Irene's Top Drawer Academy
Someone has to raise the unicorns.
A free program for junior lawyers and career legal administrators, and the people who raise them.
The unicorn problem
Everyone in law has tried to hire a unicorn.
- The third-year lawyerwho can run a file, bill properly and handle the difficult client call.
- The legal assistantwho knows where everything is and how the whole firm runs.
They’ve always been rare. They’re getting rarer.
The work juniors learnt on can now be done faster by technology. And a generation of detail-minded people who once made careers in legal admin has gone to project management, logistics, or tech.
What the training really was
We don’t think the hours of filing were ever the training. The training was the partner who checked it, the associate who explained why, and the hundred small things you only learn by doing them until you can do them properly.
So Irene makes sure juniors still learn on the job.
What Irene does
Irene keeps the book. Your people do the teaching.
- Keeps a record of what each junior has done, and what they haven’t yet.
- Sends work their way when they need the exposure, even when it could be done faster another way.
- Makes reviewing a digital assistant’s work a junior’s first real responsibility.
- Gives each junior their record, signed off by their mentor. It’s theirs, and it goes with them.
TRAINING RECORD · PRIYA · FIRST YEAR
- Done
- Conflict check ×6
Costs agreement draft ×2
Court run ×1 - Not yet
- Subpoena
Financial statement review - Next up
- Disclosure index, with Irene's assistant
- Mentor
- Senior associate
An example record. It belongs to the junior, not the firm.
What we ask of you
One mentor. That’s the whole price of entry.
A partner, associate or practice manager who turns up as a mentor to your juniors.
Irene doesn’t charge for this. She never will.
Where it leads
Two tracks. Both end with a unicorn.
Learn from real-world tasks to quickly develop into the lawyer every firm wants to hire.
Move out of the busywork and into running the firm, so the lawyers can stick to lawyering.
Founding patrons
Help steer the Academy.
We’re looking for a small group of people who care about how the profession raises its next generation, to help steer this. If that’s you, Irene would like a word.