Careers Fair at University helped solicitor land her first job

The University of Chichester first fully-qualified female solicitor to graduate from its Law degree has credited the institution’s Careers Fair with helping her land her first job.

Elisa Green, who works at Footner & Ewing LLP, graduated from the LLB Law degree in Chichester in 2022, before finishing her Solicitor’s Qualifying Exam (SQE) and qualifying as a Solicitor in November 2025.

And she said the Careers Fair at the University, where she first came across the firm, has been pivotal in launching her successful legal career.

“I spoke to them about job opportunities and got an interview and the rest is history,” she said.

Footner & Ewing LLP specialises in family law, conveyancing and wills, trusts and probate, and Elisa began working as a paralegal at the firm’s Shirley office in July 2022, soon before graduating. For context, “A paralegal helps solicitors or other fee earners with their caseload, whereas the solicitor is running the case,” she explained.

After three and a half years with the firm, she completed her qualification through the solicitor’s apprenticeship route, balancing four days in the office with one day of study.

“I was able to work alongside the study, which was really helpful in the completing the SQE2 exams (part 2 of the exams), as it is a lot more practical SQE1 (part 1).” she said.

Elisa’s path to law began at college, and her tutor at the time Amy Elkington, was about to launch the Law programmes at the University of Chichester.

“It was because of Amy that I was able to study and ultimately get my degree at Chichester,” she said.

As part of the first cohort of law students at the university, she praised both the lecturers and fellow students.

“Everybody was fantastic, from the lecturers to my peers,” Elisa said. “The lecturers were always really supportive. That is the unique selling point of Chichester, especially for Law. There is so much support and the classes are quite small compared to other universities, so you get that one-to-one experience.”

It wasn’t until Elisa landed her first role that she realised what specialism she wanted to follow, and she eventually found her niche in family law.

“It just so happened that I fell into family law,” she said. “I deal with divorce and financial issues that are linked to the divorce process, child arrangements and domestic abuse matters.”

She added that her firm offers legal aid – which means they help people who can’t afford to pay for legal support – an offer which is important to her.

On what’s next, Elisa said she’d like to develop her experience representing people in court.

“I want to represent people in court,” she said. “The firm has been really good in supporting me to do more advocacy.”

Dr Amy Elkington, Programme Leader and Senior Lecturer in Law, said: “Elisa was an exceptional law student who worked incredibly hard.  She fully engaged with the many employability opportunities that were made available to her at the University of Chichester.  I am really delighted to see her deserved success, and warmly thank her for feeding forward her knowledge and experience to inspire our current cohorts of law students.”

To find out more about studying Law at the University of Chichester, visit: www.chi.ac.uk/law/