Where talented people come together

Welcome to Addleshaw Goddard – an international law firm, almost 250 years in the making. We’re trusted by over 3000 major organisations, including 51 FTSE 100 companies, to solve problems, deliver deals, defend rights, comply with regulations and mitigate risk. Our work spans more than 50 areas of business law, paving the way to deliver the best possible outcomes for clients across multiple industries. 

Appointed time and again, we help them do business, operate and grow – effectively and safely – in over 100 countries worldwide. And while the challenges our clients bring us may vary, we approach and solve them with the same, single-minded focus: finding the smartest way to achieve the biggest impact.

Our values

From the work we do to the culture we foster and the partnerships we form, every last part of Addleshaw Goddard is driven by three core values: quality, imagination, and impact. 

We welcome everyone, support people to achieve their full potential, and always seek smart ways to have a positive impact – for our clients, colleagues, and communities around the world.

More imagination. More impact.

We act for clients whatever the scale of their requirements. We have been instructed 51 FTSE 100 companies in the last two years, including Associated British Foods, SSE, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC and British Land. Our business is about strong client relationships built on successful delivery across national and international markets. Equally important is strong loyalty which is proven through 75% of our clients who have been with us for more than 10 years.

The range and scale of our work is compelling, and encompasses high value strategic advice to the everyday. It means we are able to attract talented, like-minded individuals who love what they do, are committed to our clients success, and strive to build valued partnerships through our collective energy and expertise.

Work placements

We offer week-long Easter work placements in Edinburgh and London, and two-week summer work placements in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester. And because everyone is an individual, we make sure each placement is a valuable experience for each individual student.

While you are here, you will get to know the everyday life of an Addleshaw Goddard trainee. You will be allocated a department to sit in and, if you are part of the summer scheme, will swap into a new department in your second week. You will be supervised by an experienced solicitor, who will welcome you to the department and allocate work. A trainee buddy will be on hand to help throughout your placement.

This is a scheme as unique as you are. As well as informative sessions, group exercises, assessed work and plenty of time at your desk, you will attend social events with a range of people across the office. It’s a real chance to get to know our people and our culture. We offer training contracts to successful placement scheme students, so we’d encourage you to apply. We recruit for our trainees predominately from our placement schemes and suggest anyone who is interested in a training contract at the firm apply for the placement scheme.

Open days 2025

If you are a first year law student or first or second year non-law student in England or any first or second year student of any degree discipline in Scotland or at any stage of your undergraduate degree in Ireland, and you are interested in a career with us, you can apply to attend one of our open days to get to know us better. As well as meeting people from across the business, you will get practical advice on what we look for and how to make your application stand out.

We host an in-person open day in our London office and virtual open days for our Scotland, England and Dublin offices.

We are more than just exceptional lawyers here. We attract sparkling people from all backgrounds, who bring their own unique qualities, along with a collaborative approach, professional drive and a commitment to every client’s success. This is just one of the reasons we’re sure you will enjoy working with us.

As a trainee, important cases will come your way from the get-go. You will work on everything from multi-million-pound deals to high-profile fraud cases, employment disputes to complex technology contracts. Our success is intrinsically linked to yours, so we’ll always have your back and help you realise your potential.

Training contracts are four seats long, with opportunities to spend time in another of our offices as well as on secondment with clients. During each six-month seat, you will have regular two-way performance reviews with your supervising partner or solicitor. They will help you develop the skills you need to deal with the demanding work you will come across every day. 

As well as learning on the job, you will also have access to high-quality in-house and external training, a buddy scheme in your first seat, and a mentor throughout your training contract and beyond.

The best advocates of our graduate careers are the trainees themselves. See what some of them have to say about life at Addleshaw Goddard.

SQE and graduate solicitor apprenticeships

The changes brought in by the SQE have meant that there is more flexibility around the way trainees can quality as solicitors and we are now able to offer more than one route to qualification. From 2025, our trainees can opt to qualify via the graduate solicitor apprenticeship or via the traditional training contract.

Training contract route

The training contract will continue in its current structure. There will be four seats each for a duration of six months and our March and September intakes will remain. Our first SQE intake of trainees commenced in September 2024. Any future trainees who have the LPC will not be required to undertake the SQE. For those needing the SQE, we will require them to pass SQE1 and 2 assessments prior to commencing their training contract. This will be undertaken at BPP in the year prior to starting their training contract (e.g. September 2025 for September 2026 training contract start). It will be funded by AG and future trainees will be given maintenance grants during their year of study.

Those who have qualifying work experience are able to use this to shorten the length of their training contract, though the maximum time we permit a training contract to be shortened by is 12 months. 

Graduate solicitor apprenticeship route

The duration of the apprenticeship will be 36 months. In year one apprentices will study and in years two and three will undertake their training contract. Apprentices will be employed by the firm from day one of their apprenticeship. The firm will sponsor apprentices through the SQE and they will be paid a salary during their period of study. During the training contract apprentices will undertake four seats each for a duration of six months, the same as our trainees. Apprentices will qualify at the same time as their cohort who will be on the training contract route.

Apprenticeships

We recognise that university is not for everyone and welcome a pathway that acknowledges a different approach to kick start your career. Earn a salary from day one and build your skills and knowledge with experienced reputable professionals. Our apprenticeship schemes provide individuals with invaluable work experience in an award winning premium law firm.

We offer a range of apprenticeships from paralegal and solicitor apprenticeships to apprenticeships in business services. For more information please click here.

Diversity, equality and inclusion at Addleshaw Goddard

At Addleshaw Goddard, we recognise the importance of nurturing an inclusive culture to help us attract, retain and enable our people to be the best they can be.

In 2020 we introduced a new, Board approved inclusion strategy, which included:

Allocating senior leadership roles across five key strands of inclusion (Disability, Ethnicity, Gender, LGBTQ+ and Social Mobility), including senior partners and business services leads.

The setting of targets for ethnicity and gender across our business.

The setting of short-, medium- and long-term goals to keep us accountable.

Since 2020 we have kept our strategy under review to ensure that it remains ambitious and reflects the needs of our people.  And hope that this strategic approach will create greater equality within our firm and foster a greater sense of belonging amongst our people. 

Now in 2024, our commitment to DE&I remains firm. We've invested heavily in our employee networks (which now have nearly 700 members) which include:

- Ability Forum (disability and carers)

- AG Embrace (race and ethnicity)

- OpenAG (LGBTQ+)

- The Vine (gender)

- Social Mobility Volunteers (social mobility)

We also have two faith networks (our Muslim and Jewish communities) which colleagues can join.

It's through this greater investment in our DE&I programme that we can have more impact with our people, communities and clients and in recent years we've had some really positive successes, including:

- being listed in the Times Top 50 Employers for Gender Equality for the 15th time in 16 years

- achieving "Employer" status as part of the Disability Confident Scheme

- being awarded the silver award in the 2024 Stonewall employer workplace index

- being listed as a Top 75 Employer in the Social Mobility Foundation Index for two years running

- winning the Innovation in Diversity Award at the 2024 Legal Innovation and Technology Awards for our neurodiversity programme

We are active members of Interlaw Diversity Forum, The Legal Neurodiversity Network, WorkLife Central, Black Solicitors Network, NOTICED, Stonewall, the Valuable 500, City Solicitors Horizons, Regeneration Brainery and PRIME (an alliance of law firms that has undertaken to broaden access to the profession). Our central DE&I team has more than doubled in the last 3 years, so that we can have more impact with our people, communities and clients.

Removing barriers so that talent can shine

A key focus for Addleshaw Goddard is diversifying our trainee talent. To do this we have partnered with an external organisation, Rare, to introduce contextual recruitment and accountability into our graduate hiring process.

Contextual recruitment looks at the context of academic achievement, and identifies students who have surpassed expectations or performed excellently in conditions of adversity.

We have also removed our minimum A-level requirement to allow a more diverse pool of candidates to apply for training contracts at Addleshaw Goddard.

We review your application without personal information to ensure we do not allow bias of any kind to affect the process.

We have also increased the training for everyone involved in the recruitment process to ensure that we select people based on their ability, potential and nothing else.

Diversity Access Schemes

We nurture strong links with reputable social mobility schemes and professional diversity networks such as the Aspiring Solicitors, Talent Tap, Regeneration Brainery, Uptree, Upskill Me, Leadership Through Sport and Business, Black Solicitors Network and PRIME and value their support and expertise when reaching out to untapped talent from non-traditional backgrounds.

We are signatories of the Social Mobility Business Compact: a government-led initiative which aims to reduce elitism and improve social mobility by encouraging businesses to open opportunities to everyone. 

We have always invested and partnered with local communities, schools and networks who are keen to raise the aspirations of young people – and will continue to do so by offering young talent opportunities to take part in quality work experience programmes and internships.

PRIME

We are a founding member of PRIME, an initiative through which law firms provide quality work experience placements to underprivileged school-age students. We work with local primary and secondary schools across London, Leeds, Manchester and Edinburgh to inspire young people to fulfil their potential. Each year, between 25-30 students from years 12 and 13 take part in our Legal Access Week Programme.

Legal Explorers 

In 2023 we launched the AG Legal Explorer programme – a year-long programme offering mentoring, a laptop and work shadowing opportunities for socially mobile students. The programme will run across offices in Edinburgh, Leeds, London and Manchester and will focus on preparing students to take the next step in their careers, such as applying for university or apprenticeship. 

Sonia McMahon Award

This award was establish following the death of a colleague, Sonia McMahon.  Sonia was a champion of inclusion and was passionate about providing greater opportunities for those from less privileged background.  The award is open to current law students and awards the two winners a £5,000 bursary (each), 12 months of mention and a week of work experience at the firm.  

Legal Access Scheme

Our award-winning Legal Access Scheme offers bright BPP University Law School students from unconventional or less privileged backgrounds a place on our summer placement programme. 24 students from this scheme have secured training contracts with us since its creation in 2007.

Lawscot Foundation 

We have partnered with LawScot Foundation to enable the opportunity for students from less privileged backgrounds a place on our Summer placement scheme, along with providing a bursary for one student each year. 

Legal apprenticeship scheme 

There’s no blueprint for bright. In fact, the opposite is true. That’s why we offer an alternative path into law for those who do not wish to go down the traditional university route.

Our legal apprenticeship scheme, developed in Manchester and Leeds, is at the forefront of apprenticeships in the legal profession.

We have been recognised by the All About Group as a Top 100 Employer for School Leavers.

City Solicitors Horizons

City Solicitors Horizons (CSH) is a social mobility initiative designed to improve access to the legal profession for young people from less privileged backgrounds. It was created by the City of London Solicitors’ Company, City Solicitors’ Educational Trust (CSET) and The Legal Education Foundation (TLEF), and is supported by the City of London Law Society (CLLS) and leading law firms – including Addleshaw Goddard.

Students attending universities across London and southeast England are selected to take part in this three-year social mobility programme, alongside their undergraduate degrees, connecting with law firms who provide access to mentoring lawyers and practical work experience.

Talent Tap

In 2023 we started working with Talent Tap, which provides high quality work experience opportunities and to social mobility students in 'cold spots'. Residential accommodation is provided to the students, allowing them to take part in opportunities and work experience that might not have been able to otherwise.  

Street Law 

Our new programme Street Law involves working with young people in schools to provide information about law and their rights and responsibilities. We work with low progression secondary schools to help raise aspirations and encourage young people to think about law as a possible career option, as well as providing useful legal information using interactive methods.  

Benefits

We provide all trainees with a substantial and competitive range of benefits. These include:

Lifestyle

- Cycle Scheme

- Gym allowance

- CSR Days

- Season Ticket Loan

- Railcard (Young Persons)

- Give as You Earn

- Buy/sell holiday

Wealth and protection

- Life Assurance

- Income Protection

- Pension with matched contribution of 5%

- Voluntary Critical Illness

- Bonus Plan

- Talent Spotting

- AG Excellence

Health and wellbeing

- Dental

- Private Medical Insurance

- Health Screening

- Health and Wellbeing Subsidy

- Employee Assistance Programme

- Occupational Health

• Corporate & commercial
• Finance & projects
• Disputes
• Real estate

• Corporate & Commercial

• Aberdeen
• Edinburgh
• Glasgow
• Leeds
• London
• Manchester
• Berlin
• Doha
• Dubai
• Dublin
• Frankfurt
• Hamburg
• Luxembourg
• Madrid
• Munich
• Muscat
• Paris
• Riyadh
• Singapore
• Formal alliance with Tokyo-based Hashidate Law Office

• Black Solicitors Network
• City Solicitors Horizons
• Lawyers in Schools
• Pathways to Law
• PRIME
• Social Mobility Business Partnership
• Urban Lawyers Careers Conference