We’re legal experts with a difference. As well as offering a full-range of legal services to individuals and businesses, we also support people with their finances, wealth and asset management. We focus on what really matters; our clients, colleagues and communities. We work with our clients, and take the time to understand what matters most to them. We’re more than just a law firm – we’re a group of like-minded, friendly people working together to help individuals and businesses navigate life’s ups and downs.

For businesses our typical clients are drawn from a cross-section of growing organisations to large companies, and come from a range of sectors including technology, consumer, financial services, manufacturing, media and entertainment, real estate, and education. For individuals, the firm remains one of the leading personal injury and medical negligence litigation practices in the UK. Irwin Mitchell covers all the key injury areas such as asbestos-related disease, serious injury, international travel litigation, medical negligence and product liability. In addition, the firm offers a wide range of services for private clients including succession planning, tax, reputation protection, family, and probate administration. It also advises business owners and executives on their personal business wealth.

In 2023 our retention rate was 87% which demonstrates our commitment to your career with the firm and your long term development with us.

Our one-week summer legal work placement scheme is a great way to get an insight into what life is really like at Irwin Mitchell.

You will spend time with different departments within our client service areas to get a true insight and a real feel for what it is like to be a trainee solicitor at Irwin Mitchell.

You’ll experience an induction, social activities, breakfast meetings, and have the opportunity to get involved with community and sports activities.

During your placement, you will work in tandem with the paralegals, assisting the associates, senior associates and partners. You’ll be given practical experience and a real insight into the unique culture of the nation’s leading full-service law firm.

A large proportion of our current and future trainee solicitors have undertaken a work placement with the firm, therefore we encourage all those interested in joining us to apply for a legal work placement.

We offer training contracts at 12 of our offices across the UK. As a full-service law firm, we have a wide range of seats available for you to train in. You'll undertake three or four seats over two years, giving you a breadth of experience across our seven client service areas:

Commercial advisory and disputes

Complex personal injury

Corporate and finance

Court of Protection and public law

Family law

Private client services

Property

Each office offers different seat options dependent on departments available and business need. Please see our website for further details of which seats are available in which office.

Trainees need to be flexible in their approach to everything, be resilient to change, and have a drive to solve problems. We are looking for ambitious and well-motivated individuals who have a real commitment to the law and who can demonstrate a positive approach to their work. We recruit both law and non-law graduates and view social ability as important as academic achievement.

From the academic year of 2025/26 all candidates will undertake the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) and we will no longer offer funding for the LPC. We will continue to accept applications for those that have already completed their LPC, as there is a grace period of up to 10 years in which the old route can be followed.

If you have already attained your LPC qualification upon securing a training contract with us, you will join the firm in your respective year and complete a two year training contract.

Candidates who have not completed their LPC will follow our new SQE approach. All candidates who secure a training contract offer from 2024 will complete the most up to date legal qualification through the SQE programme.

Upon securing a training contract offer you will join in your respective year and complete the SQE alongside your training contract (also known as qualifying work experience) on a day release basis. Through this route you will complete the graduate solicitor apprenticeship which takes a total of 27 months to complete. Trainees will still undertake three six month seats, with the final fourth seat being for a total of nine months.

It’s in our DNA to value people for who they are and what they bring. We’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture where our people can flourish. We have a strong network to celebrate and support our colleagues, clients and communities covering sexuality, disability, age, gender, race, social background and culture. 

We’re passionate about continued progress which is why we have over 100 Healthy Mind advocates trained by Mental Health First Aid England, our HR team are trained in suicide prevention, we’re members of the Mindful Business and Suicide Prevention Charters, and we have a wellbeing hub with a focus on a holistic approach to wellbeing. Our wellbeing approach is aligned to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

We have one of the lowest gender pay gaps in our industry and we’re proud to the UK’s number one law firm for female partners. We’ve developed policies to help us attract, support and retain transgender colleagues and our LGBTQ+ networking group was highly commended by Stonewall.

Our diversity board continues to help shape our diversity and inclusion strategy in a way which means we build an inclusive business for everyone.

If you are a non-law student and your application is successful, we will meet all the fees associated with your Postgraduate Diploma in Law (PGDL) if you have not started or completed your studies when offered a training contract with us. We also provide a maintenance grant of £1,000 per month of studying to help you through your studies.

• Banking
• Corporate
• Insolvency
• Real estate
• Real estate disputes
• Construction
• Planning
• Commercial
• Employment
• Litigation
• Pensions
• Serious injury
• Medical negligence
• International personal injury
• Workplace injury
• Family
• Public law
• Court of Protection
• Lifetime & estate planning
• Wills
• Tax & estate disputes

• Corporate & Commercial
• General Commercial
• General Practice

• Birmingham
• Bristol
• Cambridge
• Cardiff
• Chichester
• Gatwick
• Glasgow
• Leeds
• Liverpool
• London
• Manchester
• Newcastle
• Reading
• Sheffield
• Southampton

• Association of Personal Injury Lawyers
• Business in the Community
• Citizens Advice Bureau
• Help for Heroes
• Inspiring the Future
• Legal Advice Centres
• Prince’s Trust
• ProHelp
• The National Pro Bono Centre
• Tower Hamlets Law Centre
• University of Manchester Legal Advice Centre

• Aspiring Solicitors
• Black Solicitors Network
• Bright Network
• City Horizons
• Diversity Access Scheme - Law Society
• Evenbreak
• Halo Code
• Legal Apprenticeships
• Mindful Business Charter
• Pathways to Law
• PRIME
• Social Mobility Foundation
• Speakers for Schools
• Stonewall
• Sutton Trust