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Squire Patton Boggs (UK) LLP

25 vacancies
47 trainees
118 partners
3000 staff

We’re global law firm providing insight at the point where law, business and government meet, giving clients a voice, supporting ambitions and achieving successful outcomes.

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LawCareersNetLIVE Manchester 2023: trainee panel

At our LawCareersNetLIVE Manchester event on 24 November 2023, the panel of trainee solicitors provided insights into their experiences of the law firm application process, what being a trainee is really like and their advice for prospective candidates.

 
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Remember to cite LawCareers.Net on your application form if you apply to Squire Patton Boggs (UK) LLP.

More info

Applications for our placement schemes should be completed online via our website. All applications will be reviewed after the application closing date.

Our application process consists of four stages; an online application, digital assessment, assessment centre and a two-week summer vacation scheme. We will make all our offers for our 2025 trainee solicitor programmes from the 2023 summer vacation schemes.

Our trainee solicitor programme is offered in Birmingham, Leeds, London and Manchester. Our programme offers six four-month seats ensuring you have variety and breadth of experience. One of these seats may include a secondment to one of our international offices or clients. At the end of each seat your progress and performance will be reviewed in an appraisal. We believe in giving trainees responsibility for files at an early stage of the development of their careers, subject to appropriate supervision, and for them to develop practical experience to go hand-in-hand with the theoretical training. Career progression can be rapid for bright and motivated trainees.

View our online graduate brochure to learn more about our offering.


Applications to

Emerging talent team

Method of application

Online Application Form

Method of assessment

  • Assessment centre
  • Panel interview
  • Presentation
  • Video interview
  • Written exercise

One of the world’s strongest integrated law firms, providing insight at the point where law, business and government meet. We give our clients a voice, support their ambitions and are committed to working alongside them to achieve successful outcomes.

A multidisciplinary team of more than 1,500 lawyers in 40 offices across four continents provides unrivalled access to expertise, guidance and invaluable connections on the ground. It is a seamlessly connected service that operates on any scale – locally or globally – and encompasses virtually every matter, jurisdiction and market.

Our solutions are shaped by a clear commercially focused understanding of our client's business goals, while our robust and open culture enables us to find the right answers quickly and effectively from a committed team of lawyers who understand the geographic, sector, or issue-specific challenges. And recognising the impact of politics and regulation on businesses across the world today, we have a unique mix of experienced, well connected, lobbying and political capabilities in the US, supporting not only our US clients but also those across Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific.

In the UK, we operate from offices in Birmingham, Leeds, London and Manchester, working with a diverse mix of global clients. Many of these are among the biggest names and brands in the world: FTSE and Fortune 100 companies, emerging and fast-growth businesses, financial institutions, and regional and national governments.

Some of our trainees have the opportunity to take part in a three-month pre-training contract secondment, an element that really sets us apart from other law firms. This opportunity helps develop our trainees’ understanding of how businesses work and what is expected of legal advisors. It also demonstrates the confidence we have in our trainees from the start.

After the initial pre-training contract secondment, trainees spend time in six four-month seats; this opportunity gives our trainees the chance to create their own individual training programme – an essential foundation for a career with us.

Our vacation scheme give you the opportunity to gain hands-on experience, where you will undertake real work, participate in group exercises, attend presentations and be involved. It is a great way to get a real flavour for who we are and what we do. There are also plenty of social events as opportunities for you to network with colleagues in the business, which is supported by client and supervisor contact throughout the week you are with us. At the conclusion of your placement you have the opportunity to meet with a partner to discuss your experience and knowledge of Squire Patton Boggs.

We offer our trainee solicitor programme in Birmingham, Leeds, London or Manchester. Our training programme offers six four-month seats ensuring each trainee has variety and breadth of experience. One of these seats may include a secondment to one of our international offices or clients. At the end of each seat your progress and performance will be reviewed in an appraisal. We believe in giving trainees responsibility for files at an early stage of the development of their careers, subject to appropriate supervision, and for them to develop practical experience to go hand-in-hand with the theoretical training. Career progression can be rapid for bright and motivated trainees.

As we prepare for our transition to the SQE, our commitment continues to be on providing the highest quality learning experience and we will continue to provide the required training and support, not only for you to qualify as a solicitor of England and Wales, but also to enable you to thrive in your career at our firm.

Our unique approach to the SQE will provide you with a tailored programme of learning, not only to pass the SQE but to prepare you for your career at our firm. We will develop the key skills you need to succeed from day one as a trainee with us.

We will continue to sponsor non-law graduates through the PGDL and we see the value and benefit of non-law graduates receiving this introduction to law prior to the SQE programme and we pay your pay law school fees and an annual maintenance grant of £6,000 in London, £4,500 in our regional offices.

We will also sponsor you through all of your SQE studies, including financial support to help you fully focus on our SQE programme.

An award is also given to a trainee every year to recognise the strongest performance during the academic stage of training.

Where we are able to in your timeline to qualification we also offer secondments with our clients, prior to commencing your six-seat rotation with us.

Led by our global Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion, our approach is centred on six pillars (Accessibility, Age, Gender, LGBT+, Multicultural & Social Mobility) each chaired by a senior partner acting as champions who drive initiatives that are measured and reviewed to ensure that we are achieving our aims. They are supported by resource groups made up of individuals who identify with, or who are allies of, the particular pillar. All are encouraged to take part demonstrated with a 25 hours billable hours allowance ring-fenced for such activities. Our resource groups are a critical friend to the firm, and each has objectives focused on educating, building awareness and promoting allyship. 

Under the SQE route, we will sponsor you through all of your SQE studies, including financial support to help you fully focus on our SQE programme.

We also pay for your PGDL if you do not have a law degree, and provide a maintenance grant for your studies. 

If you are yet to study the LPC and have a confirmed place to do so (therefore not studying the SQE) we will also pay for your studies and provide a maintenance grant. 

  • Competition - antitrust
  • Construction
  • Corporate
  • Data & privacy & cybersecurity
  • Environment
  • Safety & health
  • Financial services
  • Intellectual property & technology
  • International dispute resolution
  • Labour & employment
  • Litigation (commercial)
  • Litigation (property)
  • Litigation (sports)
  • Litigation (shipping)
  • Pensions
  • Planning
  • Real estate
  • Restructuring & insolvency
  • Tax
  • Strategy & benefits
  • Corporate & Commercial
  • General Commercial

Practice Areas

Extra info

1 Spinningfields 1 Hardman Square, Manchester, M3 3EB
Phone: 0161 830 5000
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.squirepattonboggs.com
Work placement: Yes
Number of work placements: 45
Minimum qualification: 2.1 degree, 120 UCAS points
Start salary: £30,000 Birmingham, Leeds and Manchester, £47,000 London
Fees paid for:
  • CPE/GDL
  • LPC
  • SQE
Turnover: £131,000,000 (2012)
Training programme applications: 1,400 (2021)
Retention rate: 91% (2022)
Partner diversity:
  • 72.0% male (2016)
  • 28.0% female
Lawyer diversity:
  • 43.0% male (2016)
  • 57.0% female
Has client secondments: Yes
Client secondments:
  • Banks
  • Consultancies
  • Leisure and tourism
  • Media and TV organisations
  • Pharmaceutical companies
  • Retail outlets
  • Sporting bodies
Has overseas secondments: Yes
Overseas secondments:
  • Brussels
  • Milan
  • Paris
  • Birmingham
  • Leeds
  • London
  • Manchester
  • Birmingham Legal Advice Centre
  • BPP Legal Advice Clinic
  • LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group)
  • Paddington Legal Advice Centre
  • Aspiring Solicitors
  • Black Solicitors Network
  • BPP Legal Access Scheme
  • Bright Network
  • Business Disability Forum
  • Diversity Access Scheme - Law Society
  • InterLaw Diversity Forum
  • Mindful Business Charter
  • NOTICED
  • Pathways to Law
  • Rare Recruitment
  • Social Mobility Business Partnership
  • Social Mobility Foundation
  • Stonewall
  • Sutton Trust
  • Working Families