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Trowers & Hamlins LLP

25 vacancies
54 trainees
175 partners
1000 staff

At Trowers & Hamlins, join a community more than a thousand strong – a community that stretches across the UK, Middle East and Far East.

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Are you looking for a training contract at an international law firm? If so, Trowers & Hamlins could be the firm for you. 

We are currently accepting applications for four opportunities:

  • Direct training contracts
  • Summer vacation schemes
  • Solicitor apprenticeships
  • Insight events

We are recruiting trainees and apprentices to join us in our Birmingham, Exeter, London and Manchester offices. If, after carrying out your research into the firm, you're interested in applying to us, our summer vacation scheme and direct training contract deadline is 5 January 2026. The deadline for solicitor apprenticeship applications is 20 February 2026.

The application process

Step 1 – online application form

Each of our opportunities begins with an online application form. You will be asked to provide details about your education, work experience/employment history and will be asked to answer a series of long-answer questions.

Step 2 – online strengths based assessment

Once you have submitted your application, you will be invited to complete an online strengths-based assessment which aims to consider your strengths alongside the role you're applying for.

We will provide access to some practice assessments to give you the best opportunity to succeed in this element. 

After you have completed the assessment, you will receive a feedback report for your own personal development.

Following on from this, we will consider your online assessment in conjunction with your application form. You will hear whether you have been successful after this initial stage once the vacancy deadline has passed, as we do not recruit on a rolling basis.

Please note - applications for an insight event do not require you to complete the online test.

Step 3 – assessment centre

If you are successful after the application and online assessment, the final stage for each scheme is an assessment centre. The assessment centre will be split into two parts, with a written exercise completed remotely.

You will then join us in-person in the office you've applied to to complete a strengths-based interview and a group exercise. 

Please note for those attending a summer vacation scheme, we will assess you for a training contract by seeking feedback from the teams you work in.

It's important to note that we are interested in submissions from individuals across all walks of life. We're an organisation that fully embraces diversity – to us, it's about talent and not your background.


Applications to

Early Talent

Method of application

Online Application Form

Method of assessment

  • Assessment centre
  • Panel interview
  • Psychometric testing
  • Written exercise

At Trowers & Hamlins, you’ll be part of a community more than a thousand strong – a community that stretches across the UK, Middle East and Asia. We’ll help you grow, as you build your career across offices from Bahrain to Birmingham, London to Dubai and Malaysia to Manchester. And we’ll welcome you to a place where the work you do will be as eclectic and diverse as the team of people who’ll support and champion you.

A top-50 UK law firm, we’re well known for being experts in the real estate sector, but our practice areas range from social enterprise to banking, commercial to environment, private wealth to charities. Whatever we’re working on, we have a shared sense of purpose – to help businesses and governments change the way we live and work for good.

With us, your hard work will be valued, your ideas heard, and your ambitions nurtured. We will give you the trust – and the opportunity – to show us exactly what you can do. It’s time to discover quality through connection. 

Our clients operate in diverse industry segments such as real estate, construction, transport and infrastructure, banking and financial services, distribution and logistics, education and health, hotels and leisure, defence, engineering and surveying, charities, government, retail, and energy and natural resources. We also act for many high-net worth individuals. No matter where our clients are, they have access to a connected network of lawyers across many disciplines, jurisdictions and sectors.

We are acknowledged for the breadth of our practice and deliver large, complex deals ranging from major commercial acquisitions to substantial regeneration initiatives, luxury leisure and retail premises and private and social housing. We are consistently ranked as one of the leading firms in the Middle East and were also the first foreign law firm to secure a qualified licence in Malaysia.

As a firm, our vision is to help businesses and governments change the way people live and work. We do this by providing commercial advice geared towards tackling the challenges our clients face. We are fascinated by the future of our towns and cities and, especially, the point where commerce, communities and culture intersect.

What sorts of people succeed here? Well, we are often described as pragmatic, approachable, and down-to-earth. We're told that we are experts who can manage projects, relationships and change, brilliantly. Most gratifyingly, we often hear that we are the sort of people that our clients want to work with time and time again.

We believe that the combination of how we think, as well as what we do and where we do it, make us different from other international law firms. We are growing, but you won't be anonymous. Combine all this with the excellent training that we offer, and we believe that we're an outstanding prospect for any future trainee.

Our UK summer vacation schemes are the perfect way to explore life as a trainee and a team member at our firm.

We offer around 50 places across our Birmingham, Exeter, London and Manchester offices each year. During your time with us, you will sit in a couple of departments and be involved in real, immersive work – drafting, undertaking research, attending meetings and collaborating with a range of people across the firm. You will be teamed with a trainee mentor who will introduce you to each department and be on hand to offer you all the guidance you need. And you will be allocated a supervisor to offer you advice on the work that you will undertake. At the end of the vacation scheme, you will be interviewed for a training contract.

The weekly remuneration that we provide to each candidate attending our programme is currently £485 in London and £430 in Birmingham, Exeter and Manchester.

Our training contract is divided into four six-month seats and you can expect to experience a broad range of departments over the course of the two-year period. You will be allocated a supervisor and will be appraised every three months. This gives you a great opportunity to receive detailed feedback on your performance and allows us to see that you are developing at an appropriate pace.

Our close-knit team and collaborative approach drives our high calibre work, and it’s what gives us our sterling reputation in the industry. This will be reflected in your experience from day one. As soon as you join the team, you will be given real responsibility and the opportunity to learn with hands-on experience in a supportive working environment.

We believe in learning by experience. Throughout your training contract, you will be given responsibility and you will be challenged. You will have the opportunity to develop your drafting and commercial negotiation skills, and will be able to enhance your communication skills – whether as a result of real client contact or simply through liaising with partners and other colleagues. Your legal skills will be developed through research and due diligence, and your presentation skills tested through giving talks and writing articles.

You will benefit from a strong network of support in addition to that provided departmentally. Our early talent team is always on hand, along with the training principal and the trainee solicitors' committee. The latter meets regularly and includes four trainee representatives (one from each intake).

You will receive a competitive salary and benefits package as our trainee, which includes five weeks' paid annual leave every year.

We have partnered with The University of Law to deliver our SQE preparation programme for our future trainees. This course will not only prepare you to sit SQE1 and 2, it will also give you a headstart for your two years' qualifying work experience with us. You will undertake additional modules covering some of our key practice areas and further modules to enhance your knowledge and skills. 

We’re pleased to be recruiting for our next cohort of solicitor apprentices across our four offices in the UK – Birmingham, Exeter, London and Manchester. Not only will you be able to find a more accessible path into law, you’ll be earning while you learn in a top-50 law firm.

We created a different route into our firm because we believe in making the legal profession an even playing field. One where success is not based on someone’s background, but on their unique perspectives, drive and work ethic. If you’re considering a career in law but aren’t sure where to start, or if you’ve just begun to explore the idea of becoming a solicitor, this opportunity is for you.

During the first four years of the programme, you will complete your law degree. In the final years, you will complete the Solicitors Qualifying Examination, all while being exposed to a wide variety of departments. You’ll be involved in real work, collaborating closely with your colleagues at all levels and getting a feel for the welcoming and supportive Trowers & Hamlins culture.

Apprentices at Trowers & Hamlins receive a competitive salary (salaries are reviewed annually) and benefits package, which includes five weeks' annual leave each year, pension scheme, interest-free season ticket loan and private medical insurance. 

We've always been proud of our natural commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion and last year, we launched our new equity, diversity and inclusion strategy, supported by clear targets.

Our ambition is to create a diverse, inclusive environment which more accurately reflects the modern society in which we live and work. You can find out more information at https://www.trowers.com/about-us/equity-diversity-and-inclusion

We will sponsor you to undertake a robust and comprehensive SQE preparation programme prior to joining the firm, to allow you to develop the skills, behaviours and abilities of a well-rounded lawyer. We will also pay for your SQE exams and provide you with a maintenance grant to support you during the programme.

If you are a non-law student, we will also sponsor you to complete a Postgraduate Diploma in Law and, again, provide you with a maintenance grant to support you during the course.

Our current maintenance grants are:

SQE – £13,000 if studying in London and £11,000 if studying outside of London

PGDL – £10,500 if studying in London and £8,500 if studying outside of London

  • Banking
  • Finance
  • Corporate
  • Commercial
  • Commercial disputes
  • Construction disputes
  • Litigation
  • Employment
  • Energy & sustainability
  • General Counsel & risk
  • Innovation & legal technology
  • Pensions
  • International
  • Planning
  • Projects
  • Property disputes
  • Travel, Tourism & insurance
  • Construction
  • Real estate
  • Tax
  • Private wealth
  • General Commercial
  • Corporate & Commercial
  • General Practice

Practice Areas

Extra info

3 Bunhill Row, London, EC1Y 8YZ
Phone: 020 7423 8000
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.trowers.com/careers/early-talent?utm_source=+LawCareersNet&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=grad_recruitment_2025
Work placement: Yes
Number of vacation schemes: 50
Minimum qualification: 128 UCAS points at A level (ABB or above) / achieved or predicted consistently strong 2:1 degree or above
First-year trainee salary: £47,000 (London) / £33,000 (Birmingham, Exeter, Manchester)
Second-year trainee salary: £51,000 (London) / £35,000 (Birmingham, Exeter, Manchester)
NQ salary: £85,00 (London) / £63,000 (Birmingham, Exeter, Manchester)
Fees paid for:
  • PGDL/GDL
  • SQE
Turnover: £155,544,000 (2024)
Training programme applications: 1,300 (2025)
Retention rate: 77% (2025)
Partner diversity:
  • 60.7% male (2025)
  • 39.3% female
Has overseas secondments: Yes
Overseas secondments:
  • Abu Dhabi
  • Bahrain
  • Dubai
  • Muscat
  • Birmingham
  • Exeter
  • London
  • Manchester
  • Abu Dhabi
  • Bahrain
  • Dubai
  • Malaysia
  • Oman
  • Singapore
  • Birmingham
  • Exeter
  • London
  • Manchester
  • A4ID
  • LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group)
  • #10000BlackInterns
  • Aspiring Solicitors
  • Black Lawyers Matter
  • City Century
  • City Solicitors Horizons
  • GROW Mentoring
  • Legal Apprenticeships
  • Pathways to Law
  • PRIME
  • Rare Recruitment
  • Social Mobility Foundation
  • Sutton Trust
  • Uptree