Rewards & benefits
Grants
We pay your law school tuition fees, the Solicitors Regulation Authority examination and enrolment fees, and offer a maintenance grant (£6,250 for those on the GDL and £7,250 for those on the LPC). We also offer a grant of £250 to help those who wish to buy a PC while they are studying, and consider grants towards voluntary work or language study after graduation.
Legal Practice Course
All our prospective trainees undertake the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at BPP Law School in London. BPP is a top-rated provider with a successful record of running a LPC tailored to the needs of a City practice. From September 2009 we will also require those undertaking the Graduate Diploma in Law to do so at BPP (in London, Leeds or Manchester).
However, we do consider those who have studied both the GDL and LPC elsewhere, as well as solicitors who have qualified in other jurisdictions and barristers (provided your qualification entitles you to take the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Test).
Trainee Salaries
Trainee solicitors currently receive £39,000 per annum for their first year and £44,000 per annum for the second. Salaries are reviewed annually.
Benefits
The firm's flexible benefits scheme allows you to select the benefits you wish to receive which include: life assurance, critical illness insurance, income protection insurance, pension scheme, private medical insurance, dental insurance, travel insurance and off-site gym membership.
The firm also provides trainees with 25 working days' holiday a year, a £2,000 interest-free advance on your salary when you start your training contract and an interest-free annual season ticket loan.
In addition there is a subsidised staff restaurant, free on-site gym, in-house doctor, dentist and physiotherapist, alternative therapies and beauty treatments and a wide range of subsidised sporting, social and cultural activities.
Unpaid leave
Many of our newly qualified associates choose to take advantage of the unpaid leave they are offered to mark the end of their training contract.
"There’s a sort of institutionally informal culture which supports individuality, yet gets everyone pulling together."
Chris Forsyth
Partner