At RPC, you can be you. In an environment that’s real. Strikingly real.

If you value character over conformity, the unique over the uniform, and ambition over apathy, let’s talk.

RPC is here to help you achieve your ambitions

For us, success comes from building real-life relationships. Real-life relationships with our clients as much as our people. And it comes from thinking creatively to achieve the best commercial solutions. We thrive in an environment that’s collaborative, forward-thinking and where you’re free to express your personality. An environment that allows you to make the most of your strengths. This is our commitment to you.

Our lawyers are market leaders. Our clients are often household names. And together we achieve award-winning results. Results that have seen RPC regularly voted amongst the best for commercial advice across our sectors of specialism.

Our business is built on mutual respect and trust. That’s where you come in. From day one, you’ll collaborate with our partners; you'll have contact with clients; and you'll be given real responsibility. As a trainee, you could be assisting with large-scale global disputes, or offering business-critical commercial advice.

But you won't be left to fend for yourself, you’ll receive first-rate training. You'll be able to develop your skills and you'll be encouraged to use your creativity to solve complex problems. We're agile and flexible, and that's reflected in our approach to our trainees. You can choose to spend time in a wide variety of practice areas supporting a range of dynamic sectors. And not just in London, with training contracts, placements and secondments on offer in Bristol, Hong Kong and Singapore, too, we're truly international.

We also offer alternative routes into law. No matter what stage you are in your life, our apprenticeship scheme will help build the foundations of your career with the training and support you’ll need to excel.

Our award-winning summer schemes are as much about you experiencing life with us, as us experiencing working with you. Over two weeks you'll get real exposure to real work in a real-life environment. Fully integrated into our teams, you'll get to know the people from the get-go. If you're just after a snapshot of life in our law firm, we also offer Insight days where you can shadow, network, and experience our culture first hand. 

So, if you’re a creative thinker who wants a career in an international firm that values personality as much as professionalism, we want to hear from you.

Benefits

Along with a competitive annual salary, you’ll be offered a creative and comprehensive package of benefits.

We’re all unique. And that’s why RPC’s benefits package is too. We respect we’re all real people with passions, families and lives away from our desks. So, we offer you the chance to tailor your benefits, offering choice and flexibility to everyone who works here 

Our benefits package covers almost everything, from wellness festivals and social events, to extra annual leave, and family and wealth-related rewards.

Summer scheme

London

Speed networking, meeting clients, pizza-making classes, attending court and hands-on real case experience. We’ll show you the real RPC during our summer schemes. And be warned, it’s pretty striking.  

You’ll be welcomed into our London office and given an opportunity to spend time getting to experience life in a unique law firm for yourself. It’s also our chance to get to know you and understand what you may be able to offer us. During these two weeks, you’ll be fully integrated into our teams, getting involved in projects and giving you a fantastic insight into whether a career at RPC is right for you.

Summer scheme participants will be paid a salary of £500 per week. 

Recruitment process

Recruitment for our summer schemes usually takes place in January and February. If you’re shortlisted, you’ll be invited to one of our assessment days, during which you’ll meet our existing trainees, associates and partners. If successful following the summer scheme, your training contract will start two years later. Our assessment days can be run virtually.

Visit www.rpc.co.uk/strikinglyreal to find out more.

As a trainee, we believe you’ll deliver your best if you’re free to be you. And that means being able to ask questions openly, being supported to develop your strengths, and having the right opportunities to grow. Our offices are non-hierarchical and open plan which means you'll be sitting close to our partners and associates. What's more, our dynamic working principles empower everyone at RPC to shape how they split their time working in and out of the office; balancing their own preferences, supporting each other and delivering exceptional client service. Whether you’re handling complex insurance claims, resolving large-scale global disputes, or providing commercial advice and transactional support, your opinions will be listened to and respected.

We believe personal growth comes from being challenged. You’ll be given real responsibility throughout your training, but you’ll never be left to fend for yourself. Our training is award-winning. You’ll have a supervising partner and associate to help you day to day, a mentor to show you the ropes, and a dedicated Trainee development team to support you.

We also believe you’ll grow if you’re free to explore. At least six months will be spent in four different practice areas, so you can discover where you fit in the best. You may have an opportunity to be seconded to one of our clients as an in-house lawyer. This will give you the chance to form genuine relationships with the people behind the cases. You’ll use your personality to become more commercially aware and legally proficient. 

In addition, as an RPC trainee you may get an opportunity to spend six months of your contract seconded to our Hong Kong, London or Singapore offices depending on where you’re based.

What do we look for in our trainees?

The recruitment process is important to us. We only recruit trainees who share our values to help grow our ambitious firm.

Although proven academic ability is important (we require a 2:1 degree or above, not necessarily in law) we value personality, diversity, flexibility, commitment, energy, collaboration and commerciality just as highly.

Recruitment process

Recruitment for Bristol and London training contracts usually takes place in April and August respectively. If you're shortlisted, you'll be invited to one of our assessment days during which you'll meet our existing trainees, associates and partners. If successful following the assessment day, your training contract will start two years later. Our assessment days can be run virtually.

So, if you’re a creative thinker who wants a career that values personality as much as professionalism, we want to hear from you.

Please apply online by 24 June 2024 for our London training contract. 

Please apply online by 25 March 2024 for our Bristol training contract. 

Visit www.rpc.co.uk/strikinglyreal to find out more.

Future RPC trainees must complete the Postgraduate Diploma in Law (only if you are a non-law graduate) and the Masters in Legal Practice at The University of Law. Bursaries are available for course fees, the SQE examinations as well as maintenance grants up to £10,000. Both SQE1 and 2 will be completed before you start your training contract. We are still accepting applications from candidates who have successfully completed the LPC (which currently means that you may be exempt from completing SQE1).

Please speak to a member of the early talent team [email protected] if you have any questions.

People are at the heart of everything that we do. And that is critical to our success.

At RPC, we believe that great minds do not all think alike. We believe in the power of difference – of diversity – diversity of thought, diversity of background, experience, skill and talent, diversity of characteristics. We believe that attracting, retaining and harnessing the power of this diversity does not come by chance, happenstance or mere passage of time. Instead, we believe that it is our collective responsibility to proactively create that diversity and to carefully nurture an environment which is inclusive on a consistent, intersectional and sustained basis. A culture where each of our people feels they belong, is respected, and is valued for the differences that they bring. DEIB is all about making sure our culture is and remains diverse and inclusive.

Employee communities 

We have eight DEIB ‘communities’. Not because we want to put people in boxes but because we feel that this is the natural place to start the conversation – with people who feel passionate and connected to a particular strand of DEIB. But this is just the starting point as we recognise the value of a broader, intersectional approach. Members of our DEIB communities representing teams (and offices) globally across the RPC network with steps being taken to ensure wherever possible that initiatives and resources impact all our people globally, where ever they are in the world. Currently, our community groups are as follows: 

• belief 
• disability (ENABLE)
• ethnicity
• families
• gender
• LGBTQ+ (RPC RAIN)
• mental health
• social mobility 

Our communities aim to: 

• support: provide a valuable support and information network for our people.
• share: act as a key awareness-raising body for our people and provide updates and information to the ESG advisory group (ESGAG), the DEIB/responsible business team and/or the partnership executive (PEX), better enabling us to take an intersectional approach.
• suggest: collaborate with ESGAG and/or the DEIB/responsible business team to support the ongoing development of the ESG strategy by raising and exploring issues, concerns and ideas working constructively and openly together.

Postgraduate Diploma in Law (only if you are a non-law graduate). Funding: fees and SQE paid, plus up to £10,000 maintenance.

Masters in Legal Practice at The University of Law. Funding: fees and SQE paid, plus up to £10,000 maintenance.

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