Hogan Lovells and Vodafone support school students with virtual ‘First Steps to Law’ programme

Press releases | 15 November 2021

London, 15 November 2021 – Hogan Lovells has launched a virtual introduction to law programme, ‘First Steps to Law’, aimed at school-aged students and first-year university students, partnering with Vodafone on content in a UK legal market first.

Building on the success of HL BaSE Legal Learning Hub, launched last year in response to the pandemic, the launch extends the firms insight programme to 16-19 year olds interested in a career in law. The programme will offer them several tasks focused on building awareness of the skills needed to become a lawyer, including: commercial awareness, attention to detail, legal research, issue spotting, communication, email drafting, and critical thinking. It leverages the same technology platform as the bronze level HL BaSE Legal Learning Hub programme.

Students will complete a series of self-paced tasks that simulate the work of Hogan Lovells’ lawyers, gaining a deeper understanding of two of the firm’s key practice areas: Intellectual Property, and Infrastructure, Energy, Resources & Projects (IERP). Hogan Lovells has partnered with client Vodafone on the IP content, where students will be tasked with advising in-house counsel at Vodafone in hypothetical scenarios on grounds for making a trademark infringement claim and explaining trademark registrations. IERP tasks include pitching to a hypothetical multinational client, reviewing a draft loan agreement, and executing a document.

Hogan Lovells Graduate Recruitment partner, Christopher Hutton said: ‘’We are excited to extend our virtual insight programme to school-aged students, enhancing remote learning opportunities for potential future lawyers as we all adjust to this new ‘normal’. HL BaSE Legal Learning Hub has been a great success and the launch of our virtual ‘First Steps to Law’ programme represents our continued investment in the future of students and the legal profession as a whole. By collaborating with Vodafone on content we are able to make the law really come alive for students, and hopefully encourage a future generation of lawyers.’’

Demonstrating the success of the HL BaSE Legal Learning Hub, the firm has extended vacation scheme offers to 30% of the HL BaSE Gold (penultimate year students) programme in 2021, with 20% of the cohort receiving training contract offers.