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Our two-week vacation schemes are a great way for students to get a ‘taster’ of the firm and decide if a career at Covington is for them. Our vacation schemes provide an opportunity to become integrated into the firm and gain an insight into the work of a Covington lawyer.
Your journey to becoming a trainee at Covington begins with our vacation scheme assessment centre where students undertake an interview and group exercise. Towards the end of the vacation scheme, all students are assessed for a training contract. We aim to recruit trainees predominantly from our vacation schemes. The candidates we choose are sharp, articulate, and quick thinking. They have confidence and composure, but also honesty and humour.
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Applications to
Graduate Recruitment Team
Method of application
Online Application FormMethod of assessment
- Assessment centre
- Panel interview
- Partner interview
- Presentation
- Written exercise
Our distinctively collaborative culture allows us to be truly one team globally, drawing on the diverse experience of lawyers and advisors across the firm by seamlessly sharing insight and expertise.
What sets us apart is our ability to combine the tremendous strength in our litigation, investigations, and corporate practices with deep knowledge of policy and policymakers, and one of the world’s leading regulatory practices.
This enables us to create novel solutions to our clients’ toughest problems, successfully try their toughest cases and deliver commercially practical advice of the highest quality.
The firm has over 1,000 lawyers globally, in offices in Beijing, Brussels, Dubai, Frankfurt, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, New York, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai and Washington DC.
We offer trainees the opportunity to work on cutting-edge matters. Our clients include Microsoft, AstraZeneca, and Facebook, Fortune 100 businesses and leading technology, life sciences, and media companies. We have represented Facebook, Inc in its US$22 billion acquisition of WhatsApp and its US$1 billion acquisition of Instagram. We also advised Illumina on a four-year project that will map genomes for breakthroughs into cancer and rare diseases.
Areas of work
Corporate advisory (capital markets, M&A, finance, private equity, venture capital and funds), commercial litigation, data privacy, competition, employment, financial services, insurance coverage disputes, intellectual property, internal investigations and compliance, international arbitration, life sciences, project development and finance, tax, technology regulatory. In addition, all our lawyers, are encouraged to undertake pro bono work.
Each year we offer up to 10 vacation placements on each of our two-week programmes. Participants sit with a senior lawyer and will be given as much hands-on experience as possible. Students will spend each of their two weeks in a different practice area and will be given as much hands-on experience as possible. They will also get involved in a research project, participate in group activities and attend a series of presentations. We also organise a number of social events so that students can have some fun and get to know us.
Trainee profile
We are looking for strong academic performers, (on target to achieve a 2.1 or above), commercial awareness, strong interpersonal skills and the ability to be a team player. The candidates we choose are sharp, articulate, and quick thinking. They have confidence and composure, but also honesty and humour.
Training environment
The training contract in London comprises of four six-month seats, all trainees will undertake a seat within our corporate & dispute resolution practices. We currently offer optional seats in the following areas: employment, life sciences regulatory, technology regulatory, life sciences transactional, project development & finance, competition, business & human rights. We offer secondments to our Brussels office sitting within our competition & anti-trust practice and a secondment to our Dubai office which offers exposure to corporate, project development & finance & white collar crime work. Client secondments may also be available. We aim to distinguish our trainee programme by offering a genuine support network which includes assigning associate mentors & trainee buddies and conducting regular performance reviews. We have an excellent record of retaining trainee solicitors on qualification and we aim to recruit trainees who are interested in making a long term commitment to the firm.
Covington will pay tuition and examination fees for both the GDL and the LPC. Maintenance will be paid at the current rate of up to £8,000 per annum.
- Corporate
- Dispute resolution
- Commercial litigation
- White collar crime & investigations
- International arbitration
- Employment
- Life sciences regulatory
- Life sciences transactional
- Technology regulatory
- Project development & finance
- Competition
- Business & human rights
- Client secondment
- Secondments to Dubai & Brussels offices
- General Practice
- Corporate & Commercial
- General Commercial
- Niche
Practice Areas
Extra info
Phone: 020 7067 2000
Email: graduate@cov.com
Web: www.cov.com/en/careers/lawyers/london-graduate-recruitment-programme
| Work placement: | Yes |
| Number of work placements: | 20 |
| Minimum qualification: | 2.1 degree & ABB at A Level (or equivalent) |
| Start salary: | £48,000 |
| Sponsorship: | GDL/LPC |
| Turnover: | £390,166,028 (2012) |
| Training contract applications: | 486 (2014) |
| Retention rate: | 100% (2020) |
| Has client secondments: | Yes |
| Client secondments: |
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| Has overseas secondments: | Yes |
| Overseas secondments: |
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- London
- Kids in Need of Defense (KIND)
- LawWorks
- TrustLaw Connect
- Bright Network
- Urban Lawyers Careers Conference
- Warwick University Multicultural Scholars Programme
