Training Contracts

At Eversheds, we view our training contracts as the start of a long and highly rewarding legal career.

We aim to give you the knowledge, tools and opportunities to make it a truly successful and rewarding career. During each seat of your training contract, you'll have a Supervisor who will give you regular feedback. You will also receive formal feedback through an appraisal system that takes place in the middle and at the end of each seat.

Our training contracts consist of four seats of six months each over two years. At least one seat must be in a contentious area. As part of any training contract, you can also apply to do a secondment at a client office or at another Eversheds office in the UK or internationally.

You won't simply be given a conventional development path: you will work closely with your supervisor to identify and build on your strengths - and we'll talk to you about how you see your future evolving. We recommend trying as many seats as possible, but if there's one you really want to experience, we'll do our best to accommodate you.

Once you qualify, you will be able to apply for any of the vacancies on offer. As you might expect, our aim is to retain every trainee on qualification.

Secondments - Clients and International

Once you are six months into your training contract, you will have the freedom to apply for both client and international secondments. Given the exceptional quality and variety of our client portfolio, there are exciting and rewarding opportunities to develop and extend your experience across multiple industries and sectors. Secondments typically last between three and six months.

Training and PSC - Eversheds Career Pathways

At Eversheds, we know that we can only ever be as good as the people who work for us. That's why we are committed to helping you become one of the best lawyers in the industry - a professional with the legal, business and commercial skills to inspire confidence and give our clients world-class technical and business advice at all times.

So, yes, you will learn the technical skills needed for each practice area you work in during your four six-month seats. But you will also take part in a full programme of personal and commercial skills training - including finance and business, sales, communication, presenting, business writing, client care, professional standards and advocacy. All these topics are covered within our Professional Skills Course (PSC).

PSC and Development Process

The Professional Skills Course covers the compulsory subjects of finance and business skills, client care and professional standards, and advocacy and communication skills. This course will be supported by a range of additional courses designed especially for Eversheds, all focused on equipping you with the skills to be an effective lawyer within our firm.

• Advocacy and Oral Presentation - learn about the communication skills of the advocate and how to prepare, conduct and present a client's case.
  
• Case and Transaction Management - understand the importance of planning and preparation in managing and running a case or transaction.
  
• Client Care and Practice Support - develop the skills needed to manage time, effort and resources to support your clients' needs and work effectively in an efficient practice.
  
• Communication Skills - refine your communication skills so that you can deliver oral and written communication in a way that achieves its purpose and is appropriate to your particular audience.
  
• Dispute Resolution - become familiar with contentious work and gain experience in the skills and practice of resolving disputes - including settling, mediation and adjudication - in a fair, cost-effective and timely way.
  
• Drafting - develop the skills to produce clear and precise documents that achieve their purpose, meet client needs and conform to a standard of care that protects client interests.
  
• Interviewing and Advising - understand the importance of identifying the client's goals and the need to take accurate instructions. You will have the opportunity to observe and conduct interviews with clients, experts, witnesses and others.
  
• Legal Research - how to find solutions by using traditional and computerised research tools and sources to investigate the factual and legal issues, analyse problems and communicate the results of your research.
  
• Negotiation - get to grips with the processes involved in contentious and non-contentious negotiations, and appreciate the importance to the client of reaching agreement or resolving a dispute. You will have the chance to observe experienced negotiators at work and possibly to conduct negotiations under close supervision.
  
• Departmental Training - You will also take part in department-specific training programmes involving more in-depth training such as visits to court, criminal litigation and leasehold covenants. Specific modules include: introduction to employment, employment aspects of mergers and acquisitions, introduction to pensions, pensions aspects of mergers, acquisitions and planning, due diligence, commercial contracts, real estate, company commercial training and IPOs.

Training Contract Induction

We know it's never easy starting somewhere new, which is why with our training contracts; we've developed a comprehensive two-week induction for every trainee who joins us. You will spend your first week in one of our offices, learning about everything from our IT and information systems to our practice group and departmental training resources. Combined with trainee lunches and other social opportunities, this is a great opportunity to get to know the people you'll be working with.

In week two, all our trainees come together in one location to meet each other and develop their network of contacts. During this week, you will be provided with information relating to completing your training contract with Eversheds, the seat rotation process, secondment opportunities and SRA requirements. You will also complete three Professional Skills Course modules - presenting to persuade, effective business writing, and finance and business skills. These modules will be taught and assessed by external tutors. In addition, you will attend a trainee and Trainee Partner dinner where you can meet your local office trainee partner as well as the Training Principal.

How is work issued

Our objective is simple: to expose you to all types of work and a wide variety of clients so that you get broad, well-rounded experience at every stage of your training contract. It's all about stretching and challenging you in your role while giving you the support you need to develop as much as possible. For this reason, you will meet your Supervisor every week to assess the work you are doing - and how well you are doing it! Your progress will also be reviewed at three month and six month intervals, and together with your Supervisor you will explore the different kinds of work you might undertake next.

Seat Review

Being the best in our field is important to us and our trainees are no different. Trainees are responsible for their own learning and development and reflect on the work that they complete throughout one of our training contracts. This is done through daily learning logs and regular reviews with your supervisor to discuss achievements and areas of development.