Burges Salmon is an ambitious, sustainable and inclusive firm that ensures its clients, people and wider communities flourish.

Our vision is to be the market-leading independent UK law firm that provides the best proposition for our people and our clients.

By focusing on the markets and areas of expertise where we have extensive knowledge and experience, we achieve the best outcomes for our clients, who range from large organisations, entrepreneurial businesses and public sector bodies, to individuals, families and their global wealth. We are trusted to help them with everything from their everyday legal needs to their business critical issues and all points in between.

With offices in Bristol, Edinburgh, London and Dublin, the firm’s people work wherever clients need them to be, both within the UK and internationally. The firm works across the UK, with lawyers who are qualified to work in all three legal jurisdictions in the UK – England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Burges Salmon’s clients include organisations such as The John Lewis Partnership, The Financial Services Compensation Scheme, FirstGroup, HSBC Bank plc, Virgin, Costain Group, The Crown Commercial Service, Babcock International Group and Highways England.

The quality of our expertise is widely recognised across our main departments including corporate and financial institutions, dispute resolution, planning, construction and engineering, projects, real estate and private client. The key sectors in which we operate are energy, power and utilities, financial services, infrastructure, private wealth, the public sector, real estate, and transport.

Our open and collaborative culture promotes an inclusive work environment which ensures that we continue to recruit, retain and motivate the highest calibre of people across the business. Our award-winning training programme based at our HQ in Bristol gives you expert guidance in your career and access to high profile clients.

Burges Salmon offers 40 places over four paid vacation schemes. Candidates visit two departments of their choice supervised by a senior solicitor, and attend court visits and client meetings. Current trainees run skills training sessions, sports and social events that provide a real insight into life at the firm.

Our six-seat training contract is designed to provide you with the greatest breadth of experience possible as a trainee. While traditional training contracts normally include four six-month seats, ours includes six four-month placements. This ensures you gain the maximum exposure to our varied practice areas and experience a wide range of contentious and non-contentious work from across our main departments.

As a trainee you will be given early responsibility balanced with truly open door support. From the beginning you will be learning from lawyers recognised as experts in their fields who are able to offer the advice and guidance you will need to develop into a trusted business adviser.

You won't find a restrictive hierarchy at Burges Salmon. Throughout your training contract you will be an integral part of the team, working alongside lawyers who are experts in their field and sharing a room with a supervisor who will support your growth and development. Working with a range of associates, senior associates and partners means you hit the ground running and experience a real variety of work from a range of personalities.

The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) is the new route to qualification which was introduced in September 2021. Our 2024 trainee intake will be our first intake to qualify through the new SQE route. We will support any future trainees who are due to join us in 2024 and beyond in the completion of the Post Graduate Diploma in Law (PGDL) and the SQE Plus preparation course with The University of Law. 

Diversity and inclusion are integral to our firm wide strategy. Our culture is open, collaborative and inclusive, enabling us to recruit, retain and motivate the highest calibre of people. It is important to us that all of our people feel that they can be themselves at work.

We advocate for equality and fairness and participate in various networks and charters. These include The Law Society Diversity and Inclusion Charter, the Bristol Equality Charter, the Woman in Business Charter and the Race at Work charter. We are committed to being an accessible and inclusive organisation and working with other businesses and organisations to share good equality practice and improve. We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer and are committed to supporting our disabled employees and ensuring our recruitment opportunities are accessible to all.

From September 2021, the firm will be sponsoring our future trainees to complete the PGDL and the LLM Legal Practice course at The University of Law. Maintenance grants of £7,000 are paid to LLM students, and £14,000 to students studying for both the PGDL and LLM (£7,000 pa).

• Corporate
• Banking
• Pensions
• Employment
• Commercial
• Dispute resolution
• Projects
• Construction & engineering
• Planning
• Real estate
• Tax
• Family

• Corporate & Commercial
• General Commercial
• General Practice

• Bristol
• London
• Edinburgh
• Dublin

• Citizens Advice Bureau
• FareShare

• #10000BlackInterns
• Black Professionals Network
• Bright Network
• City Solicitors Horizons
• IntoUniversity
• Legal Apprenticeships
• Pathways to Law
• PRIME
• Rare Recruitment
• Stonewall