Written 29th September 2023 by Olliers Solicitors
We are delighted to announce that two more members of the Olliers team commence training contracts today – Connor Brylczak and Hope Rea.
At Olliers we are extremely passionate about new entrants to the criminal defence profession and to demonstrate that there is indeed a positive future in criminal defence.
Both Connor and Hope undertook the 2022 summer internship programme with Olliers and then joined the team.
Connor has worked in our DBS Department as a paralegal and Hope has been a key member of our support team and more recently commenced paralegal responsibilities.
We wish them both well in not only their training contracts but in their future careers with Olliers.
Olliers Summer internship programme
Each Summer Olliers Solicitors offers week long paid internships at our Manchester city centre office to graduates and undergraduates who are interested in a career in criminal defence work. Criminal law is an exciting and challenging area of law and we provide our interns with an opportunity to spend a week with a leading Manchester based criminal defence firm.
During the week we aim to ensure that interns:
- Observe a number of police interviews with suspects
- Observe Magistrates’ Court proceedings
- There is a possibility of observing a trial
- Shadow Counsel in the Crown Court
- Observe client appointments
- Review files and undergo a mini induction with our Practice Manager
- Speak to our senior lawyers, Senior Management Team and Managing Director, Matthew Claughton about a career in criminal defence work
Criminal defence work is not for the faint hearted but for many practitioners it is the most interesting and rewarding area of law to practice. Applications for the Summer 2024 programme will open in April 2023.
Further promotions
Within the last few months two of our trainees have both qualified as solicitors. Alex Close-Claughton, who joined the firm eight years ago as a senior caseworker undertook the solicitor apprenticeship scheme completing the SQE1 and SQE2 exams. Hannah Poole, who also joined the firm following our summer internship scheme, completed her two-year training contract in August. Similarly, we wish both Hannah and Alex well in their careers with us.
As a result of Hope and Connor’s promotions we have two new members of the team being Eleanor Harris and Aimee Darbyshire-Ellison who both completed the summer internship scheme with us this year.
Further appointments
The above follows two new solicitor appointments for Olliers. In August Anne-Marie Nicholls joined us as a Senior Associate. Anne-Marie was previously a CPS lawyer leading the team on domestic violence cases for a decade. For the last seven years, she has worked as a specialist prosecutor in the Rape and Sexual Offences Unit (RASO) and has 17 years of experience in pre-charge advice and preparation and extensive knowledge of the process from the prosecution perspective.
Jack Tomlinson also joined the firm as a solicitor, having previously worked at a leading motoring defence firm. In his new role at Olliers, Jack will be undertaking his police station accreditation, internal pre-charge accreditation and representing clients at the pre-charge investigative stage.
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Olliers is one of the UK’s leading criminal defence and regulatory law firms, specialising in the defence of individuals, businesses, and other organisations across a broad range of corporate and financial crime, regulatory offences, serious crime and sexual offences. We act in professional discipline matters. We use the same skillset to represent individuals and organisations facing criticism before inquests and public inquires.
