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County council plans major return to trainee market with four contracts

Kent County Council plans to recruit four trainee solicitors in the coming weeks, after a number of years when it has not regularly offered contracts.

The local authority said it was “looking for young, talented lawyers with a real interest in local government".

Geoff Wild, Director of Governance and Law at Kent, said: "Trainee solicitors are a vital part of our evolution in Kent and we are delighted to be able to offer four first class opportunities. We will be offering a varied and rewarding training experience within an award-winning legal team of 129 lawyers.

“The recruitment campaign is primarily being conducted via Twitter. We want to recruit applicants who have a real entrepreneurial spirit who can make a real impact and using Twitter in the early stages is just one part of ensuring that we get the right people.”

The application period is expected to be very short, with Kent advising potential trainees to follow the @kentlegal account on Twitter to find out more.

Speaking to Local Government Lawyer earlier this year (as part of the site’s careers and training supplement), Wild said the authority had not had a trainee regularly or a number of years.

“When I got my training contract in 1984, I worked for the Greater London Council and in my year they took in 20 articled clerks,” he added. “I just thought that was normal and I didn’t know any different. Now I realise that was truly exceptional. We have a real opportunity here to develop our own lawyers.”

The South London Legal Partnership, which launched last week, also plans to offer training contracts regularly in due course.

Hosted by the London Borough of Merton, the partnership also provides legal services to Richmond, Sutton and Kingston councils.

The Law Society’s annual statistical review for 2011/12 (the most recent available) found that the number of trainee placements at local authorities was largely stable at 60 (up from 57 the previous year). However, it was considerably lower than the 100-plus earlier in the last decade.

Advertise your traineeships for free on Local Government Lawyer: contact the publisher, Derek Bedlow, via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.or on 020 7239 4917.

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