“This is a chargeable assessed placement i.e. you will be charged for us providing this opportunity and assessing you,” the ad reads, emphatically.

At the end, a helpful little lawyer footnote reads “*fees apply”, without specifying what those fees might be.

Times might be tough, but Folklaw had no idea a firm with the official motto “Protecting the Vulnerable” could stoop so low.

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Law students are already vying for highly competitive, increasingly scarce clerkships. Exploiting university leavers desperate to get their foot in the door of legal practice is poor form, in Folklaw’s opinion.

Website Legal Cheek contacted Kawa Guimaraes & Associates and were told that the firm also offers unpaid “voluntary positions”. Unpaid. How generous!