Most trainee-hiring law firms run work experience schemes and events specifically for first-year students. So, if you’re seriously considering becoming a solicitor, you’ll be doing yourself a big favour by making sure you attend one or two during your first year at university. Use this list of firms offering opportunities to first-year students to get you started!

Most trainee-hiring law firms now run work experience schemes and events specifically for first-year students, so if you’re seriously considering becoming a solicitor, you’ll be doing yourself a big favour by making sure you attend one or two during your first year at university. Use this list of firms offering opportunities to first-year students to get you started!

It’s that time of year where many eager first-year students submit applications for places on open days at law firms. In the next few weeks and months, some lucky students will receive coveted invitations to such events, and for many it will be their first chance to interact with such large and high-profile firms. Of course, many ‘meet the firm’ style events this year will be online instead, but this does not prevent them from being useful!

How should you prepare for the big event, so that you make the most of it?

The Law Society of England and Wales has confirmed that a regional solicitor admission ceremony will take place in Leeds on Monday 11 September 2023. 

Increasingly, there is a movement among law firms to concentrate on first-year students and provide them with the opportunity to learn more about their organisations.

An event aimed at lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students, with the tag line "Now you're out, let us help you get in", is being held on 4 December 2012.

Global law firms Ropes & Gray and Sidley Austin have retained 100% of their trainees.

Several firms have revealed how many of their Spring 2014 qualifiers will be staying on as newly qualified solicitors.

Law firms across the country have released their trainee retention figures for September 2012.

Baker McKenzie has become the latest firm to reinstate newly qualified (NQ) lawyers’ salaries to pre-pandemic levels, after a reduction of 3% last June. Meanwhile, Irwin Mitchell is expecting to open its 15 offices at 50% capacity from 21 June. 

Law firms including Allen & Overy, Pinsent Masons and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner have increased the salaries for their newly qualified (NQ) lawyers in the UK in response to NQ salary surges in the US.

Law firms are now able to choose the regulator that is most appropriate for them following the establishment of ILEX Professional Standards as an alternative to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

White & Case LLP recently published a 100% retention rate for its trainees who are due to qualify in September, bringing the firm’s overall retention rate for 2024 to 87%.

Many law firms, such as Simmons & Simmons, Baker McKenzie, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP  and Clifford Chance, are incorporating reverse mentoring into their diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) and retention strategies.

Following a 2020 pledge by Rishi Sunak, Ron Kalifa OBE’s Kalifa Review of UK Fintech was published earlier this year. The review lays out a vision and execution model for the UK to maintain its leadership in the cutting-edge field of fintech.

How has covid-19 affected the fintech industry?

What role is the UK financial services industry playing in the fight against climate change?

Why might firms in the same industry have diverse financial structures?