit to the company and the many people who got to experience working at a national law firm. Joining the City of London child care team as a legal casework assistant, Frances Romain, became a fully-fledged caseworker in March 2022. She said: “I got on the scheme through my local job centre; I graduated in June and hadn’t been having much luck until I got the opportunity to join Duncan Lewis. It was quite challenging at the start but I have learned a lot and now I’m a caseworker. Based on the response to my previous applications, I wouldn’t have been doing this without the scheme, as there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for graduates without work experience.” Thanks to Kickstart, we were able to give opportunities to 126 young people on Universal Credit or at risk of long term employment, all of whom will be able use that experience to inform their future career choices. As a result of this, 20% are now working in legal or non-legal full-time positions nationwide across various departments. Kieran Chance joined Duncan Lewis as a legal casework assistant via the Kickstarter scheme in May 2021 and is now a caseworker in the childcare department in Birmingham. He said: “I don’t think I would been doing this had it not been for Kickstarter, so I have to give it to the scheme; overall it’s been great. There were a lot of challenges because of COVID but I feel I have learned a lot in a short space of time and I was pleased to be offered the opportunity to become a caseworker in November.” Duncan Lewis has always been committed to create opportunities today for tomorrow’s lawyers and we take pride in the fact that we heavily invest in the training, learning and development of our employees. The Kickstart Scheme offered a great way to enable us to nurture some of the best emerging talent regardless of gender, ethnicity, religious belief, sexuality, or background, and promote diversity and inclusion within the company and our wider communities.