Ward Hadaway is a Northern-based, client-focussed legal firm that believes in the strength of its people and its business. With three offices in Newcastle, Leeds and Manchester, the firm has a substantial client base of regional, national and international clients from both the private and public sectors.

Ward Hadaway are invested in supporting the development of its teams as well as recruiting and maintaining the best talent across all areas of its business.

We recognise that an exceptional service can only be provided by exceptional people, which is why we strive to recruit, recognise and reward the very best of legal talent.

We truly value our client and workforce diversity and our trainees have the opportunity to interact and work with some of the best lawyers and specialists in the country, who support and inspire them every day.

As a trainee, you'll be offered varied and challenging work from our great client portfolio, within a friendly and open culture to keep you supported and motivated everyday.

We offer a one week vacation scheme, which will take place in spring/summer (depending on your availability).

Our one week vacation scheme is a great way for us to get to know you and for you to get to know us! During the vacation placement you really will experience life as a trainee lawyer at Ward Hadaway. You'll get plenty of hands on time dealing with real client matters and engaging in quality time with a wide range of our people.

You'll be given a structured programme made up of a range of learning tasks,and we deliberately include a variety of extra activities including welcome meetings and social lunches/evening events to ensure you leave having obtained an understanding of our culture, our people, and how we operate.

If you've proved to us that you are part of the next generation of lawyers, we'll make you an offer for one of our training contracts. We aim to support you through every day of your training contract from your induction to your qualification. We'll also keep in touch before you join us, and introduce you to the other trainees before your first day, so you'll feel at home before you arrive.

All of our trainees are given a comprehensive one week induction at the start of their training contract at our Newcastle head office. This ensures you've gotten to grips with the technical side of things, like our systems and processes, but also gives you the chance to meet each other, as well as key individuals within the firm, such as the managing partner, training principal and heads of departments.

During your training contract, you'll get experience of four different practice areas, spending six months time in each 'seat'. This will give you a wide range of experience, as well as help you to decide where you want to qualify.

We encourage you to tell us your preferences so that, where possible, we can tailor your training contract to the areas you are most interested in. We'll also ensure you develop in a range of contentious and non-contentious areas to achieve a well-rounded legal experience. We'll ask you to tell us in which department you might like to start your journey as a trainee and although we can't guarantee you'll always get your first choice, we will do everything we can to accommodate your specific preferences.

During each seat you will be given a supervisor. If you're working in an open plan office, you'll sit near your supervisor and among the wider team. If you're working on a floor with a more traditional office plan, you'll share an office with your supervisor. Both set-ups make it easy for you to ask questions about any work that is delegated to you. You will get a full appraisal at the end of each seat, a mid-seat review, and regular formal and informal feedback.

We will sponsor law students who are successful in gaining a training contract with us to undertake a one-year SQE preparation course and take the SQE1 and 2. We will sponsor non-law students who are successful to undertake a one-year PGDL prior to the SQE preparation course. 

Candidates who have already completed their LPC can still qualify via this route with us, however anyone who has not yet completed the LPC will need to do the SQE.

GDL/SQE funding available.

• Corporate & Commercial
• General Commercial

• Newcastle
• Leeds
• Manchester