Kick-start your legal career with a FTSE 100 company by joining Howdens on a 6-year Level 7 Solicitor Apprenticeship programme. Based at our Raunds site in Northamptonshire, you'll spend four days a week working in the office with the team, with the fifth day dedicated to study.
Are you passionate about law and eager to learn in a real-world environment? This is your opportunity to gain the hands-on legal experience to qualify as a solicitor, while studying towards an LLB (Hons) in Legal Practice at BPP University Law School (BPP).
You'll join a dynamic and highly impactful legal team that supports a wide range of legal disciplines across the business. From contract law and corporate transactions to marketing, data protection, intellectual property, and emerging areas like AI, you'll gain exposure to a broad spectrum of legal work. Throughout your apprenticeship, you’ll have the opportunity to learn, contribute, and take ownership of real projects – supporting internal clients and making a tangible impact. You’ll play a key role in providing practical legal advice that enables business success while helping to manage legal and financial risk.
What will I be doing?
- Providing clear, legally accurate advice across multiple areas of the business.
- Learning to draft and negotiate a variety of commercial contracts (e.g. marketing, operations, supply chain, property, IT).
- Managing and maintaining the commercial contracts database, engaging with internal stakeholders.
- Supporting the management of the company’s intellectual property and brand-related legal matters.
- Collaborating with and supporting other legal team members on large-scale business projects.
- Assisting with data protection matters, especially within commercial contracts and AI contexts.
- Conducting legal research and deliver timely, practical advice on ad hoc issues
What knowledge, skills and experience do I need?
No prior knowledge of law is required, and we do not expect you to have any industry experience. However, you will need to be under 21 on 1 September 2025 and have achieved or be predicted to achieve the following qualifications:
Five (5) GCSEs between A* - C (9 - 4) including English and Maths PLUS:
- ABB at A level (128 UCAS points) or equivalent.
- Between 96 – 127 UCAS points PLUS a pass on the BPP Admissions test; OR completion of another relevant level 3 apprenticeship programme.
We believe that there is no ‘one-size fits all’ in the world of law and your approach to learning and working with others is of equal importance than relevant work experience. This will be a demanding role combined with part-time study across different sites within Howdens so you will need to:
- Demonstrate creative problem-solving and tenacity to enable to business to deliver its goals
- Show that you are capable of building and maintaining relationships across different peer groups to enable you to influence across a decentralised business; always operating with integrity and authenticity.
- Have great communication skills.
- Be organised with ability to plan workloads and monitor progress.
- Enjoy being curious, getting stuck into a challenge and adapting where needed.
What we can offer you as a Solicitor Apprentice
- Competitive starting salary of £23,000 bonus.
- Excellent support to achieve your LLB (Hons) in Legal Practice.
- Fantastic pension scheme (company contribution of up to 12%).
- 25 days holiday + bank holidays with the option to buy additional days.
- Subsidised onsite restaurant.
- Exceptional reward and recognition events.
