Why PRIME matters: widening access and opportunity in law

Louise Shiels, partner and head of dispute resolution and risk at Brodies, shares her personal journey into law and explains why initiatives such as PRIME play a vital role in helping talented students discover legal careers.

Please can you tell us a bit about your journey into law

Law wasn’t actually something that I had been looking to do initially. I don’t have any lawyers in my family and I was the first to go to university, so it took a while for me to discover it as a potential career path. My school was more focused on sciences and I originally applied to do chemistry at university. But when I got my Higher results through, and found that I had done well in English and my other subjects too, suddenly there were other options on the table. It was only at that point that I started to consider law as a serious option and I attended career days to find out more.

Did you face any challenges at university?

There was only one other person from my school who was at Edinburgh Law School, he was in the year above me. Many of my class came from a private school background and there were a lot of people who already knew each other, had existing networks, or were familiar with the university environment. I found this challenging at first, such as trying to break into a group and make new friends. I did overcome this however and established friends for life, a number of whom I now work with in Brodies.

It was also quite hard to get summer placements and traineeships as selection for those opportunities was quite limited and at the time, many revolved around who you knew, rather than what you knew. That was over 20 years ago now – things have moved on and the PRIME programme is a great way through which firms like Brodies can ensure opportunities in law are made available to people from every background.

Why is the PRIME programme so important?

Programmes such as PRIME play a part in raising awareness. When I was at school, we weren’t exposed to any discussions or talks on what it takes to pursue a legal career, and we weren’t given a lot of guidance. PRIME helps to bridge that gap. The more education on what is out there and the benefits of particular degrees, the better.

It’s great to see that there’s a lot more of that these days, and that there’s more people who are willing to speak about their career and provide an insight into what it involves.

Law is such an interesting subject, even if you don’t want to ultimately practise as a lawyer. A law degree itself is very valuable and can open up many opportunities – I have friends from law school who have gone on to take on roles in business development and accountancy, for example. If you do choose law, there are a lot of different specialisms and subject matters within it that you can choose to focus on depending on what you like doing. PRIME gives students the opportunity to explore these.

Why is it crucial that the law is made so accessible?

There are some really bright students out there who deserve the opportunity to experience how things operate within a law firm and the opportunity to show us what they can do. Legal clients come from a variety of backgrounds too, and so different clients will connect with different people. The type of education you receive does not determine if you will be a good lawyer or a bad lawyer. It should be based on merit – focusing on those who are bright and hardworking – and programmes such as PRIME really help to push this forward.

Often, when people think of law, they think of a certain type of background and a certain type of education – but this is certainly not the case at Brodies and that’s something I’m proud of.