Training contract

Start your legal career with a training contract at Shoosmiths

Throughout your two-year training period at Shoosmiths, we'll give you the support to build your career and boost your skills in a stimulating and rewarding environment.

You will be guided by expert solicitors, working across a number of areas of law. In addition to legal knowledge, you’ll also develop skills in business development and client management.

As a trainee solicitor, you will be working on large workloads, extracting and analysing key pieces of information. You’ll have daily contact with Partners and clients, and deadlines to meet. A career in law can be challenging, and applying legal knowledge in a real-world context can be very different to the theory you learn at law school, so it’s important to know that you will enjoy your job.

What do you look for in a trainee solicitors?

We’re looking for great people who will work hard and be proud of who they are and what they do.

Ambitious people thrive at Shoosmiths because of the enterprising and innovative way we work.

You'll be expected to make things happen and take initiative from day one. You will need a strong academic background and proven ability to apply your intellect in the real world. But we know there’s more to amazing solicitors than academics alone, which is why we take a holistic view when we assess you throughout our selection process.

We welcome applications from all degree disciplines and universities, and value the wealth of experience that a non-law student or career-changer can bring to the firm.

You’ll join a firm of individuals working in a positive, professional and cooperative culture, in an environment that actively allows you to grow your skills and challenge yourself.

And you'll find a refreshing lack of hierarchy – just happy, energised individuals at the heart of our success.

What areas of law will I train in?

Shoosmiths is a law firm with core teams in commercial, banking & finance, corporate, litigation services and real estate.

In addition to these we have many other practice areas which offer seats on a slightly less regular basis and include intellectual property, EU & competition law, pensions, insurance, regulatory & compliance, planning, construction and engineering. Plus, there’ll be the opportunity to go on a client secondment.

We don't have any compulsory seats, but you must sit within three distinct areas of law consisting of at least one non-contentious, and one contentious area. We will train you in legal practice and skills in line with the law society requirements.

Work-life balance

We actively promote and implement a healthy work-life balance. While we expect you to work hard, we don't want work to dominate your life.

If you've done what you need to do, then it's time to go home - there's no 'face-time' at Shoosmiths.

Sometimes the people we want to work here can't conform to a typical nine-to-five day. In these cases, we'll look at flexible working hours to help you fit your job to your life and your life to your job. We're ready to listen to any suggestions from anyone and consider any reasonable request.

What else do I need to know?

Our training contracts typically run full-time for 2 years, where you’ll experience four six-month seats. You can see the current rate of pay for a trainee solicitor on our FAQ page.

You will be required to completed all of the elements of the LPC or SQE (England) or the Diploma (Scotland), before your training contract commences. If you are a non-law graduate, you will also need to complete a law conversion course called the PGDL (England) (previously the GDL) or the accelerated LLB (Scotland). We do offer funding towards your postgraduate studies.

The recruitment and selection process is designed to assess whether you have the potential to be an excellent solicitor at Shoosmiths. We assess this via the online application, an online strengths based assessment, and an in-person assessment centre. More information about what to expect in the application and assessment stage can be found on our careers blog.