Meet The Team - Olivia Cutts & Sophie Hunter | News
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Meet The Team – Olivia Cutts & Sophie Hunter

Howells Solicitors

10 Feb, 2023

To celebrate National Apprenticeship Week, we’re shining a spotlight on our apprentices, Olivia Cutts and Sophie Hunter and celebrating their time with Howells so far.

The Howells apprenticeship scheme focuses on nurturing new talent and offers the training needed to begin a successful legal career. Not only do the apprentices end their training with a qualification, but they also learn valuable skills in multiple areas of law – so you may run in to them from time to time at Howells. Our current apprentices currently work as legal secretaries in various departments. They work closely with both Solicitors and clients.

Olivia Cutts joined Howells in March 2022 and since then has worked in our criminal defence and civil litigation team. She currently works as a legal secretary in our family law team based in Sheffield.  Through her apprenticeship at Howells, Olivia is training for a Level 3 business administration and a level 2 legal secretarial with a specialist qualification in level 2 principals in clinical negligence.

“My uncle works for the citizens advice bureau and hearing him talk about helping clients out in difficult situations inspired me to want to start a career in law” Olivia said. “Howells were one of the of the few firms who offered apprenticeships in Sheffield that didn’t require A levels and weren’t pushing you through as massive cohorts, so you actually learned something and was not seen as a number and forgot about.”

“Other legal secretarial / business admin apprenticeships were more staying in one department or on reception so being able to move departments and gain experience in various departments is what made the Howells apprenticeship scheme stand out”.

Olivia plans to finish her apprenticeship in the summer of 2023 and then start training for the CILEx qualification, with the view to qualify as a charted legal executive.

Sophie Hunter, our newest apprentice, joined Howells in October 2022. After completing her A levels in law, Sophie caught the law bug and decided to continue her studies in the legal sector. However, rather than taking the traditional route of University, Sophie felt that learning on the job whilst gaining a legal qualification would be far more beneficial.

Sophie, who works as a legal secretary in our family law department, discovered Howells from reading recommendations and online testimonials from previous team members. She was attracted to Howells due to the unique and tailored apprenticeship structure on offer “I chose Howells because of the firm’s apprenticeship structure, where you move departments every 3 months. This would enable me to gain experience in multiple different areas of law which is ideal as at my current stage I am not 100% sure of the area I would like to move into in the future.” Sophie said.

“Howells also prioritises progression within the firm, something that is extremely appealing to an apprentice.”

Sophie will complete her apprenticeship in February 2024 where she plans to continue to complete the levels of CILEx qualifications and qualify as a chartered legal executive.

If you are interested in applying for our next apprenticeship contract, please contact Claire Bond at HR@Howellsllp.com.  

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