If you're a first-year trying to find out what you can do to get your career rolling, the first thing to say is well done – it's very good news that you're thinking about your law career already. In previous years, the exercise centred on a management-related scenario in which “ an award-winning architect and building practice had to create a new landmark building in London by considering the location and design concept.” Future candidates take note: your case study exercise – though also focused on management – will not be the same! With offices across the UK, Ireland and Hong Kong, and with strategic alliances across the globe, our clients range from large multinational corporations and FTSE 100 companies, to household name startups and entrepreneurs. We work with high performance businesses to protect and enhance their most important assets – their ideas and their people - and in doing so, enable them to create endless possibilities for future success. We call this ‘Ideas. People. Possibilities.' We want students to have the opportunity to meet everyone from the senior partner to our future trainees,” says senior manager, early legal careers Catherine Morgan-Guest.

In 2023 one of our Associates, Sophie Jameson, won the ‘Highly Commended and Gold Award’ in the Rising Star category at the UK Social Mobility Awards. Sophie founded our Cold Spot Outreach Programme, which delivers remote and in-person careers events to students in Year 10 and upwards in areas of low social mobility. As for broader diversity efforts, this newbie said “one thing that really featured when we came in is the firm’s efforts in the D&I space. A lot of the trainees play very active roles.” Even if “you’re not part of a specific group, they encourage you to join as allies.” Some pointed out that representation thinned out at the more senior end, but their own personal experiences were positive. “I'm part of the LGBTQ+ community, so coming into a law firm, I was really conscious that I wanted to be at a firm that was happy with me being myself at work.” Today, our ethos of ‘bravery and kindness’ sits at the heart of our culture and all colleagues are encouraged to play a role in activities related to DEI or Responsible Business. A number of DEI groups are active across the firm - Gender, Race and Ethnicity, Social Mobility, Lewis SilkOut, Disability, Wellbeing, and Interfaith – supported by our DEI Board. Nevertheless, it is fascinating to gawp at the figures these firms offer. Here we have charted law firm salaries since 2015.The general consensus among the trainees we spoke to was that there was high expectations when it came to the level of responsibility that trainees will take on: “It’s hard to emphasise just how much responsibility you get and how early it comes in!” This might sound daunting to some, but rest assured that trainees told us they felt well supported. All the trainees we spoke with were drawn by the firm’s “quality” formal training offerings which “all held up – Macs is brilliant with the organisation of training,” something that set newbies in good stead heading into their seats. Is legal education moving fast enough to get students ready for a rapidly evolving legal profession? We ask the experts at ULaw.

Ashurst requests a 2:1 degree (predicted or already achieved) from prospective trainees. The firm also uses a contextual recruitment plug-in, which enables it to analyse every applicant's social mobility characteristics. If you're confident you can demonstrate and satisfy all the firm's competencies, you should certainly look to apply. FYI, those competencies are analytical ability, commercial instinct, communication skills, teamwork/interpersonal skills, flexibility, determination and drive. Many firms will have multiple deadlines, running schemes at different times of year: you shouldn't gain an advantage from doing any one particular scheme with a single firm, but some may have different characteristics to others. Some firms look at applications on a rolling basis, so you should apply as soon as possible after applications open. The next stage is an invitation to attend the office where you will have the opportunity to quiz current trainees, have an office tour and complete an interview with a member of the early careers team and an Associate/Senior Associate. The interview includes competency-based questions, scenario questions and tests your commercial acumen. For Direct training contract applicants the next stage is an interview with two partners focusing on behavioural and scenario-based questions and also includes a commercial case study . For everything we’ve said about the demands of elite firms, there’s a satisfying symmetry in the hardest-working students being rewarded for it when they enter employment. The salary is part of the picture, but we also found these firms making a more compelling case to trainees to keep them on for the long-haul.Helpfully, the Leeds office is “ near the train station and that makes it easy to work cross-office,” should they ever need to hop on the train. But the biggest shout-out from the Leeds lot went to the great canteen with subsidised food and “amazing staff.” London trainees were “looking forward to moving to Bank because it’s more central.” The move is scheduled for 2024. With four seats lasting six months each, trainees rank five preferences, and the early careers team does the seat allocation. Unlike some other firms of this size that are out there, “the selection is not algorithm-based,” sources clarified. “It’s a human process.” Addleshaw Goddard also offers international secondments in Singapore, Qatar, Paris and Oman, as well as client secondments here in the UK.