We are a successful law firm with a distinguished history and an excellent reputation built up over many years. We are market leader in a number of specialist disciplines.
We provide legal services to private, institutional and commercial clients, and we have outstanding expertise in a number of niche sectors. We pride ourselves on careful attention to personal service and quality, a reputation for discretion and a strong emphasis on the human touch based on the goodwill of numerous close client relationships.
We have up to 10 training contract places available for the September 2014 intake.
We have been working with Kaplan Law School to develop a tailored LPC, which provides the best possible start to a training contract with us. Using Kaplan’s highly-rated LPC as a base, we have added a number of Farrer-specific elements throughout the year, all of which provide prospective trainees with a wide understanding of the firm before their first day as a trainee. For these reasons, we ask our trainees to attend Kaplan Law School. We recognise this may not always be possible, and do consider exceptions to the rule. We will be able to answer any questions you might have during the interview process.
Successful applicants are free to study for their GDL in whatever location they choose.
We prefer any GDL students studying in London to attend Kaplan Law School, as they can then receive the benefit of Kaplan’s quality of teaching on both the GDL and LPC, as well as being part of the additional events we run for future trainees through that law school.
Although the SRA are looking at “Work Based Learning” as an alternative route to qualification, potentially using a portfolio approach to training, this is still in the review stage with the SRA.
In some cases we may be able to do this, however, it will depend on our business needs.
In practice this is not something which we encourage as we plan our resources very carefully in advance. On very rare occasions, depending on particular individual circumstances, this may happen at the discretion of the Management Board.
It is unlikely you will go on secondment during your training contract, but not impossible. A number of secondments are available after qualification. Recent secondments have included Science and Natural History Museums, University of Oxford, Imperial College, London Business School, The British Library, The Lawn Tennis Association, WWF, RFU and the British Olympic Association.
The firm offers training at different levels, geared towards the needs of every solicitor relative to their level of qualification, as well as their needs as an individual.
As a trainee, you will be given access to the firm-wide training programme, which covers legal topics and developments of common interest to most areas of practice, as well as specific training from each team in which you have a seat, plus trainee-specific seminars on a range of topics from the firm’s practice areas.
Upon qualification, there are a number of workshops and sessions to help with the transition, dealing with topics such as presentation skills and client management. As well as the firm-wide training and team-specific sessions, qualified solicitors are also able to take advantage of skills training tied to the Career Development Framework and their own individual requirements. This targeted support and training continues throughout a trainee’s career at the firm. Please see Learning & Development for more information.
We want you to experience the range of work we do here at Farrers, so we divide up your time between six different seats of four months each. The last seat is usually spent in the area in which you wish to qualify, being a repeat of one of the five previous seats.
We try as much as possible to reflect your requirements, whilst also meeting the needs of the different teams. Our wild-card seat allows you to take a priority seat of your choice. We will always give more priority to second years who are reaching that important stage in their career of deciding where they want to qualify, so first years may sometimes not get the seat of their original choice. However, with 11 teams to choose from you will get a broad experience during the two-year training contract.
We have created a Career Development Framework which sets out what is expected at different levels of experience, from trainee to Equity Partner.
Go to Learning & Development for more details.