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The Shoosmiths training contract

“There is never a dull moment for a trainee at Shoosmiths. In my first week in the planning department I was sent to London to attend a client meeting with my supervisor. However at the last minute my supervisor called to say he couldn’t make the meeting and I was told to go along solo. A daunting task at first sight but it was an invaluable opportunity and great to feel trusted enough to go it alone. The high level of responsibility has not abated. I have just begun my second seat, in employment, and already I have attended a tribunal and taken witness statements. The client contact has been far more than I could have hoped for.”
1st year trainee

Timescales & locations

The Shoosmiths training contract is usually made up of a standard 4 x 6-month seats. Our trainees generally stay in one office for the duration of their training contract, but there are circumstances where they move offices – either if we have asked them to move to fulfil a business need (which doesn’t tend to happen very often) or because they have expressed a strong desire to complete a seat in a specific practice area, which would involve them moving offices.

Seats

We try to allocate no more than two trainees to each team, and the majority of teams only take one trainee per seat rotation. This means that trainees enjoy high levels of involvement with the work of the team and don’t feel that they have to compete with anyone else for the attention of their supervisor or to be given good quality work and contact with clients.

The seats are usually allocated about 2-3 months ahead of when the trainees are due to move seats. There are no compulsory seats, although we do of course ensure that all trainees complete the seats necessary to meet the SRA’s requirements (i.e. experience of 3 separate areas of law including contentious & non-contentious work).
Each office has a good mix of seats on offer and there is a ‘standard core’ of seats which are usually available in most offices:

In addition to these areas we have many other practice areas which may offer seats on a slightly less regular basis. These seats are also usually location-specific because they tend to be in smaller departments which don’t have a presence in all of our offices. Some of these practice areas include intellectual property, pensions, insurance litigation & regulatory, planning, and construction.

Secondments

As an alternative to the usual departmental seat rotation options, Shoosmiths by virtue of its excellent links with the business world are able to offer trainees the opportunity to spend part of their training contract on secondment with the in-house legal team of a client.

Shoosmiths has a history of offering secondments that aim to expose you to a challenging and exciting variety of legal work, the tasks that you will undertake are engaging, interesting, challenging and often with familiar topics, brands and products with which you can easily identify. One of the most beneficial skills you will develop is learning how the legal team interact with the business and with its external legal advisors, whilst developing the relationship between the client and the firm. 

Overall the secondment is a great opportunity to broaden your experience of the legal profession and it offers an enjoyable and enriching experience which will really enhance your professional, commercial, legal and client facing skills.

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Get in touch

Rita Tappia

Professional Recruitment Manager
T: 03700 86 4155
I: +44 (0)121 625 4155
E: rita.tappia@shoosmiths.co.uk