Yes, Macfarlanes runs three vacation schemes. One in spring and two in summer – all three schemes take place in person. The deadline for the Macfarlanes vacation scheme is the 3 January 2025, and the assessment day for each of the schemes will run from mid-January to mid-March.

The vacation schemes are important for those who’ve not had much contact with Macfarlanes as it enables them to get a feel for the firm and for us to get to know the applicants. We don’t exclusively recruit through the vacation scheme, so it’s a personal choice as to whether prospective trainees want to experience the firm through a vacation scheme or apply via the direct training contract route.

The Macfarlanes’ bursary was designed to address the hardships and barriers that can prevent people from applying to law firms and pursuing a career in law. It’s made up of the following three grants – these are the:

• accommodation grant
• technology grant; and
• participation grant.

We offer the accommodation grant to those on any of our schemes (eg, vacation scheme and first-year scheme) who have to travel to the office from outside of a commutable distance. In the past, we’ve found that people won’t apply for schemes because they can’t afford to put themselves up in London accommodation for one to two weeks, so it was important to us that we address this to ensure that they weren’t being prevented from these opportunities to get to know us. Our team will directly contact applicants who are eligible for this grant.

Secondly, the technology grant is open to all university students who are from a socially mobile background who need a device to support them with their studies. As an example, most people request laptops, tablets, help with a Wi-Fi connection or headphones for studying. Over the past two years we’ve handed out 27 devices to different students.

The final grant that makes up the bursary is the participation grant. This grant aims to support those from socially mobile backgrounds who have to miss work to attend one of our non-paid events, such as the dinner with the firm’s senior partner or our practice area open day. We’ll provide financial compensation to these applicants because we don’t want them to lose out on the money from work because they attended one of our events.

We launched the training scholarship programme two years ago and have just relaunched it for the third year with Brunel University. As part of the programme, students will:

• have their undergraduate tuition fees paid;
• be assigned mentors (in previous years this has been two partners and a senior associate);
• attend an exclusive six-week work experience placement between their first and second year at university; and
• join us for a year in industry in their third year of university.

The aim of the work experience is to help the scholars get used to the working environment at Macfarlanes, so they feel more comfortable when it comes to completing their formal training.

Once the scholars have completed their second year at university, they’ll join the firm for a year in industry, which includes sitting in two seats, much like our trainees. In fact, our first scholars have just gone through this – they sat our trainee induction and have had the chance to get to know lots of the firm’s trainees already. The beauty of the scholarship is that once our scholars graduate from university, we’ll hopefully be able to offer them a training contract. 

Our relationship with Brunel University also means that we’re often on campus to offer support. A lot of the students we work with won’t have had contact with a commercial city law firm before, so it’s a great chance for them to get familiar with the type of work we do and to receive feedback to support them in their applications later down the line.  

Anyone who’s in the first year of a law degree at Brunel University can apply for the training scholarship programme. They’ll also have to meet our social mobility criteria, which states, among other things, that scholars must:

• be from a lower socioeconomic background; and/or
• receive free school meals/pupil premium; and/or
• be a first-generation university student; and/or
• be state educated; and/or
• have care-experienced status; and/or
• be a refugee/asylum seeker.

We have lots of contact with the successful scholars in their first term. Applications then open and those who are successful come in for the assessment day before we select our scholars.

In terms of the initial contact, the prospective scholars are invited to a launch event at Brunel with partners, senior associates and trainees. They’ll also receive lots of preparation support ahead of the assessment day and those who receive an offer for the assessment day will be invited to the firm before the day to see the office and get a feel for how it’ll be run. We also run an assessment day workshop, which is designed to provide tips and tricks to ease any nerves and answer any questions. We’re very keen to offer feedback calls for those who are unsuccessful, so everyone can get as much from the experience as possible. We don’t expect contact to end their either – we’re around to answer questions and to support students in getting involved in other programmes at the firm (eg, our vacation scheme).

Once the training scholars have been selected, it’s lovely to celebrate their achievements alongside the firm’s senior partner Sebastian who’s very keen to interact with them. During the six-week work experience, the scholars will get involved in live work such as drafting, research and sitting on client calls, where appropriate. They can access a range of sessions to support the development of their skills, including professional writing.

As someone who’s in regular contact with the scholars, it’s lovely to see the shift in confidence from their first week on the work experience to the last. We then stay in touch with them throughout their second year and they become ambassadors for Macfarlanes back on campus.  

We’ve just relaunched our Macfarlanes legal academy, which was designed specifically for college and sixth-form students. As part of the academy, students take part in virtual preparation sessions before joining the firm for a week during February half term. The virtual sessions help the students to understand office etiquette, what’s expected regarding dress code, explaining the commute and how to make the most of the experience.

The week-long work experience is an opportunity to learn more about the profession. We run various sessions, including mock negotiations, commercial awareness workshops as well as showcasing other business service roles and how they impact the firm. We’re conscious that those attending are unlikely to know at this stage what direction they want their career to go, so it’s just a great way to show them what’s on offer at the firm, including the various non-legal careers that are available. They’ll also be assigned a mentor who they’ll shadow for an afternoon during the week.

Other sessions throughout the two years include practical skills sessions to boost their confidence with networking and interviews, for example. The academy ends with a virtual wrap-up session where we outline the support that’s available to them, the opportunities they should be looking out for and we introduce them to upReach, which is the amazing social mobility charity we work with.

The legal academy is specifically for socially mobile students and follows the same eligibility criteria as our other social mobility programmes. The grants I previously mentioned are applicable here too.

We use contextual recruitment during our application process. We want to attract people from various backgrounds, so the contextual recruitment tool enables us to understand each applicant’s achievements in the context in which they were gained.

My advice is to try to get as much contact with Macfarlanes as you can. We have flagship events, such as our practice area open day, dinner with the senior partner and also run a number of other events with various publications, universities and partnerships, so ensure you make the most of the opportunities to meet people.

Researching a law firm can be overwhelming but sometimes attending a firm event can spark an interest that might help to funnel your research. It’s important to go beyond the first page of the website and understand what it is about Macfarlanes that truly appeals to you. Macfarlanes also has a virtual trainee experience app that can give you a flavour for what the role of trainee is and the type of work they would do. Make sure you use all the resources that are available to you!

Gilmore Girls is my favourite TV show – it’s such a comfort watch!