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A Coventry University law graduate has been promoted to partner at her solicitors’ firm — less than a year after finishing her last lecture.
Natalie Foster will be taking a cut of the profits at North Yorkshire Law, which has offices in Scarborough, Whitby and York, from April 2019. She graduated with a Law and Practice BA just last summer. Before that she worked as a business manager for Barclays, specialising in commercial lending for Barclays for seven years, later taking time out to have children.
In 2016, during the second year of her law degree, Foster began working part-time at North Yorkshire Law, securing work as an assistant before moving into paralegal work in the commercial department. The Scarborough native became a fee earner immediately after graduating.
The new partner is set to qualify as a Chartered Legal Executive later in the year. This route doesn’t involve a conventional training contract and allows people with previous experience to qualify as a lawyer more quickly, but generally specialising in a particular field and without becoming a solicitor or barrister. Foster already manages a team of nine, including three qualified solicitors.
Smaller firms tend to offer a quicker route to advancement than big, hierarchical outfits. In 2013, Adam Ramlugon became a partner in City firm Bargate Murray aged just 27 — but it helped that the only other partners at the time were Mr Bargate and Mr Murray. Ramlugon has since been promoted to managing partner.
Foster confirmed to Legal Cheek that she is to become a partner at North Yorkshire Law shortly off the back of her previous business experience.