Trainee recruitment

As a general rule we have six to eight Trainee vacancies per year and we recruit two years in advance.

Our application process opens in October and closes in January.

Yes. We are open to receiving applications from both law and non-law graduates. If you are a non-law graduate we mandate that you complete the PGDL before enrolling in the SQE. As we recruit two years in advance, you will have plenty of time to complete your PGDL and SQE prior to joining. Many of our Trainees and lawyers chose not to study law at undergraduate level and went on to complete a conversion course.

We like to see a consistently strong academic record. However we review each application on its merits and will take into consideration mitigating circumstances. Where academics fall short of a 2:1 (or equivalent) we would expect to see that you have met the criteria of our selection process in other ways; for example commerciality and work experience. Competition for a place on our vacation scheme is high, so take time to make your application the best it can be and try to stand out from the crowd.

We offer sponsorship for the PGDL/SQE route. Our exclusive provider is the University of Law. We are unable to offer sponsorship via any other academic provider. For non-law graduates, we mandate the PGDL/SQE route, and with respect to the SQE we mandate the LLM legal practice course. Unfortunately are unable to reimburse course fees retrospectively for any courses already completed prior to receiving an offer from Fladgate.

We also offer an additional maintenance grant of £7,000 (London) or £6,000 (regional).

Our exclusive provider is the University of Law, Moorgate. We will however show flexibility where London is not a feasible location due to personal circumstances. If you are already enrolled with another course provider, upon acceptance of our offer we would ask that you contact the course liaison officer and request to be removed from their programme. We will then provide you with all the necessary information to get you enrolled with the University of Law.

Yes, you can study the SQE part time if you are able to complete the course by the specified start date with us. Any maintenance loan will be expected to cover the duration of your course(s).

We update our website regularly with vacancies and would encourage applicants to apply for paralegal roles regardless of the outcome of their training contract application.

Yes you can! We will contact candidates individually to confirm if you have been successful / unsuccessful in your application but you can also follow us on Instagram and Twitter for regular updates regarding dates, deadlines, useful articles, blog posts and Fladgate social activities.

We are very keen to keep in touch with all of our future Trainees prior to you joining us. We host many events throughout the year and regularly offer opportunities to meet our current Trainees and NQs.

We plan a full induction programme to get you up to speed. We ease you in gently with a ‘who’s who’ of the departments and support teams as well as taking you on a tour of the building to get your bearings.

You will meet with our training principal, as well as your first seat supervisor who will guide you through what you can expect from your training contract as well as what will be expected of you as a first year Trainee.

We also have a very active social calendar. Our second year Trainees take the new joiners out for lunch on their first day and impart some words of wisdom for the annual Fladgate treasure hunt which you will be arranging (this is now infamous within the firm…no pressure!).

Our core seats are within corporate, real estate, dispute resolution and finance, funds and regulatory.

We will always take into consideration your personal preference when deciding on your remaining seat, which can either be a repeat of an old favourite or in one of our more specialist areas such as employment or CSI. This is of course always dependent on a business need and circumstances at the time.

A training contract with Fladgate is not about sitting at your desk all day. We actively encourage employees of all levels to further themselves in both personal and professional development. We regularly hold “lunch and learn” sessions attended by entire departments (including Partners) with both internal and external speakers discussing hot topics and legislative updates. We also have fantastic IT training with LTC4 qualifications becoming compulsory across the business.

Externally, all of our Trainees attend the Professional Skills Course which covers the practical application of your legal skills in a working environment.

While some of our clients are large FTSE 250 companies, many are entrepreneurial owner-managed businesses and as such we do not offer secondments during your training contract. We have a fantastic team of Partners and PSLs on hand to offer you the best training and top quality work right here at our offices.

Formal appraisals take place every three months (mid and end of seat). However, we like to maintain dialogue and operate a very ‘open door’ policy when it comes to supporting and encouraging our Trainees. Feedback is not just a one way process; we like to hear from you too!

Absolutely! While we do not have international offices, over 40% of our revenue is from international work and many of our lawyers utilise their language skills regularly. We currently have 26+ languages spoken at Fladgate.