The best time of my year is making those four phone calls to offer positions at the firm. Everyone reacts in different ways to the calls – the sheer excitement, happiness, relief, tears of joy or pure silence will never get old. You can hear and feel the work that the candidates have put in for years and when they secure that golden ticket, the appreciation and gratitude from candidates is a pleasure to experience. Plus, the trainee never forgets that call, so it’s a memorable moment for them too and I’m grateful to be a part of it – it’s really special. 

At Fried Frank, we want someone who’s resilient, wants to be visible, isn’t afraid of hard work, and enjoys being at the centre of client work and other business that’s happening. There are four trainees in our London office, so everyone knows who the trainees are, which is a great benefit. This visibility allows you to have access to the partners, senior associates and client work that’s on offer at Fried Frank. We’re always open and honest about what we offer at the firm. So, if you like to be in the kitchen cooking, Fried Frank could be the firm for you.

We've embraced the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). Our 2026 and 2027 trainees are going through SQE1 and SQE2. Our 2026 trainees have just completed the SQE1 and all passed, which is amazing.

We support them through the process, with access to BARBRI and additional question packages, as well as continued check-ins throughout the year. For example, I met one of our future 2026 trainees at a social and asked them how the SQE was going. They told me that it was going well, but that they were finding it hard to secure library space for all of them to meet. I took this to our chief operating officer (COO) to see whether we could offer them one of the meeting rooms every Friday to provide them with a space to study together. The COO agreed and said, “let’s give them lunch as well”. It was great to be able to go back to the future trainees and tell them they could have this space when they needed it. They all appreciated it and have used the space throughout the year as they prepare for the SQE1. It's a simple offering and a nice, informal way for them to have contact with the office before their training contracts start.

The small nature of the firm means we can be agile in that way. We can listen to our trainees’ needs and support them as best as we can.

This is hugely important to the firm. We want all our trainees to be individual. That's what makes a team. When everyone can be themselves and bring individuality that's where advantages come into play. It’s one of the elements that makes our trainee cohorts special – they’re all different in their own ways and we support that. As a firm, we want people to be themselves. We need people from different backgrounds, with different skillsets and schools of thought to make a powerful team that can provide the level of service to our clients that we strive for. This is encouraged not just on the fee earning side of the firm, but also on the business services side.

We also have lots of employee resource groups in the London office. They introduce initiatives and run events throughout the year and we encourage our trainees to get involved with these.

We support our trainees’ work/life balance with regular communication. As a solicitor, you will have to work long hours and we don't shy away from that. However, I have regular check-ins with our trainees and they’re assigned supervisors too. I always tell our candidates that our trainees have many lifeboats around them. If we sense that there’s something going on with a trainee, we’ll approach them for a chat – everything starts with a conversation and then we can see how we can support them from there. Even if someone is just having an off day, it’s nice to know that people are checking in on you. That’s the key for us. 

Candidates should always use examples of non-legal experience, it's hugely valuable. Your future is about advising clients on various issues, whether it's in e-commerce, business, funds or property, for example. Non-legal experience can give you a 360-view on things. Candidates should showcase what they contributed during the experience, what they learnt from it, why they found it interesting and how it was a valuable lesson. It’s refreshing to hear about candidates’ non-legal experience. It could even make them stand out.  

Commercial awareness shows that candidates understand what clients might be going through, not just on a superficial level, but also on a deeper level. Having an awareness of what’s going on, enables you to give a better answer or provide better advice to your clients.

Candidates can show this understanding through any experience, legal or non-legal. If they’ve not experienced it, they can explain how they might approach the issue. This showcases how different people think and interpret scenarios. Show your thinking process and explain how you’d tackle a situation – that’s what we want to see.

A couple of years ago a client secondment opportunity came about in our antitrust department. A trainee was selected for this and spent three months with the client. It's not an opportunity that’s formally in place every year, but because we're so agile, we can adapt and make it work. We’re always open to this. 

I think candidates let themselves down when they're not authentic to themselves. I’d always encourage applicants to take their time. The application windows are often long and are published in advance, so you don't always need to apply straight away. Write a couple of drafts, leave it for a few days and come back to it later. Think about how you can showcase what makes you stand out. When we’re reviewing hundreds of applications, you can definitely see when candidates have rushed an application overnight to hit a deadline versus those that have clearly taken the time to put something together. Candidates should be using different answers and approaches for each firm because every firm is different.

One of our partners who’s involved in the training recruitment process likes to ask herself whether she can imagine working late with this person, pushing to get something across the line to meet a deadline. We just want to see the best version of you. You want to make us think, “we need this person as part of our team”.

I love to watch cooking shows to unwind from work – I find it very therapeutic.