Being a Paralegal and Vacation Schemes

[laby201]

Hi!

I have recently graduated and have managed to secure a position as a paralegal in a decently sized international firm in my hometown. I know I'm very fortunate to secure a paralegal job so soon after graduating, but I am also not sure I want to practice at this firm long-term and am still interested in applying for Vacation Schemes.

However, in my contract, it states that you are not allowed to take paid or unpaid work elsewhere, unless written permission has been secured. This obviously puts me in a bit of a precarious position regarding a VS. I would be happy to use my holiday time if I am fortunate enough to secure a VS, or even unpaid leave if necessary. Is it likely the firm would allow me to take a VS though due to the potential conflict of interest there? As a TC (if I'm successful) wouldn't start until 2026, I would be happy to remain at the firm afterwards but imagine they won't be happy if I used them practically as a stepping stone.

I'm only looking to apply for summer schemes as think I need to have worked for a good number of months beforehand. Any advice?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi!

I have recently graduated and have managed to secure a position as a paralegal in a decently sized international firm in my hometown. I know I'm very fortunate to secure a paralegal job so soon after graduating, but I am also not sure I want to practice at this firm long-term and am still interested in applying for Vacation Schemes.

However, in my contract, it states that you are not allowed to take paid or unpaid work elsewhere, unless written permission has been secured. This obviously puts me in a bit of a precarious position regarding a VS. I would be happy to use my holiday time if I am fortunate enough to secure a VS, or even unpaid leave if necessary. Is it likely the firm would allow me to take a VS though due to the potential conflict of interest there? As a TC (if I'm successful) wouldn't start until 2026, I would be happy to remain at the firm afterwards but imagine they won't be happy if I used them practically as a stepping stone.

I'm only looking to apply for summer schemes as think I need to have worked for a good number of months beforehand. Any advice?

You should really speak to you line manager at an appropriate time about this. You might want to wait until you are getting interviews and need time off to attend them, but a lot of people want to make sure they are able to do VS before applying and so may check this with their line manager early on. How you do this will be very dependent on how good your working relationship is with your line manager and also how long you have been working there.

I have seen a whole spectrum of outcomes to this situation though. Some paralegals are able to take as much time off as they want to attend vacation schemes and have had no conflict issues. Others struggle to get the time off, or are subject to conflict checks with their paralegal firm. Some may find conflict checks are the issue with the vacation scheme firm.

There are quite a few variables which make it very difficult or predict the outcome for you, but they will generally be:

- your relationship with your line manager
- how strict the paralegal firm are with allowing people to work elsewhere
- how close a competitor the two firms are
- how valued/respected you are in your paralegal firm