There is a perception in the legal information profession that levels of information literacy among law students and trainee solicitors are lower than they should be. In this article Ian Hunter considers if this starts at sixth form level and discusses the Google generation stereotype. Training sessions given to sixth-form students by the author are described and the students' levels of information literacy are considered against various information literacy standards. The suitability of these standards for sixth form students is assessed and suggestions for future information literacy training at school, HE and trainee solicitor level are discussed.

In a response to issues raised at User Groups on the research capabilities of young lawyers, Tom Laidlaw of LexisNexis looked into the current legal skills environment and as a result LexisNexis have introduced the LawCampus website for students and are planning a programme for trainee solicitors involving “virtual mentors”.

At large City firm Herbert Smith, the legal research training programme for trainee solicitors is taken very seriously and includes a compulsory training course in their first two weeks, followed by research exercises and further courses which have been carefully designed in association with the partners to ensure that trainees qualify with excellent legal research skills.

Suzanna Rickeard and Anne Coles describe the five key stages involved in devising a successful induction programme, based on their experiences at Lawrence Graham, a large London firm of solicitors and offer helpful hints on what any potential problem areas.