"Our training contract provides an excellent grounding in both substantive law and in the skills required of qualified lawyers. Our work is international in nature and so our trainees are exposed to a wide range of cultures and to work in many different jurisdictions. Our emphasis is, of course, on training in English law but that is used in many different types of international transactions and cases, and so our trainees soon learn to be flexible and to accommodate the styles and requirements of our varied client base. We aim to give our trainees as much direct exposure to clients as possible. As we get to know our trainees we can make judgements on how much independence they are comfortable with and the level of work they can deal with. We generally find that their skills develop rapidly in the early stages of their careers and so, within a relatively short space of time with us, our trainees can operate with some independence and can contribute effectively to our practices and are able to help service the demands of our clients.

During their two-year training contracts, we seek to offer trainees exposure to as many of our practice areas as possible so they gain experience of a broad range of work. Some trainees then gravitate towards litigation work and others to non-contentious work. We treat our trainees as individuals and their preferences and skills differ. We seek to find out what our trainees are best at and what they most enjoy and then try to match that with the work we carry out.

We believe every lawyer that has completed a training contract with us has learnt an enormous amount and is well prepared to advise clients, as a qualified lawyer, on a broad range of issues. It is critical to us that our trainees enjoy their training contracts as well as gaining the confidence and skills necessary to perform at a high level as junior associates. I don’t believe it is possible to become a great lawyer without enjoying the work so we make every effort to make sure our trainees are happy and are given work that is challenging and interesting.

Our trainees are valued members of our firm and our future success in London depends in large part on us continuing to train lawyers that can perform at the very highest level. The markets in which we operate require all of our lawyers, including our trainees, perform at the very highest level. I am delighted almost all of our trainees have been able to achieve that standard and our training programme continues to go from strength to strength."