How to apply for a training contract: a masterclass

As anyone entering the legal profession is constantly reminded, it’s competitive to get a training contract. Applicants can be competing against hundreds, if not thousands, of other candidates for a small number of training contract vacancies. While some law firms will take on 50+ trainees a year, other firms employ only a handful.

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This high level of competition for every training contract means that your application form must be absolutely perfect if you’re to secure a place at an interview or assessment centre.

Most application forms will ask you to submit some kind of cover letter, as well as complete sections on your work experience, extracurricular activities and skills and attributes.

Here’s our four-step training contract application masterclass.

Step 1: understand your goals and competencies

Your ability to articulate your motivation for becoming a lawyer, as well as what makes you suitable for the role are crucial when writing a cover letter or answers to specific questions on the application form such as 'Why law?' or 'Why do you want to be a commercial solicitor?'

Write two lists of bullet points – one on why you really want to become a solicitor and what you think you’d most enjoy about the job; another listing all your experiences and what skills they involved (eg, attention to detail, interpersonal skills and teamwork). This will help you decide broadly which type of firm you want to apply to (eg, commercial, family, or employment), as well as the raw material on which to base your firm-specific cover letters and application form answers later.

Learn more about the key skills you need to demonstrate in your applications and find out what it’s like to work in specific practice areas with LCN’s Practice Area Profiles, featuring insights from lawyers on the ground.

Step 2: create your shortlist of firms

Writing a truly excellent application is time consuming, so when deciding where to apply, it’s important to be realistic about your chances at each firm and choose a shortlist that gives you the best chance of success. If a firm has a minimum requirement of AAB at A level and a 2:1, but an applicant has BBB and a 2:1, it’s likely that the application will be automatically rejected in the first sift (unless you have mitigating circumstances).

But it’s not solely about playing the game: you should apply to firms that you’re genuinely interested in, with factors such as location, size and work areas all influencing your final decision. If you want a firm to pay for your postgraduate education (ie, law conversion course, Legal Practice Course or Solicitors Qualifying Exam preparation course) you’re looking at roughly 200 firms.

It’ll take a significant amount of time to craft a quality law firm application, which means applying to 10 to 15 firms will be more effective than copy and pasting the same cover letter and application answers to 50. It’s essential to know what a firm does, who it does this for, where it’s doing it and what its culture and values are.

There are plenty of resources available, but firms' own websites and recruitment materials are a good place to start. Look at the work areas they emphasise; their press releases, press mentions and client publications/newsletters; the physical footprint of the firm and its size/demographics; the style of language it uses and the messages it’s chosen to send about its culture. But also bear in mind that a lot of this will be marketing material – it’s therefore important to do your own research about the firm.

Use independent resources such as   LawCareers.Net, as well as blogs and other guides. Don't forget LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter. You can follow firms and lawyers on these networks, find out about the latest legal news and developments, and gain insights into what it’s like to work in different firms and areas of the law.

For more on researching law firms, read this LCN Says for a breakdown of the ‘How to research law firms’ masterclass, sponsored by Jones Day, White & Case LLP and Bristows LLP. 

To decide which firms are right for you, ask yourself the following questions:

• Where do I want to work? Use LawCareers.Net’s training contract search to identify your list of potential firms.
• What type of lawyer do I want to be (eg, commercial, family, crime)? Do I have any specialist commercial/legal experience or academic interests? Use LawCareers.Net to identify firms with practice groups in your preferred fields.
• Do I have an interest in a particular practice area (eg, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals/biotech or broadcasting/media)? It may simply be the case that you follow news stories in this field because you enjoy reading about them.
• Have I had face-to-face contact with any law firms, for example, through meeting people at events such as LawCareersNetLIVE?
• Which presentations or other firm-led events did I attend? Here’s a good example of explaining why you’re interested in a firm: "I first encountered the firm at X and this session subsequently sparked an interest in emerging markets..."
• Have I written any papers or good blogs on a particular subject?
• Do I speak a useful language or have experience living in a different part of the world? Spanish, Arabic and Mandarin speakers are particularly sought after by firms that want to grow their business in regions where these languages are spoken and you should use this to your advantage if you have fluency.
• Did I do well in my first-year exams? If you have straight 2:1s then consider applying to the most prestigious firms, especially if you have some high 2:1s (or, better still, firsts). If you have a 2:2 in the odd paper, you might need to convince recruiters that it was a blip in an otherwise impressive record of academic achievement. For commercial firms, the most important papers to score well in are contract and tort. 

Step 3: take a professional approach to applications

A flawless application proves that you’re capable of producing work of the required standard as a lawyer. You must perfect the ability to write well and proofread accurately. Ask a friend, family member or careers adviser to check your application and offer criticism.

• Don’t apply in the last few days before a deadline. This is when a high proportion of forms hit firms' systems and most of these are lower in quality. Stand out by applying well ahead of the deadline.
• Adhere to word limits and use them as a guide to how much a recruiter expects you to write.
• Read the question and make bullet points listing what it’s asking. Check with someone you trust that they agree with your interpretation of the question. Identify which of your achievements evidence the themes you’re incorporating into your answer.
• Every claim should have supporting evidence – don’t say you have a certain skill without providing proof in your work experience or extracurricular activities.
• Don’t copy and paste the same answers and cover letter into different applications, but once you’ve submitted several applications and have a range of well-crafted and evidenced past answers to draw on, the task of applying becomes easier. Never copy and paste an answer, but you may be able to use elements of past answers in future applications.
• Recruiters want to understand how you tick as an individual, so make your answers authentic and allow them to tell the real story of you.
• Structure your answers and make them concise. Introduce the concept (beginning), develop it (middle) and underscore its relevance (end). Persuasion should be your goal, not using the words that you think firms want to read. It’s better to write simply and concisely, rather than throwing in flowery language you wouldn’t normally use. Don’t forget the job of a solicitor is often to write things in a clear way for clients to understand!
• Don’t let your email junk settings ruin the application process – read these tips for making online applications.

For vacation scheme application tips, that would also be relevant to training contract applications, read this LCN Says: ‘Top 10 tips for your vacation scheme applications’.

Step 4: create a persuasive covering letter

If a firm asks for a cover letter, it should say how long it should be. If not, aim for no more than one page to a page-and-a-half (600 to 700 words). Don’t waste too much space stating why you’re writing. If you wish to open your letter that way, why not go straight into why you want to train with this particular firm? For example:

"I wish to be considered for a training contract at X, having first become aware of the firm at a careers day at the University of X, when I spoke with two of its trainees. Our discussion about their experiences at the firm led me to find out more about the firm’s insurance and reinsurance practice, which is an area I have now become interested in exploring further.

"I’m aware that the firm has a number of clients in the insurance sector and is still working on residual claims arising from X news issue/story. I know that litigation in cases such as this can be particularly complex, given the large number of parties and high stakes involved, and I believe that my attached application demonstrates that I have an aptitude for complex analysis and long-term projects. In particular, I would draw your attention to…"

As well as delivering some factual information, the above paragraphs introduce a person who:

• is committed to finding out about their career;
• possesses networking skills;
• has researched the firm;
• understands something about one of its key business areas and shows interest;
• thinks about things from the client’s perspective;
• is realistic about commercial law in practice;
• writes fluidly, can pack many messages into few words and isn’t too informal; and
• has an authentic and interesting story to tell.

Either in the cover letter or a separate section of the application, you may be asked to provide a statement explaining why you think you’re suitable for the role by referring to your skills and experience. If you progress to the next stage, this may be assessed further in a competency-based interview or strengths-based interview.

For advice on submitting your application in a timely manner, read ‘Does it matter when I submit my training contract application?’

Take note of the skills and qualities highlighted, both in the application information provided to would-be trainees and in anything you learn about the firm’s wider culture. Then choose an example from your previous experience to demonstrate that you have a particular skill. Consider structuring your example in the STAR format:

• Situation – provide brief details of the scenario so the recruiter can understand the context of your example.
• Task – outline what the objective was in the situation.
• Action – set out what you decided to do and how you approached it.
• Result – explain whether the objective was achieved, any other benefits your actions had and what you learned. 

The cover letter is hugely important. It needs to sell you explicitly, but subtly. It also needs to hit the right buttons at each firm, and this necessarily requires a letter that is tailored firm by firm. If you have shortlisted your firms using a particular theme or strategy, then there’ll be noticeable areas of crossover.

Good luck with your applications!

For more application advice, take a look at the below:

• ‘How to write the perfect cover letter, CV or application form’
• Webinar recording: ‘Law firm applications – how to succeed’
• ‘Should I mention other firms on vacation scheme applications?’
• ‘How many training contract applications should I make?’
• ‘How to demonstrate the key skills for law in applications’