The first two cohorts of Justice First Fellows have now qualified. Fiona Bawdon looks at how are they faring
The Legal Education Foundation (TLEF) launched its Justice First Fellowship scheme in 2014, when the LASPO (Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Act 2012) cuts and reductions in local authority grants had started to bite, prompting a virtual collapse in the availability of training contracts in the social welfare law sector. Against this backdrop, the scheme was seen as offering a ray of hope for the sector.
TLEF developed the blueprint for the fellowship after drawing inspiration from similar programmes in America. As well as meeting the cost of each trainee’s salary, TLEF grants (averaging around £80,000) also cover all the associated supervision and management costs.
An inevitable question from the outset was what would happen to the fellows after qualification? Would they still have jobs? Or would hard-pressed social welfare law providers be unable to afford to keep them on, once TLEF’s funding for the posts had come to an end? Equally, would the fellows jump ship for better paid, less
