Two young North East lawyers have been appointed as solicitors by North East law firm Hay & Kilner after successfully completing a two-year training programme.
Alexis Wood and Michael Taylor have both undertaken four blocks of six months in different departments within the Newcastle-headquartered firm, which helped them gain a range of practical legal experience and identify their particular strengths and areas of interest.
Alexis and Michael undertook training seats across Hay & Kilner’s clinical negligence, commercial property, private client and construction teams before settling on joining its private client and clinical negligence teams respectively.
Alongside their on-the-job learning, they also completed the Professional Skills Course at Northumbria University, which is a mandatory qualification run by the Solicitors Regulation Authority which must be successfully undertaken prior to an individual practicing as a solicitor.
Michael holds a law degree from Durham University and a Legal Practice Course qualification from Northumbria University, while Alexis took a chemistry degree at Durham University before deciding on a change of career direction.
She spent a year working as a paralegal in Hay & Kilner’s residential property unit before beginning her traineeship, a position she took on after completing her Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course qualifications at Northumbria.
Alexis Wood says: “The variety of work, the range and regularity of client contact and the industry reputation of our partners in this area made private client work stand out for me and I’m enjoying being part of a very supportive and encouraging team.
“The focus now is to continue building my client base and business networks, look for opportunities to develop my skills and knowledge, and to contribute to the development of the business wherever I can.”
Michael Taylor adds: “The firm very quickly responded to the evolving situation and made sure all the advice, support and guidance that is key to any training contract remain easily accessible.
“Clinical negligence is a very interesting area of the law that provides many different learning opportunities across a wide range of different topics while helping people and families who are facing challenging situations.”
Hay & Kilner, which celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2021, is one of North East England’s leading independent law firms and provides comprehensive legal advice across every aspect of the law to businesses and individuals from both within and outside the region.
Alison Hall, partner and head of the private client department at Hay & Kilner, says: “Alexis and Michael have proven themselves to be extremely capable young solicitors and we’re very glad to have them as part of the team.
“The wider situation in which they’ve completed their training has been unlike anything we’ve ever previously seen, but they’ve remained fully committed to their work and our senior team has adapted the ways in which we work to ensure the right level of support and guidance was always in place.
“They have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of many of our partners who also began their legal careers as trainees with us and we look forward to seeing how they progress from here.”