Slaughter and May - Training Contracts (September 2027/March 2028 law intake)

We have a diverse and extensive international practice providing a full range of legal services. Mergers and Acquisitions, Corporate and Commercial and Financing represent our core practice areas. We also have leading practitioners in more specialist areas including Tax, Competition, Dispute Resolution, Commercial Real Estate, Pensions and Employment, Financial Regulation, Information Technology and Intellectual Property. Our expertise covers the full spectrum of industry sectors to service a diverse range of clients from leading private equity boutiques to investment banks; start-up businesses to governments; retailers to entertainment companies; and diversified industrial conglomerates to premier league football clubs.

At Slaughter and May we don't pigeonhole our lawyers - all are trained to be multi-specialists across a broad range of legal matters. This is in sharp contrast to the experience that you might have at other City firms where, as a trainee in, say, a finance group, you may well work in a very narrow area, repeating the same type of transaction many times over.

As a trainee in one of our groups, you will work on the full range of transactions on which the group advises. In a corporate group, for example, one month you could help guide a client through the defence of a hostile takeover and the next you could be advising that same client on an equity issue. In dispute resolution, you could attend a hearing on a civil litigation matter in the morning, then meet a client to prepare for a mediation that afternoon.

In the short term, this will enable you to make a more informed decision about which practice group you should join on qualification.

In the long term, it makes for a far more fulfilling career. It provides challenge and interest, exactly what great minds need. It also allows you to develop deeper relationships with clients, because you get to know their businesses better. This level of insight can make an enormous difference for both parties and will help you play a guiding role in changing commercial and legal times.

That said, it is hard work. You have to cover more ground. But with our collegiate approach, the support is always there. The freedom to choose your own direction and the autonomy this flexibility brings more than make up for it.

WHEN TO APPLY

If you are a law student studying in England and Wales, you should apply for a training contract in the summer of your penultimate year. If you are a law finalist or a law graduate, you can also apply during this summer application window. If you are a non-law student, you can apply for a training contract in the autumn of your final year or as a graduate. If you are completing, or have completed, the law conversion course (Post Graduate Diploma in Law – PGDL), you will be considered to be a non-law student.

If you are completing, or have completed, your undergraduate law degree at a university outside of England and Wales, we may require you to complete some modules of the PGDL at BPP and you would be considered to be a non-law student for the purposes of our application process. This is likely to be necessary if you have not completed modules in these seven key areas of law: Contract, Tort, Criminal Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, Property Law, Equity and Trusts, and the Law of the European Union.

Please visit the ‘The route to qualification’ page for information about the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and our new SQE preparation programme, the City Consortium Solicitors Training Programme (‘CCP’). We encourage applications as early as possible within our application windows. Training contract offers will be made on a rolling basis and we are therefore unable to guarantee the availability of places as we progress with these interviews. We recruit two – three years in advance of your firm start date but, from time to time, we may have places available to start in an earlier intake than advertised. If you are eligible to start in an earlier intake, you should mention this in your application - this can be discussed during your training contract interview and at point of offer.