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Company Profiles
Allen & Overy
Contact Details:
Website: Career website
Vacancies: www.allenovery.com/careeruk
The Firm
Allen & Overy is an international legal practice with over 5,000
people in 36 major centres worldwide. Our clients include many of
the world's top businesses, financial institutions and governments.
We are renowned for the high quality of our Banking, Corporate
and International Capital Markets advice, but also have major
strengths in areas such as Dispute Resolution, Tax, Employee Benefits
and Real Estate. Our partners frequently lead the field in their
particular areas of law and we can claim both an enviable reputation
amongst clients and unrivalled success in major deals.
Within this broad range of expertise we offer a training contract
characterised by flexibility and choice - our training programme is
widely regarded as the best in the City and continues throughout your
career at Allen & Overy following qualification. Our aim is to recruit,
train and develop successful lawyers who want to develop a long-term
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Cleary Gottlieb
Contact Details:
Address: City Place House, 55 Basinghall Street, London EC2V 5EH
Tel: 020 7614 2200
Fax: 020 7600 1698
Email: longraduaterecruit@cgsh.com
Website: www.cgsh.com/careers/london
Company Description
Cleary Gottlieb is one of the leading international law firms with 14
closely integrated offices located in major financial and political
centres around the world. For more than 60 years, the firm has been
pre-eminent in shaping the internationalisation of the legal profession.
Our worldwide practice has a proven track record for innovation and
providing advice of the highest quality to meet the domestic and
international needs of our clients. Our clients include multinational
corporations, international financial institutions, private equity funds,
sovereign governments and sovereign wealth funds, as well as domestic
corporations and financial institutions.
In recognition of the firm’s strong global practice, its
effectiveness in
dealing with the different business cultures of the countries in which it
operates and its success in multiple jurisdictions, Cleary received
Chambers & Partners’ inaugural International Law Firm of the Year
award.
Our London Practice
In common with all offices of the firm, the London office is
non-departmentalised. We have no formal departments because we want to
allow our lawyers to follow their interests and abilities, rather than
confine them to a menu of limited choices. This non-departmentalisation
means that lawyers do not sit within practice groups, but are mixed
around the office. We believe that this encourages discussion and
integration between lawyers from different practice areas and contributes
significantly to the informality and collegiality of our office
environment.
Our core practice groups in London are mergers and acquisitions
(M&A), financing, capital markets (IPOs), international litigation and
arbitration and competition. In addition, we have successful
self-standing practices in tax, financial regulation, intellectual
property and information technology.
Training Contracts
We deliberately limit our graduate intake to just 13-15 trainees each
year so as to ensure our ability to offer bespoke training that is
individually tailored to the interests, experience and aptitudes of the
exceptional individuals that joins us. We do not believe in a “one
size
fits all” training solution. Nor do we believe that the transition
from
trainee solicitor to associate occurs overnight on qualification. At
Cleary, the transition is a smooth and gradual one. We encourage our
trainee solicitors to accept increased responsibility as soon as they are
ready to do so.
Subject only to our ensuring that all trainees experience a rich variety
of high quality work from different practice areas, our trainees are
effectively able to select the seats through which they rotate. Trainees
spend six months in four different seats, in each case sharing a room
with a partner or senior associate who supervises the trainee’s
day-to-day workload. While a trainee solicitor will work with his or her
supervisor for the majority of the time, we actively encourage our
trainees to work with other lawyers in the office. This allows the
trainee, within the course of the the training contract, to gain
experience of all practice areas, including those in which he or she does
not have formal seat.
The nature of our practice is such that all our trainees can be expected
to travel during their training contracts. In addition, trainees may be
invited to spend one of their seats in another of our international
offices, most usually Brussels, Paris, Moscow, Hong Kong or New York.
Vacation Schemes
We actively encourage all candidates who are considering applying for a
trainee solicitor position with the firm to undertake a vacation
placement with us, as almost all our trainee solicitors have done.
We offer 35 vacation places each year (five in winter, ten in Spring and
ten in each of two summer schemes) and pay £500 per week. The
vacation
schemes aim to provide potential training contract applicants with a
practical insight into life as a Cleary lawyer and our objective
throughout is to involve participants directly in client work. In
addition to this hands-on experience, the scheme incorporates a series of
practice overview sessions designed to ensure exposure to the full range
of work that we undertake in London. There are also a number of
organised social events each week so that participants can get to know
the current partners, associates and trainees of the firm outside the
office.
Applications for winter vacation placements should be received by
November 15. The deadline for spring and summer vacation scheme
applications is January 28 in the year of the scheme.
Dates for vacation schemes in 2011/2012 are as follows:
December 5 – December 16, 2011
March 26 – April 5, 2012
June 25 – July 6, 2012
July 9 – July 20, 2012
The Package
We offer a market-leading salary and benefits package that reflects the
premium nature of our practice and is commensurate with our aim to
recruit the best lawyers of the future. As at September 1, 2011, our
trainee salaries are:
£40,000 for the first twelve months
£45,000 for the second twelve months
£95,000 total compensation on qualification (including 3% pension contribution)
Additional benefits include a discretionary, year-end bonus, gym
membership, private healthcare, life insurance of twice annual salary,
long-term disability insurance, childcare vouchers, employee assistance
programme and subsidised staff restaurant.
Funding
We fund the Legal Practice Course (LPC) for all our future trainee
solicitors. For non-law graduates, we also fund the Graduate Diploma in
Law (GDL). In each year of professional study, we pay a maintenance
grant of £8,000.
Who Should Apply
We look for candidates who are enthusiastic about the practice of law in
a challenging and dynamic international setting. Whilst academic
excellence is a pre-requisite, we place particular emphasis on recruiting
candidates that we and our clients will enjoy working with. A sense of
humour is as important as the ability to think critically and creatively
about cutting-edge legal issues.
When and How to Apply
Candidates for trainee solicitor positions should apply before July 31,
two years in advance of the year in which the training contract is due to
commence. All candidates should submit a cover letter and full
curriculum vitae via the firm's website, including details of all public
examination results. Candidates should include a breakdown by subject of
all A-Level (or equivalent) results and degree results where known.
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Hogan Lovells
Contact Details:
Address: Hogan Lovells, Atlantic House, Holborn Viaduct, London, EC1A 2FG
Tel: 020 7296 2000
Email: recruit@hoganlovells.com
Website: Career website
Recruitment website: www.hoganlovells.com/graduates
and http://www.lovells.com/london
Company Description
Hogan Lovells is one of the leading global law firms. Our distinctive
market position is founded on our exceptional breadth of our practice,
on deep industry knowledge, and on our ¡®one team¡¯ global approach.
Formed through the combination of two top international law firms, Hogan
Lovells has over 40 offices in Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle
East, and the United States. With a presence in the world¡¯s major
financial and commercial markets, we are well placed to provide excellent
business-oriented advice to our clients locally and internationally.
Main Areas of Work
The range of work at Hogan Lovells is very broad. This is one of our strengths
as a business and a long standing attraction for candidates. Our international
strength across a wide range of practice areas gives us an exceptional reputation
not only for corporate, finance, dispute resolution, government regulatory and
intellectual property, but also for other specialist areas including employment,
EU/competition, insurance and tax.
Training Contracts
We have an intake of up to 90 trainee solicitors per year, composed of law and
non-law graduates. A trainee at Hogan Lovells spends six months in four different
seats to gain as broad a range of experience as possible. All trainees spend six
months in a corporate or finance seat and six months gaining contentious experience
in a dispute resolution seat. In the second year of training, there is the option
to spend a seat on secondment either to one of the firm's international offices
or to the in-house legal department of one of our major clients.
Vacation Schemes
We offer up to 50 places over two highly regarded summer vacation schemes.
Each scheme is carefully designed to give students the opportunity to gain a
broad insight into the work of the firm, as the time is split between three
of our major practice areas.Applications for our 2011 schemes will open on 1
October 2010.
Selection Criteria
We look for a strong consistent, academic performance and candidates must have
achieved, or be likely to achieve, at least a 2:1 (or equivalent). Our reputation
means that we attract the brightest and most able graduates, but we are looking
for more than academic qualifications. You will be happy working in a team yet
capable of, and used to, independent action. You will demonstrate ability and
desire for lateral thinking and will be capable of close attention to detail.
Above all, you will have a single-minded ambition to succeed in a top law
firm.
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MayerBrown
Contact Details:
Website: Career website
Company Description
Mayer Brown is a leading global law firm with offices in key business centres across
the Americas, Europe and Asia. The firm has more than 1,600 lawyers, including approximately
875 in the Americas, 425 in Europe and 300 in Asia. The firm's Asia presence was enhanced
by its 2008 combination with Johnson Stokes & Master, the largest and oldest Asia law
firm. (In Asia, we are known as Mayer Brown JSM.) In December 2009, Mayer Brown formed an
association with Tauil & Chequer, a leading law firm in Brazil. This impressive
on-the-ground presence in the world¡¯s leading markets for legal services enables Mayer
Brown to offer clients access to local market expertise on a global basis.
Mayer Brown in London
From it’s trendy city location, the London office provides a full service presence
working together with its US, European and Asian counterparts to provide clients with complete
representation on local and multi-jurisdictional matters alike. Our lawyers practise in a wide
range of areas including corporate, finance, litigation and dispute resolution, real estate,
insurance and reinsurance, pensions and employment, competition and trade, tax, intellectual
property, and information technology. The firm advises many of the world’s largest
companies including a significant proportion of the Fortune 100, FTSE 100 and DAX and Hang Seng
Index organizations from the worlds of banking, insurance, communications, industrials, energy,
construction, professional services, media, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and mining.
Locations:
Bangkok, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Charlotte, Chicago, Cologne, Guangzhou, Frankfurt, Hanoi,
Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Sao Paulo,
Shanghai, Washington DC
Why train at Mayer Brown?
One of the advantages of joining Mayer Brown are the choices available to you. Our trainees
can tailor their training contract from a range of different seats, including our main practice
areas in London (as listed above) and international secondments (Hong Kong, New York and Sao Paulo).
If you don't want to stray too far, a wealth of in-house experience is also available via our client
secondments within the UK. For a large global firm, our London office remains a tightly knit team
with an open and inclusive culture. You will nevertheless be given significant opportunities to
assist on matters which may be multi-disciplinary, cross-border, complex and high-profile in nature.
Trainees are given high levels of responsibility, case management and client contact from an early
stage. The firm also has an extensive support network in place throughout the training contract in
the form of senior-level support and continuous appraisals.
Open Days
In December and January each year, we hold Open Days for students who are interested in finding
out more about Mayer Brown. Each day has a full programme of events, including talks on life at Mayer
Brown and opportunities available to you, seminars on two of our major practice areas, a group exercise
and lunch with some of our current trainee solicitors.
Please see our website for further details.
Work Experience Programmes
We run three work experience programmes each year; two three-week schemes in the summer holidays
and one two-week programme at Easter. All are based in the London office and applications are
welcome from law and non-law undergraduates and graduates.
During our work experience programmes you will assist a partner or senior associate on real deals
to give you first-hand experience of life in a City law firm. You will sit in two departments and
you will be asked in advance which areas interest you most. You will also be invited to attend
presentations on our different practice areas to give you more insight into the breadth of the firm.
There will also be plenty of social activities organised, including a day at one of our European offices.
How to Apply
Work Experience Programmes: applications are welcomed from both law and non-law undergraduates and can be made
from 1 November 2010. The deadline is 31 January 2011.
For training contracts, penultimate year law students should apply after the release of their
penultimate year exam results. Non-law students, final year law students and graduates should apply
after 1 February in their final year of undergraduate study. The deadline for training contract
applications is 31 July 2011.
Whilst our training contracts are based in the London office, trainees will have the opportunity to experience
both client and international secondments during their training contract.
All applications should be made via our online system, which can be accessed at
www.mayerbrown.com/london
What we are looking for
We are looking for candidates who not only have a consistently strong academic record including a minimum
of a 2.1 degree (predicted or obtained) in any discipline, but also who have a wide range of interests and
achievements outside their academic career. Additionally, we would like to see innovative candidates who
can demonstrate a drive for results, good verbal and written communication skills, and an ability to
analyse, with good judgement and excellent interpersonal skills.
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Simmons & Simmons
Contact Details:
Website: Career website
Company Description
Dynamic and innovative, Simmons & Simmons has a reputation for offering
a superior legal service, wherever and whenever it is required. The
firm's high quality advice and the positive working atmosphere in its
international network of 18 offices has won admiration and praise from
both the legal community and business clients.
Main Areas of Work
Simmons & Simmons offers its clients a full range of legal services
across numerous industry sectors. The firm has a particular focus on the
world's fastest growing sectors, namely: energy and infrastructure;
financial institutions; life sciences; and TMT. Simons & Simmons provides
a wide choice of service areas in which its lawyers can specialise. These
include corporate and commercial; information, communications and
technology; dispute resolution; employment and benefits; EU, competition
and regulatory; financial markets; IP; projects; real estate; taxation
and pensions.
Trainee Profile
Simmons & Simmons is interested to find out about your academic successes
but will also explore your ability to form excellent interpersonal
relations and work within a team environment, as well as your levels of
motivation, drive and ambition. Show evidence of a rich 'life
experience' as well as examples of your intellectual capabilities and you
will be provided with everything you need to become a successful member
of the firm.
Training Environment
The training programme at Simmons & Simmons is constantly evolving to
build the skills you will need to be successful in the fast moving world
of international business. The firm provides experience in a range of
areas of law and a balanced approach to gaining the knowledge, expertise
and abilities you will need to qualify in the practice area of your choice.
Vacation Schemes
The firm's internship schemes are one of the primary means of selecting
candidates for a career at Simmons & Simmons. Your placement will enable
you to gain first-hand experience of a busy and dynamic international law
firm, as well as gain exposure to everything from the firm's service
areas to the kinds of deals and transactions the firm works on.
Please find the internship dates below
Spring: 21 - 25 March 2011 and 11 - 15 April 2011
...apply: 01 November 2010 - 31 January 2011
The spring internship scheme is a great opportunity for first year law
students and penultimate year non-law students to get an in-depth view of
the firm at an early stage of your studies.
Applications open 01 November 2010.
Summer: 13 June - 01 July 2011 and 04 - 22 July 2011
...apply: 01 November 2010 - 31 January 2011
The firm's three week summer internships are open to penultimate year law
students, final year non law students, international and mature students,
graduates and those changing career.
Applications open 01 November 2010.
Winter: 14 - 16 December 2010 and 04 - 06 January 2011
...apply: 01 October 2010 - 01 December 2010
Simmons & Simmons also runs winter insight workshops aimed specifically
at final year non-law students, and non-law graduates. Applications open
01 October 2010.
Finally, a series of open days, available to all
undergraduates, graduates, mature and international students are run
throughout the year.
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Slaughter and May
Contact Details:
Address: Address: One Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8YY
Tel: 020 7600 1200
Website: Career website
Email:
trainee.recruit@slaughterandmay.com (enquiries only)
The Firm
Slaughter and May is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious
law firms in the world. We advise on high profile and groundbreaking
international transactions and have an excellent and varied client
list which ranges from private equity boutiques to investment banks,
from wealthy individuals to governments, from retailers to entertainment
companies, and from diversified industrial conglomerates to premier
league football clubs.
There are 127 partners and a total of more than 1,200 people of whom
over 400 are associates and 192 are trainees.
The firm is organised into groups which undertake a general spread
of work encouraging lawyers to work on an extensive range of financial
and commercial matters as well as developing an expertise in specialist
areas. Much of the work spans the globe with transactions involving not
only the firm's overseas offices but also leading independent law firms
in other jurisdictions.
Training Contracts
During the two year training period trainees gain experience of a broad
cross-section of our practice taking an active part in the work of four
or five groups, sharing an office with a partner or experienced
associate. Our overseas offices and close working relationships with
leading independent law firms in other jurisdictions mean there are
opportunities to work in places such as Auckland, Amsterdam, Barcelona,
Brussels, Berlin, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York,
Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, Sydney and Tokyo.
Benefits
There are approximately 90 vacancies for trainee solicitors per year.
Starting salaries are £s;38,000 for the first year of training rising
to £s;43,000 in the second year. We pay our future trainees a
maintenance grant and cover tuition and examination fees for both the
CPE/GDL and LPC course. In addition we offer 25 working days' holiday
per year as well as private medical insurance (personal and family),
money purchase pension scheme with life cover, childcare vouchers,
interest-free season ticket loans for commuting, personal accident
cover, confidential Employee Assistance Programme, health screenings,
subsidised staff restaurant, special membership terms for the local
Health Club and a variety of corporate entertainment benefits at
several London theatres and galleries.
Work Experience Schemes
We run work experience schemes at Christmas, Easter and during the
summer. The summer scheme is for students in the penultimate year
of their first degree course only and the Christmas scheme is
principally for final year non-law students and graduates. Our
schemes are organised to enable you to experience a City lawyer's
life as it actually is. We make a special effort to involve you
in our work so you get beyond the theory and see our practice in
action. In addition there are a series of seminars and talks about
our clients, the work of the firm and what it takes to be a
lawyer.
Applications
Applications for training contracts and work experience schemes
should be made using our online system which can be accessed via
our website (www.slaughterandmay.com) – you will be asked to
complete a short form and to attach a copy of your c.v. and
covering letter. Covering letters should be addressed to
Mrs Mel Binks ¨C HR Manager.
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Travers Smith
Contact Details:
Website: Career website
The Firm
Travers Smith is a City firm with a major corporate and commercial practice. The firm is entrepreneurial and innovative, understated while quietly proud of its achievements, and committed to providing excellent service to its clients. The atmosphere within the firm is good-humoured, sociable and supportive, and our staff at all levels genuinely enjoy each other’s company and value each other’s work.
Our lawyers work in close-knit teams, with the partners always heavily involved in leading the work, and trainees are seen as a valued part of these teams. Trainees are given high levels of responsibility and often find themselves on the phone to clients or qualified lawyers on the other side of transactions.
Types of work
The main areas of our practice are corporate law (including takeovers and mergers, financial services and regulatory laws), commercial law (which includes commercial contracts, intellectual property and IT), litigation, corporate recovery/insolvency, EU/competition, tax, employment, pensions, banking and real estate.
Recent work includes advising Pinewood Studios (the James Bond and Harry Potter film studios) on its recent planning application to create permanent streetscapes from cities such as New York and Venice; Force India, the Formula One Team, on its technical partnership with McLaren and Mercedes Benz; the purchasers of Bath Rugby Club and Pret A Manger; and the sellers of Kurt Geiger and Yo! Sushi.
We offer a range of pro bono opportunities within individual departments and on a firm-wide basis. In particular, a group of trainees and assistant solicitors advise on a voluntary basis at a law centre in Central London and also at an advice clinic run out of the Inns of Court School of Law. The firm is an active member of the Caribbean Capital Cases Committee and has a long history of acting for prisoners on death row. The firm also takes on cases from the Bar Pro Bono Unit. We also carry out commercial work for a number of UK charities.
Who should apply
We look for people who combine academic excellence with common sense; who are articulate, who think on their feet, who are determined and self-motivated and who take their work but not themselves seriously. Applications are welcome from law and non-law undergraduates/graduates.
Training programme
The firm has a comprehensive training programme which ensures that trainees experience a broad range of work. All trainee solicitors sit in rooms with partners and assistants, receive an individual and extensive training from experienced lawyers and enjoy client contact and the responsibility that goes with it from the beginning of their training contract.
Trainees gain six months’ experience in each of the following departments - corporate, real estate/banking and litigation/employment. The firm offers you a choice for your fourth seat in one of the remaining six departments. In addition, there is always one trainee in the firm’s Paris office, which practises English law. The firm also operates an exchange programme for assistant solicitors with US and European law firms.
When and how to apply
By 31 July 2011 for September 2013. Apply online via our website at www.traverssmith.com
Work placements
Three summer schemes of two weeks each commencing 27 June, 11 July and 25 July 2011. Apply online by 31 January 2011. The firm also offers a Christmas scheme of two weeks.
Students spend two weeks with the firm; each week in a different department, sharing an office with partners, assistants and trainee solicitors. The workload includes attending meetings, drafting documents and letters and carrying out research (with access to a secretary and the back-up of our Information Centre). We extend our internal seminar programme to include a number of talks, case studies and negotiating exercises specifically for students to give an authentic taste of a City lawyer's work. We arrange tours to selected City institutions. The timetable includes plenty of sporting and social activities, such as softball and mixed hockey as well as ‘working’ lunches and informal evening events.
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