Our vacation schemes are open to penultimate year law students, final year law and non-law students and graduates. Completing a vacation scheme is an ideal opportunity to find out more about the firm and our industry sectors.
About the scheme
Vacation scheme participants are allocated a current Trainee as a "buddy" and are provided with opportunities to gain practical experience working on live matters. This is the most important part of the vacation scheme – we don't want you to spend your time doing fictitious tasks, we aim to immerse you in our cases (to the extent that we are able to of course), and for you to take an active role, working alongside Trainees, Associates and Partners. You will also attend a programme of talks and workshops designed to broaden your understanding of the firm's industry sectors and the work that we do.
There are 2 formal, assessed exercises during the vacation schemes – a one hour negotiation exercise, which (like the assessment centre group exercise ) is an opportunity for us to see you working with others, your communication style and also your influencing/ problem solving skills. There is also a short written project, where we ask you to research a commercial topic. Here we are looking at your research skills, written communication and analysis. You also attend a final round Partner interview, either during the scheme (if you are on a 2 week scheme) or shortly after (if a one week scheme)
Vacation schemes are an integral part of our recruitment process for Trainees. We have an excellent track record of making training contract offers to vacation scheme participants – in past years we have recruited the majority of our Trainees through the vacation scheme route.
In 2025, we will run a one-week spring vacation scheme and two two-week summer schemes in our London office.
