Training Contract London 2025/2026

You will gain the breadth of experience you need to emerge as a confident solicitor. You will have four six-month rotations, giving you the opportunity to explore our practice areas, client and international secondments and our split-seat opportunities.

To apply to this vacancy, you must be eligible to start your Training Contract in 2025 and/or February 2026. If you are a first year undergraduate law student, second year undergraduate student of a four year law degree, or penultimate year non-law undergraduate student you can apply for SPARK instead.

You are only able to make one application to a scheme/role (London Training Contract OR Middle East Training Contract OR IGNITE Training Contract OR SPARK). Multiple applications will not be considered.

Please be aware that we will only review your application form. If you upload your CV, this will pre-populate some of your application however your CV will not be reviewed. Please do NOT upload a covering letter as this will not be reviewed. We only review the application form.

Summary

Clifford Chance is one of the world's leading law firms, offering local and global clients expert advice on all aspects of commercial law. The firm has unrivalled scale and depth of legal resources across five continents and five core practice areas.

As a Trainee at Clifford Chance you will undertake seats in at least four of these practice areas. Three of your seats will be in our core areas of Global Financial Markets and Corporate. One seat could be an international secondment, client secondment or split seat.

You will therefore gain wide exposure to our business which will allow you to determine which area you would like to qualify into as an England & Wales qualified lawyer.

Responsibilities

Whilst your experience on each seat will be very different, in all of them you will develop your legal and business skills, gain insight into our high-profile clients and enhance your commercial awareness.

The tasks you undertake could include: drafting and proofing documents, conducting due diligence on a client's acquisition target, attending client meetings, preparing documents for a court hearing, researching titles and leases on a real estate portfolio, or creating a data room ahead of a major transaction. You may even run some smaller transactions for our clients.

Underpinning this exposure to the best work available, you will receive learning and development support from the Clifford Chance Academy, arguably the legal sector's leading in-house learning and development facility. At the start of each seat, you will receive specialised training in that sector and a dedicated supervisor.

Throughout your Training Contract, you will be closely supported, both informally and through formal mentoring, by the graduate development team, your supervisor, legal support manager and your monitoring partner.

If you require adjustments and additional support we will work with you to produce a tailored adjustment plan outlining how the firm will support you throughout your Training Contract and beyond.

Experience and Skills

Whilst you do not need to have prior legal experience or a law degree to apply to us, we expect our Trainees to be problem-solvers with strong communication skills and commercial acumen. The competencies that we look for in our Trainees include:

• Business awareness and problem solving with commercial insight
• Ability to identify legal vs business issues
• Knowledge of the role and firm with an understanding of how this aligns with your skillset
• Strong communication skills (oral and written)
• Leading and managing self and others
• Relationship building and collaborating with colleagues and clients
• Thriving through challenges in a high-pressure environment with deadlines

Our Training Contract is open to law and non-law students. If you are applying for our London Training Contract and you have not studied a law degree then you will need to complete the PGDL prior to joining us as a Trainee. Please note that if you are a Scots or Irish law student or graduate you may be required to do elements of the PGDL.

All Future Trainees with a 2025 or 2026 start date will complete the SQE prep prior to joining us as a Trainee. All Future Trainees who have already completed the SQE will still need to complete the Clifford Chance Plus Programme, which is a bespoke experience designed by our laywers in collaboration with the University of Law.

Both the PGDL and SQE are funded by Clifford Chance and we will provide a maintenance grant to use during your studies. More details can be found on our website.

Application Process

Applications open on 15th August 2022 and close at 1159pm on 8th December 2022. We do not recruit on a rolling basis, and we do not review applications until after the deadline has passed. We therefore encourage you to engage with our Global Virtual Internships and Events Hub before submitting your application.

Shortly after submitting your application, you will receive an email from us asking you to complete an online Watson Glaser critical reasoning assessment. This takes approximately 30 minutes and should be completed within 5 days of receiving our email with instructions.

The assessment days for Training Contracts will take place in London the week commencing 16th January 2023 and 23rd January 2023.

Hybrid Working

This role follows our 'balanced' hybrid working approach and as long as business needs allow, you will be supported to work in a hybrid way with the expectation of working from the office for a minimum of 50% of your time. Please see our careers site for further information on our working environment.

Equal Opportunities

At Clifford Chance we understand that our true asset is our people. Inclusion is good for our team and their families, our firm and society.

We are committed to treating all employees and applicants fairly and equally regardless of their gender, gender identity and expression, marital or civil partnership status, race, colour, national or ethnic origin, social or economic background, disability, religious belief, sexual orientation, or age. This applies to recruitment and selection, terms and conditions of employment including pay, promotion, training, transfer, and every other aspect of employment.

Our goal is to deliver an equality of opportunity, an equality of aspiration and an equality of experience to everyone who works in our firm.