Yes, we do, although we call them ‘placement schemes’ in our UK offices. We also run a four-week summer internship in Dublin. 

In England, we offer a week-long Easter placement in London and two-week summer placements in Leeds, London and Manchester. These are for candidates studying in England who are in their penultimate year of a law degree or final year of a non-law degree, or beyond.

In Scotland, we have a week-long Easter placement in Edinburgh, plus a two-week summer placement in Edinburgh or Glasgow. The placement scheme is open to third or fourth-year LLB students in Scotland, first or second year of Graduate LLB and LLB graduates. 

We also offer a four-week summer internship in Dublin. To apply for this opportunity, candidates need to:

• be in the penultimate year or beyond of your degree in any discipline;
• be ready to join us for a pre-seat prior to starting the Professional Practice Course in the January of your offer year; and
• have passed all FE-1s prior to joining us for your pre-seat.

For all the above opportunities, candidates must be on track to graduate with or have graduated with a 2:1 or above, although we consider applications from those who’ve received a 2:2 with mitigating circumstances.

We only recruit trainees via our placement schemes and don’t have a direct training contract route. We offer training contracts to successful candidates at the end of their placement, so performing well during that time is essential to secure a training contract with us.

On our placement schemes you’re embedded in a department and supervised by an experienced solicitor, with a trainee buddy for day-to-day support. You get involved in real-life trainee work for actual clients. Depending on the team, that might mean drafting sections of documents, conducting legal research, attending client calls, helping to prepare for completions or supporting on due diligence. We work with nearly half the FTSE 100 and many clients across a range of sectors. We want you to experience what the job genuinely feels like so we give you tasks that let you demonstrate your potential, while making sure you have proper support.

Our process has several stages. First, you complete an online registration form and a critical thinking test (we provide practice tests which I’d strongly recommend using). Both are due by midday on the deadline day. As well as critical thinking ability, we’re looking for strong academics (we don’t have any minimum A-level requirements), motivation and attention to detail.

Next is a voice interview: five questions, completed online in your own time, with 30 seconds’ thinking time and two minutes to answer each. It’s about 15 minutes including practice and you get one attempt, so treat it seriously but be yourself.

If successful, you’re invited to an in-person assessment centre at the office you applied to. This includes a timed proofreading exercise, a group assessment which includes a brief presentation, a commercial briefing exercise and a partner interview. Throughout, we’re assessing the key skills such as: attention to detail, commercial awareness, teamwork, analytical ability and knowledge of Addleshaw Goddard.

For me, it’s the assessment centre. That’s where candidates really get the chance to demonstrate their skills and show their potential. The combination of all four assessments (proofreading exercise, group assessment, partner briefing and partner interview) gives us a rounded picture of how someone thinks, communicates and collaborates. I particularly like the group assessment because it shows how candidates interact with others under a bit of pressure.

The briefing exercise is also particularly revealing because it’s an opportunity for the candidate to put themselves in the shoes of a trainee, consider the circumstances of a fictional client, assess the options the client is considering and tell their assessors how they’d advise the client to proceed. Strong candidates tend to be curious, well-prepared and adaptable. They’re the ones who can adapt when a discussion takes an unexpected turn, rather than rigidly sticking to a rehearsed script.

One common assumption is that you need to have legal knowledge to succeed in the application process and that’s completely false. We want candidates from a wide range of backgrounds and degree disciplines and we design our application process accordingly. We’ve always assessed skills and potential rather than legal knowledge.

We no longer ask about work experience in our registration form. However, during the interview and assessment centre, candidates may be asked about their skills and we encourage them to draw on any experiences that demonstrate these. This could include legal or non-legal work experience, volunteering, sports, student societies or other extracurricular activities.

We look for a wide range of skills which can be developed in range of settings. What matters is not where you've gained these skills, but how well you can reflect on your experiences and connect them to the competencies we're assessing. Diverse experiences enrich our teams, so don't underestimate the value of your own.

Yes, we absolutely do. We value the experience and knowledge that paralegals develop working within the firm, and we recognise that they often have a deep understanding of our clients, our culture and how we work. Their internal experience can certainly be a strength – they’re likely to have excellent examples of teamwork, commercial awareness and attention to detail drawn from real work within the firm. I’d encourage any of our paralegals considering this route to speak to the early careers team early on so we can advise on timing and the process.

It’s central to who we are, not a side project. We’re focused on building an inclusive, fair and diverse culture where everyone can be their authentic selves, and over 1,000 colleagues are actively involved in our networks and forums. We have dedicated networks covering disability (Ability Forum), ethnicity (AG Embrace), gender (The Vine), LGBTQ+ (OpenAG), parents, social mobility and multiple faith networks. We’re founding members of the Legal Neurodiversity Network and NOTICED, we hold awards including Times Top 50 Employer for Gender Equality and we ranked fifth in the Social Mobility Employer Index in 2025.

For candidates I’d say: we want you to bring your whole self. If you need adjustments during the recruitment process, please tell us so that we can discuss what adjustments would help you and how we can implement them at each stage of the process.

We take wellbeing seriously and recognise that people do their best work when they’re supported holistically. We’re signatories of the Mindful Business Charter which promotes healthier working practices across the legal profession. For parents and those starting families, we have comprehensive support through fertility treatment, parental leave and returning to work. Beyond formal policies, I think our collaborative culture means people genuinely look out for one another.

We take a balanced and pragmatic view. We recognise that AI tools are part of the modern landscape and we would recommend you use AI to research firms and learn more about the profession. We wouldn’t penalise someone for using AI to help structure their thinking or check their grammar – much as you might use a spell-checker or ask a friend to proofread. However, your application needs to be authentically yours. We’re looking for your voice, motivations and understanding of the firm. If an application reads as AI-generated, it tends to be generic, lacks personal insight and doesn’t demonstrate genuine engagement. My advice would be to use AI as an aid for research and helping you organise your thoughts but make sure your responses are your own, we want to hear your voice. We can usually tell the difference, and authenticity always wins.

Strong candidates understand that we’re a full-service, London headquartered, international firm with genuine depth. They know about our AG2030 growth strategy, our recent 17% headline growth, and milestones like our merger with Florent and creating our 22^nd office in Amsterdam. They understand the sectors and clients we work with and can connect that to why they want to train here. They also tend to know about our culture – that we’re genuinely collaborative. Weaker candidates often rely on surface-level information or confuse us with other firms. Taking the time to explore our website, read our news and understand what differentiates us makes a noticeable difference in how your application and interview answers land.

Commercial awareness is vital – it’s one of our key assessment criteria. But it’s not about memorising the Financial Times. It’s about understanding how businesses operate, the challenges they face and how legal services fit into that picture.

A strong example: a candidate who reads about a deal or regulatory change relevant to one of our practice areas and can articulate what it means for our clients, what risks or opportunities it creates and how a law firm might advise. That shows genuine analytical thinking and an understanding of the commercial context.

A weak or overused approach: simply reciting a recent news headline – ‘I read that interest rates have gone up’ – without any analysis of what that means or why it’s relevant to us or our clients.

We attend a range of events in the UK during the autumn term, from law fairs to LawCareersNetLIVE. Our main objective is to connect with students in an informal, accessible setting and give them a genuine sense of who we are and what it’s like to work here. I really enjoy law fairs because they’re a chance to speak to students who might not yet have us on their radar, or who have questions they’re not sure how to ask. We usually bring a mix of people from the early careers team and current trainees, so you can hear directly from someone who’s recently been through the process. My advice: come and say hello, even if you’re in your first year and just starting to think about careers. There’s no pressure and it’s a great way to start learning about firms.

Yes, we offer client and international secondments to our trainees. A client secondment is a fantastic way to see how legal advice is received and used on the other side, build commercial understanding and develop your network. It gives you a perspective that’s genuinely hard to get any other way. The availability of secondments depends upon business and client needs at the time but it’s something we actively support, and many trainees benefit from during their training contract.

Yes. We offer paralegal and solicitor apprenticeships. Solicitor apprenticeships are an alternative route to qualification which allow people to work and study simultaneously without needing to go through the traditional university-then-training-contract pathway. This sits within our broader commitment to social mobility and widening access to the legal profession. We’re members of PRIME, founding signatories of the Aspiring Solicitors’ Smart Legal Commitment, and we run mentoring and work experience programmes to support people from all backgrounds into legal careers.