Mikayla first gained an interest in law when she studied it at A Level in college, but decided she didn’t want to go down the traditional university route. At the time, she picked up studying with ILEX (predecessor to CILEX) but felt that she wasn’t getting any experience and decided to pause her studying until she chose to start a law degree at the Open University. Whilst studying for her LLB, Mikayla managed to get a job at Boys & Maughan as a receptionist.

“I think starting on reception helped me to pick up how the law firm worked and allowed me to do a bit of everything. It helped me appreciate every stage of the legal work from everybody on reception having to deal with the calls to the roles of the secretaries and higher-ups.”

After going on maternity leave, Mikayla went on to become a secretary in the commercial property department, and then gradually moved up through the law firm. However, she was still keen to develop her career and qualify, so decided to take on her CILEX qualification with Law Training Centre.

“I picked Law Training Centre because I’d heard good recommendations about it and I had a lot of colleagues who had studied with Law Training Centre as well. I liked the distance learning set up. It worked so much better for me because then I could still get the experience that I needed whilst working, and still have my life around it as well.

“I think the way the CILEX course mixes the learning and the experience at the same time is invaluable – you’re not just going to a university and then getting thrown into the midst of a complicated legal environment without really having any background, and it’s so flexible.”

Another benefit that Mikayla pointed out about her studies was the support she received from her employer throughout the process. As a firm that champions training and employee development, Boys & Maughan were able to sponsor Mikayla through her studies.

“Boys & Maughan are very good at supporting people that want to pursue qualifications, and they really support the distance learning approach so that you are able to work and gain the experience at the same time, which just made the whole process so much easier.”

When asked about how she felt the course impacted her legal career, Mikayla was keen to stress the value it brought to her skill set and her ability to juggle the many complexities of the legal field: “Doing the qualification at the same time as the job gives you so much more than just doing a legal course. It’s a skill to be able to fit it all in and to be able to find that motivation to put yourself through something so demanding. I think it proves to people your determination and that you really have the skills needed for the day-to-day job with managing your workload and everything like that.”

After completing her studies with Law Training Centre, Mikayla qualified as a Chartered Legal Executive in January 2024, and is continuing her work with Boys & Maughan in this new role.

Giving advice to others looking to qualify, Mikayla said: “Qualifying can be much more accessible than you think. It’s not as daunting as it seems and especially by being able to do it in a flexible way, it makes it more open for people that might not necessarily be able to afford to do a more traditional route like the LPC.

“I keep coming back to the word flexible, but I think that it’s just so important because you can then gain the experience alongside your studies. I’d definitely say to someone thinking of a career in law that doing a qualification that offers online, flexible learning like the CILEX course is a great way to go because you can find out what you enjoy whilst doing your work experience and it’s also a lower cost than doing a degree or the LPC. Plus, you can have your life around it and you can have a job around it. You get to be more in control.”