Foot Anstey and Weston College join forces to nurture future legacy lawyer talent

National law firm, Foot Anstey LLP has collaborated with Weston College to bolster its legacy team through the hiring of five Paralegals who will be trained to be specialists in the charity and legacy sector.  

The collaborative approach to bolstering talent in the legacy sector is in response to Legacy Foresight's recent commentary, which estimated that the legacy sector needs another 174 legal professionals to manage the increase in legacy income that is predicted in the next ten years.

The initiative has been spearheaded by Foot Anstey's Lucy Gill (Head of Legacies), Emma Facey (Legal Director) and Mark Gray (Professional Development Manager) who have worked with the team at Weston College to create a specialist training programme for the five new Paralegals.

Weston College will deliver the CILEX and specialist training to Foot Anstey's five new Paralegals at its new Bristol campus, The Bristol Training Institute.

The five Paralegals will be based across Foot Anstey's Bristol and Exeter offices, gaining hands-on experience from the firm's Legacy Team. The training programme is designed to be the entry level to Foot Anstey's Legacies Training Academy, a sector specific training academy designed to combine on the job experience, training and development to further the careers of legacy professionals as well as inject new talent into the sector.

When asked about the new Paralegals and training programme, Lucy Gill, Head of Legacies at Foot Anstey, said: "Demand for our Legacy work is growing, so we need more people to help manage it. As we are focused on our clients' needs and work in tandem with our client legacy administration teams, these five new Paralegals will have learnt and experienced things very differently to others in the sector. They will have the legal background and learning like any other CILEX Paralegal, but they will also have first-hand legacy experience from the client perspective.

"Having these additional Paralegals will bolster our already strong team and add more capacity for us to help new and existing clients

"Our hope for the future is that this programme evolves and develops to create a training academy, which is sector specific. We want to be able to recruit new apprentices each year and for the training and development to continue after the first two years and inject new talent into the sector."

A representative for Weston College, commented: "We are excited to welcome our first cohort of Paralegal Apprentices who will be studying at our Bristol Training Institute when our doors open on 4th October.

"The Bristol Training Institute is the home of the West of England Institute of Technology and brings Weston College's outstanding training to learners and employees in Bristol. It’s great to work alongside employers such as Foot Anstey who are so passionate about the development of their workforce, giving individuals the opportunity to develop their knowledge and skills and gain qualifications whilst on the job through apprenticeships."

To find out more about Foot Anstey's services and sector specialisms please visit https://www.footanstey.com/ or get in touch with us here https://www.footanstey.com/contact/.