We run two vacation schemes a year – one in spring and one in summer. Each scheme takes place in our London office at Liverpool Street, with the spring scheme being one week long and the summer scheme being two weeks long.

We recruit solely from our vacation schemes, so it’s an integral part of our recruitment process. During the scheme, participants can expect to complete a presentation as part of the assessment process, which we’ll consider alongside supervisor feedback when making training contract decisions.

We offer two different training contract programmes at Milbank: one is our traditional training contract programme, where trainees sit in four different seats across the firm; the other is our leveraged finance training contract programme, where trainees spend three seats in leveraged finance and one seat in another department.

Students can choose to apply to either our leveraged finance vacation scheme or our traditional vacation scheme. Candidates completing our traditional vacation schemes will sit in one or two of our practice areas. Candidates completing our leveraged finance vacation scheme will sit in leveraged finance during their time with us. On both routes, candidates will be placed in an office with their supervisor who’ll allocate them work based on their live matters. To further develop their knowledge on Milbank as a firm, we organise talks and social events allowing participants to learn more about our practice areas, opportunities, and what life is like at Milbank.

Throughout the whole assessment process, we look for a wide range of skills and attributes, including attention to detail, analytical and problem-solving skills, interpersonal and communication skills, and commercial acumen.

We ask our future trainees to complete the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) ahead of commencing their training contract with us. We have partnered with The University of Law to ensure that our trainees receive the necessary teaching to support them through both SQE1 and SQE2. We also ask our future trainees to complete the following elective modules as part of their SQE studies:

• Preparation for practice module
• Mergers and acquisitions
• Debt finance
• Advanced dispute resolution
• Business of law 1 and 2

We’ll sponsor all future trainees through law school and provide a maintenance grant of £20,000.

Absolutely! When evaluating application forms, we look for a mixture of legal and non-legal work experience, so it’s important to include this. Non-legal work experience can demonstrate that you’ve explored other options before committing to law and can also show that you’ve developed the soft skills required to become a good lawyer.

When researching Milbank, it’s important to think about why the type of work that we carry out appeals to you, so try to tailor your research around this. If there’s a particular area of work that you’ve had exposure to in the past through work experience, university or other life experiences, I’d try to relate this to Milbank’s areas of work. Mentioning any deals that the firm has worked on and expanding on this at interview is beneficial.

Yes, we run assessment centres for our vacation schemes throughout January and February – this is the final stage of our assessment process. During the day, candidates can expect to complete a written exercise, followed by a group exercise and a final stage interview with our partners.

In another life, I’d have loved to have trained to be a pilot – I love flying and travelling, so it’d be a dream combination for me!