Training Contracts

A training contract is the two-year period of paid, supervised work at a law firm that you complete to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales. You rotate through different practice areas, called seats, usually four of six months each.

Most commercial firms recruit the majority of their trainees from their own vacation schemes, so the realistic route is to target schemes first. Direct training contract applications follow the same stages: written form, tests, then an assessment centre.

Usually five to six years from starting university: a three-year degree, a conversion course if your degree was not in law, the SQE assessments, and then two years of qualifying work experience.

Most firms open in September or October, with deadlines spread between December and July. A number recruit on a rolling basis and make offers before the published deadline, so for those firms applying early matters more than the date itself.

Fewer, researched properly. Applicants who succeed tend to submit a smaller number of genuinely tailored applications rather than many generic ones, because the written stage is where most rejections happen and specificity is what passes it.