to aggregate experience gained over a number of years – and potentially with different employers – as is the case with QWE. Can you share anything about your career development plans for 2023 and beyond? Having attained qualification in October 2022, I am looking forward to growing our much-needed Special Educational Needs & Disability service and expanding the service into other education-related matters, such as school exclusions and admissions appeals. Furthermore, like many of my NLS Legal colleagues, I would like to be able to contribute to policy and law reform using the University’s pedigree in research to complement the work of our practice. Additionally, in line with NLS Legal’s mission as a teaching law firm, I am looking forward to further my mentoring, training and supervision of those who are at an earlier stage in their legal careers – be they full-time members of staff with our firm or be they Nottingham Law School student volunteers who work alongside their studies. distinction in 2019. I was the first person to undertake their solicitor training and achieve qualification with NLS Legal, since it gained law firm status in 2015. In 2020 I had the honour of winning the Modern Law Awards’ Paralegal of the Year, which was followed by success in Nottinghamshire Law Society’s Junior Lawyer of the Year in 2021. My professional journey to date has given me the opportunity to practice across a number of different service areas and for a diverse range of clients. I suspect I am one of very few NQ solicitors who juggle Education & Special Educational Needs cases with Intellectual Property work! As set out above, I qualified with NLS Legal through the SRA’s Equivalent Means scheme. As with the training contract process, an applicant for Equivalent Means must demonstrate experience of practice in a variety of areas (including contentious work) with a set of assessment criteria which aligns with the SRA’s competency framework. That being said, the Equivalent Means route can be much more flexible than a more-traditional four- (or six-) seat training contract, allowing an applicant Students who work with NLS Legal support the experienced and qualified lawyers in their delivery of advice to clients. MY LEGAL LIFE 29 About Callum Scott Callum Scott is a newly qualified solicitor at NLS Legal, Nottingham Law School’s ‘teaching law firm’. Callum’s undergraduate degree is in Chemistry and, having completed the Graduate Diploma in Law and Legal Practice Course, he completed his training via the SRA’s Equivalent Means route. Equivalent Means has elements of both the training contract and of the new Qualifying Work Experience (QWE) routes to qualification. About NLS Legal NLS Legal is an SRA-regulated law firm fully integrated into Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University and operating as an Alternative Business Structure (ABS). NLS Legal provides pro-bono legal services to individuals, start-ups and not-for-profit organisations across a number of practice areas. NLS Legal was named ‘Law Firm of the Year’ at the LexisNexis Legal Awards 2022. Contact Callum Scott Solicitor NLS Legal Nottingham Trent University – Nottingham Law School Tel: +44 01158 482648 E: callum.scott@ntu.ac.uk www.ntu.ac.uk
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