My favourite part of the recruitment calendar is the placement schemes we run. They’re a great opportunity to get to know candidates, show who we are at Addleshaw Goddard and all the great things the firm has to offer. More generally in my role I enjoy all the people I get to meet and chat to both internally and externally.

We run placement schemes across our UK offices with one-week Easter schemes taking place in Edinburgh and London, as well as two-week summer placement schemes in Aberdeen, Edinburgh/Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester. We also run a summer internship in our Dublin office. All schemes take place in person.

We recruit solely from our placement schemes and all those who take part will be considered for a training contract with us. The scheme is a great opportunity for not only the firm to get to know you, but also for you to get to know the firm. You’ll be immersed in the firm, our culture and get involved in the work that we do.

Ultimately, we want candidates to get a true sense of the everyday life of a trainee at Addleshaw Goddard, so they’ll be involved in real trainee level work for clients. During their time with us candidates are assigned a trainee buddy and a more senior supervisor who’ll work with them to assign work, answer questions and provide support.

We also organise information sessions with various teams across the firm, and candidates take part in group exercises and complete assessments.

Finally, there are planned social events too – these are a great opportunity for those on the scheme to get out of the office environment with some of our trainees and other colleagues.

We’re looking for candidates who are passionate and driven about a career in commercial law with Addleshaw Goddard.

Like many firms we’re open about the key skills we look for, so it’s important to keep these in mind when going through the application process. Skills such as teamwork, attention to detail, decision making and commercial awareness, to name a few, can be shown through examples. 

It’s also great when we see that candidates are willing to get stuck in and put their hand up to get involved.

The changes brought in by the SQE has meant that there’s more flexibility around the way trainees can qualify as solicitors in England and Wales, and we’re now able to offer more than one route to qualification. Successful applicants can opt to qualify via the graduate solicitor apprenticeship (if you’ve not completed the Legal Practice Course or SQE) or via the traditional training contract.

Traditional training contract

We've partnered with BPP University to offer our future trainees a comprehensive suite of preparation courses to give them the best opportunity to complete the SQE assessments. Our law graduates will complete the preparation courses and SQE1 and 2 assessments the year prior to their start date, and once the SQE2 assessment has been taken, will join the firm for their qualifying work experience (QWE) period. All non-law graduates will complete the law conversion course before joining the rest of their cohort on the SQE preparation courses. For all graduates the SQE is an LLM awarded course.

During the QWE period, trainees will gain experience in four six-month seats in the business, which could include a secondment to one of our clients or non-UK offices.

Any previous QWE can be used to shorten your training contract by up to a maximum of 12 months. Any QWE must be confirmed prior to you starting your training contract.

Full course funding will be provided to those who need to undertake the law conversion course and the SQE. We’ll also provide a competitive grant to support future trainees while studying towards the SQE.

Graduate solicitor apprenticeship

The apprenticeship lasts 36 months. In year one, you’ll study and in years two and three you’ll undertake your training contract to obtain your QWE. From day one on the apprenticeship, you’ll be employed with the firm. This includes the time you’re studying and once you come into the business to work.

You’ll be paid a salary at the living wage rate in year one. In years two and three when you commence your training contract, you’ll be paid the relevant trainee salary rate.

Addleshaw Goddard will sponsor you through the SQE, this includes SQE prep and SQE assessments. SQE1 and 2 prep and the SQE1 assessment will be completed before you undertake your training contract. SQE2 will be taken during the second year of your apprenticeship.

As soon as you start your apprenticeship, you’ll be known as a trainee. During the apprenticeship you’ll be treated as a trainee, there’ll be no difference between trainees irrespective of what route you’re on. During your time in the business, you’ll complete four six-month seats.

Under the graduate solicitor apprenticeship route, you won’t be permitted to use previous QWE to reduce the length of your training.

Diversity and inclusion remain at the top of our agenda as a firm. We recognise the importance of nurturing an inclusive culture to help us attract, retain and enable our people to be the best they can be. We understand that people shouldn’t be excluded from the profession due to their background or identity, and that diverse firms are more innovative and agile.

In terms of our early careers process, we use a contextual recruitment system that helps us to identify the best talent by providing us with context regarding the background by which students have achieved their grades. It considers factors such as whether applicants had time in care, were eligible for free school meals, their postcodes, whether they’ve had excessive work during term time and whether they have additional caring responsibilities. We believe that by identifying these factors we’ll in turn identify candidates who are resilient, hardworking and have the ability to thrive at Addleshaw Goddard.

We also run blind recruitment at the application stage to help reduce the impact of unconscious bias. Included in our recruitment process is a voice interview rather than a video interview. We decided to introduce a voice interview because we understand that some people are uncomfortable appearing on video or may not have the necessary facilities at home to undertake a professional interview – we want to ensure that these people aren’t excluded and can fully take part in the recruitment process. We also provide unconscious bias training for our recruitment assessors to further reduce the impact of unconscious bias.

In addition to the above, we encourage candidates to share with us any requirements they might need for interview so that we can make the requisite workplace adjustments as we believe everyone should be on a level playing field.   

Beyond that, we have various employee networks at the firm. The Vine is our women’s network, OpenAG is our LGBTQ+ network, AG Embrace is our race and ethnicity network, the Ability Forum is our disability and carers’ network as well as our Jewish Network, Muslim Network and Social Mobility Network. These networks provide an opportunity for people to come together whether they’re part of the specific communities or an ally. The networks help to develop the firm’s culture and are incredibly active in terms of the events they host.

An assessment centre forms part of our recruitment process. The first stage is to submit a short online application form and from there candidates will be invited to complete a critical thinking test. We provide access to a full suite of practice tests that candidates can use to prepare for the critical thinking test. Those who are successful will be invited to undertake a voice interview and those who move forward in the process from there will be invited to attend an assessment centre with us.

The assessment centre lasts around half a day and consists of a proofreading exercise, group exercise, partner briefing exercise and finally a partner interview. During the assessment centre there str opportunitird to meet different people from the firm including a networking lunch with some of our trainees.

Over the autumn we’ll be running events directly with universities across the UK as well as attending a variety of online law fairs and in-person events organised by the likes of Lawcareers.Net. Our website will be updated over the autumn with details of these and make sure to engage with your university for anything that may be held on campus.

I’m currently watching the latest series of Race Across the World, which is giving me lots of travel inspiration!