With offices in Bournemouth, Southampton and London, Lester Aldridge is a full-service firm that despite siginifcant growth still priortises a supportive, friendly culture.   

Our commercial clients operate in diverse sectors such as aviation, health and social care, shipping and logistics, real estate, planning, banking and financial services, technology,  ports and marinas, charities and social enterprise, agriculture and construction. We advise our private clients nationally and internationally on a range of legal matters including divorce, tax planning and probate.

Lester Aldridge has been accredited with the Law Society’s Lexcel Quality Standard since 2007.

As a firm, our vision is to exceed client expectations through delivering innovative solutions effectively and efficiently. Our people are often described as pragmatic, approachable and down-to-earth.

Our trainee retention rates are impressive and many of the senior management team were once trainees with LA. We seek to recruit candidates who have the potential to forge a long-term career with the firm.

We’ll give you the support, training and encouragement to help you reach your full potential. We operate a flat management structure, there is no hierarchy, everyone at every level is approachable and happy to help you.

We will hold a one-week vacation scheme placement in 2022, which could be at any of our offices (Bournemouth, Southampton or London). We will select people for our vacation scheme places from our training contract applicants who have indicated they are interested in a vacation scheme on their application form.

Our vacation scheme will be held the week of the 13 June 2022.

During your two-year training contract you will normally complete four seats of six-month duration across a range of our practice areas. This gives you the variety of experience to help you decide the area you would like to specialise in on qualification.

We believe in learning by experience. Throughout your training contract, you will be given responsibility and you will be challenged (but with a lot of fun along the way!). You will have the opportunity to develop your drafting, communication and negotiation skills through running live matters, always supported by our exceptional lawyers. You may also give presentations, write blogs for our social media, attend client networking events and meetings. No two days are the same at LA! We always find time for our social and CSR events too.

Our trainees are given constructive feedback so you can expect to hear the good things about your work from your team. You will have monthly meetings with your allocated training principal and regular appraisals with your team leader. You’ll be encouraged to speak openly about how you’re feeling and it’s a great chance to air any concerns you might have, confident that your opinions will be listened to.

From 2024 all our trainees will qualify under the new SQE route. You can apply for the 2025 SQE programme even if you have completed an LPC. If you have completed an LPC you are exempted from the requirement of SQE1 and only have to pass SQE2 prior to joining us in September 2025.

We are an equal opportunities employer. We make reasonable adjustment in our recruitment process for those who may require assistance. 

LA has an equality and diversity committee who meet quarterly and run initatives throughout the year for all to get involved in.

For our SQE programme for 2025, LA can offer full sponsorship for the SQE prep course and exams with our preferred provider, BARBRI.

• Real estate
• Real estate development
• Corporate & commercial
• Employment
• Litigation & recoveries
• Lender services
• Marine
• Healthcare
• Dispute resolution & commercial litigation
• Residential property
• Tax
• Trusts & wills
• International probate
• Family
• Personal injury
• Clinical negligence

• Corporate & Commercial
• General Commercial
• General Practice
• Niche

• Bournemouth
• London
• Southampton