Vacation Placements

The facts speak for themselves.  A good 70% of our trainees regularly join us after experiencing the working environment first-hand, over a summer placement.  It’s by far the best way for you to get to know us, and for us get to know you.

We dedicate an enormous amount of time and energy to ensuring that the experience is as practical and true to the life of a trainee solicitor as possible.  We also seek to ensure that the people who secure vacation placements are those who are most likely to make the most of the opportunities the experience presents - which is why we interview for every placement.

A placement offers you a structured programme of work based learning, skills training and presentations, working alongside trainees and solicitors on real client matters.  You’ll experience first-hand what it’s like to be part of a team, and get the chance to make a great first impression.  It’s also a great time to get a feel for the social scene, make friends and start building a network of contacts that might come in very useful! 

Over the years our vacation placement programme has won a number of awards and has been rated very highly by students.  To find out more about the experience of previous vacation placement students visit RateMyPlacement.co.uk

If you gain a placement, it’s because we’re already thinking of you as a potential trainee.  And during the time you spend with us, we’ll do our best to give you every chance to prove us right.  That’s why placement students don’t need to make a separate application for our training contract programme.  If you’ve already gained a placement, in our eyes you’re already in the running!

Vacation placement - Important Dates

We do not run a winter or easter vacation placement, instead we offer vacation placements over the summer.  You will need to be available to work in one of our UK offices for the entirety of one of these placements, which are either two or three weeks in duration.  Typically students will undertake a placement in the office in which they wish to become a trainee solicitor, but if it would be more convenient to undertake a placement closer to home then this can be accommodated on request.  To help with the costs of undertaking a placement, we’ll pay you £250 a week.

England (London, Birmingham, Leeds, and Manchester) 

Placement are two weeks long and will run from:

17/06/13 to 28/06/13 and 08/07/13 to 19/07/13

Scotland (Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow) 

Placement are three weeks long and will run from:

24/06/13 to 12/07/13 and 15/07/13 to 02/08/13

Belfast

Placement are two weeks long and will run from:

15/07/13 to 26/07/13, 29/07/13 to 09/08/13 and 12/08/13 to 23/08/13

The application process

All vacation placements are awarded on merit and in order to be considered you need make an application through our online application form, we will start accepting applications towards the end of September 2012.  The closing date for applications is the 31st January 2013.  We do not start screening application until the deadline so there is no advantage to applying early but try not to put yourself under pressure by leaving it to the last minute!  You can find out what we look for in our trainee solicitors here.

If you have any other questions relating to vacation placements please consult the FAQ section of the website.