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What is a vacation placement in law?
A vacation placement offers aspiring solicitors the opportunity to experience life at a leading law firm and take their first steps towards a legal career.
Over the course of the placement, you'll spend time alongside our lawyers and business professionals, gaining insight into the work we do, the clients we support and the way we collaborate across our teams. Based in one of our UK offices, you'll experience our culture first-hand and begin to understand what makes a career at Shoosmiths unique.
Before your placement, you’ll be paired with a professional mentor who’ll help you prepare, guide you throughout the week, and continue supporting you as you move towards our training contract assessment centre.
This is more than just work experience. It’s a chance to gain confidence, make meaningful connections and be supported every step of the way.
What you’ll experience
Every placement is designed to give you a practical and engaging introduction to life in a commercial law firm.
During the week, you’ll:
- experience the work of a trainee solicitor, from handling real case files to attending meetings
- take part in a business development challenge that showcases your ideas and creativity
- learn from your mentor, trainees and lawyers who will support you every step of the way
- develop your own strengths by attending workshops, presentations and skills development sessions
- join social activities that give you a genuine feel for our people and our culture.
Supporting early careers talent has always been an important part of our culture. We are committed to helping aspiring solicitors develop the skills, experiences and confidence needed to thrive in the legal profession, while providing opportunities to learn more about life and career development at Shoosmiths.
Mentoring is at the heart of the placement - and of Shoosmiths. That’s why we’re also proud to partner with GROW Mentoring, a charity with diversity, inclusion and social mobility at its core. Over 40 of our legal advisors currently mentor GROW mentees every year, helping the next generation of legal professionals build confidence and thrive.
The best career strategies evolve
The legal profession is evolving rapidly, and so are the skills needed to succeed within it. We're currently reviewing and redesigning our emerging talent programmes to ensure they continue to reflect the future needs of our clients, our people and the profession.
While applications for our programmes are not currently open, we're excited about the future and look forward to sharing more about the next chapter of our vacation placements and wider emerging talent opportunities ahead of their launch in Autumn 2027.
To stay up to date with the latest news, events and future opportunities, subscribe to our mailing list.
There are plenty of ways to get to know Shoosmiths while our future programmes are being developed.
Throughout the year, we host a range of insight events, careers activities and opportunities to meet our people, hear about their experiences and learn more about a career in law.
Whether you're just beginning to explore the profession or already planning your next steps, we'd love to stay in touch.
You can sign up to our mailing list to receive updates, invitations to upcoming events and be among the first to hear about future opportunities at Shoosmiths.
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