Early careers

Do you want to be a solicitor but not sure that university is for you? There is another option.

Our six-year Legal Solicitor Apprenticeship offers a unique opportunity to build your legal knowledge and business development experience while studying for a law degree. You’ll be at the heart of the action from day one - doing real work, delivering real results, and gaining recognition for your achievements.

You’ll work with clients from sectors including Future Energy, Digital, Financial Services, Leisure, Food & Drink, Public Sector, Real Estate, and Retail & Consumer Goods.

Throughout the programme, you’ll be supported by a dedicated supervisor who will help you develop your technical legal knowledge and commercial awareness. Alongside your university studies, you’ll also attend development workshops designed to build the mindset, focus, and resilience needed for a successful legal career.

Programme Structure

Years 1–2: Foundation Stage (Junior Paralegal to Paralegal Level)

Apprentices begin at Junior Paralegal level, undertaking two 12-month rotations across different legal teams.

Academic study mirrors the early years of a traditional law degree, covering foundational law and practice including public law, contract law, tort law and dispute resolution, legal research, and professional practice skills.

Work will vary by team but typically includes legal admin, research tasks, and early exposure to client matters.

Years 3–4: Development Stage (Paralegal to Senior Paralegal Level)

Apprentices continue with two further 12-month rotations, taking on more complex legal work.

Academic study covers further areas of law and practice such as criminal law, land law, company law and trusts law and coaching and professional practice skills.

Ongoing supervision and mentoring help apprentices refine their legal and commercial skills.

Years 5–6: Trainee Solicitor Stage

Apprentices join the Trainee Solicitor cohort and complete four 6-month seat rotations.

During this time, they will prepare for and undertake the Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE).

Work becomes increasingly aligned with that of a newly qualified solicitor, with greater responsibility and client exposure.

Are you eligible to apply?

This programme is open to our own employees, school leavers or career changers.

We are an open and inclusive firm, we want to hear from candidates from all different backgrounds and we encourage everyone to be their whole self, to have a voice and to contribute.

Our legal apprenticeships are open to candidates who have achieved or are set to achieve at least 128 UCAS points.

The legal environment is constantly changing, as are the needs of the businesses we work with. It is essential we do too. That is why we want our solicitors to become business advisors as well as legal experts.

Our training programme will give you the skills and experience you need to find solutions to the challenges your clients face and support them as they grow their business. Whether you’ve already completed the LPC or are starting your SQE journey, we will support you in your journey and give you the tools to succeed.

During your QWE, you will work in four different parts of our firm for six months each. This four-seat rotation process, gives you a detailed introduction to the way we work and helps you to become an informed business advisor.

Your supervisor will work with you during your regular training. Through collaboration and communication, you will boost your technical legal knowledge and sharpen your commercial instincts.

Alongside your in-seat training, our Trainee Development Workshops will show you:

• how to grow your personal brand
• the broad range of skills necessary for business development
• effective ways to form client relationships

These sessions are all about giving you the right mindset for success as well as the focus and resilience you need for a career in law.

• We will sponsor your SQE programme with BPP to include a prep course for SQE 1 and 2 and the assessments, while also paying a £6,500 maintenance grant
• We welcome applications from candidates who have completed, or are currently studying their LPC.

Find your next step. Use this table to discover which of our schemes are available to you.

We want to give you a platform to launch your legal career in the best way possible. Our traineeship programme includes:

• A broad experience in all practice areas, so that you can tailor your qualification to your interests
• Development in your commercial and professional skills – our lawyers are known for being fantastic business advisors as well as technical experts
• Real client work and contact from day one, eventually progressing to running your own cases
• Supervisor support from regularly trained experts who will give you the latest technical legal and commercial trends knowledge

Alongside your in-seat training and TCPD, our Trainee Development Workshops will show you:

• how to grow your personal brand
• the broad range of skills necessary for business development
• effective ways to form client relationships

These sessions are all about giving you the right mindset for success as well as the focus and resilience you need for a career in law.

We will sponsor your Diploma at a university of your choice and currently offer a maintenance grant of £6,500 in Scotland. We will also fund your TCPD during your traineeship.

Find your next step. Use this table to discover which of our schemes are available to you.

If you are a non-law student or graduate, you will need to complete an accelerated LLB. Please ask your university about your options.

Let’s launch your legal career in the best way possible. Our traineeship programme includes:

• A broad experience in all practice areas, so you can tailor your qualification to your interests
• Development in your commercial and professional skills – our lawyers are known for being dynamic business advisors as well as technical experts
• Real client work and contact from day one, eventually progressing to running your own cases
• Supervisor support from regularly trained experts who will give you the latest technical legal and commercial trends knowledge

Alongside your in-seat training and TCPD, our Trainee Development Workshops will show you:

• how to grow your personal brand
• the broad range of skills necessary for business development
• effective ways to form client relationships

These sessions are all about giving you the right mindset for success as well as the focus and resilience you need for a career in law.

We will fund your IPLS fees as part of your Training Contract.

Find your next step. Use this table to discover which of our schemes are available to you.

If you are a non-law student or graduate, you will need to complete an accelerated LLB. Please ask your university about your options.

We work with a number of partners and clients for example Social Mobility Business Partnership, Young Professionals, My Big Career and Greater Manchester Combined Authority to deliver insight days in our Bristol, Manchester and London offices throughout the calendar year for those in Years 12 and 13.

Insight days are where you can spend a day at TLT which will give you a taste of the kind of work we do, the routes to qualification and the ways we can help you accelerate your career in law.

Get exclusive access to an innovative law firm with our unpaid insight scheme. See first-hand how we combine technical legal knowledge with creative thinking to drive sustainable action and long-lasting value for businesses.

This is a two-day, virtual programme for university students of all years, running in early April. You can apply to attend here.

Choosing where to train is a difficult decision. An open evening is the best place to start when it comes to deciding if TLT is right for you as they are a fantastic opportunity to get to know us a little better and for us to get to know you too!

We host open evenings in all locations where we offer training contracts and apprenticeships, meaning you will get to see inside our offices, network and potentially meet your future colleagues! For our apprenticeship open evenings we encourage you to bring a parent or guardian as we run an apprentice myth busting session during the evening to help them to understand more about this newer route to qualification.

During the evening, you will have the chance to hear from the early careers team, training principal, and trainees or apprentices enabling you to really understand what life is like at TLT and how you can excel in your application followed by some networking where you can meet TLT colleagues and ask any questions you have about the recruitment process or TLT in general.

Open evenings are only run once a year, so we really encourage those interested in TLT to come along and meet us prior to submitting an application for your chosen opportunity. Open evenings are open to those in Years 12 and 13 or career changers interested in funding our more about our apprenticeships or those in any year of their undergraduate study, graduates from any discipline and career changers interested in finding out more about our SQE training contracts.

We are additionally hosting a virtual open evening for those who are unable to attend in-person.

Join our top 50 UK law firm for two weeks during Summer. You will spend time in two different teams (one week in each) through our vacation team and experience the variety of work that we do at TLT.

You’ll work on live cases, attend meetings, review contracts and see our expert lawyers in action. You’ll also be in invited to social events with our trainees and lunches with our lawyers, partners and associates to see our thriving culture first-hand. There is no better way to see whether you want to become a part of TLT.

The paid vacation scheme is part of the assessment process for our SQE training contract and there will be assessments during the scheme, including a solution based group task. It is aimed at penultimate and final year students, graduates, post-graduates and career changers and is available in our England and Scotland offices during Summer, and Northern Ireland in September. In Scotland and Northern Ireland the scheme is open to law students only.

Successful applicants will be required to attend a half-day at an assessment centre, comprising a group exercise and interview.

In partnership with Springpod we have launched a virtual work experience programme which provides an insight into a career in law and early career opportunities at TLT. We are hopeful that our virtual work experience offering will increase accessibility and allow for flexibility.

Early Careers with TLT (springpod.com)

We have several opportunities available, including our paid Vacation Scheme, Insight and taster days and our new virtual work experience programme through Springpod. Eligibility varies so please visit our work experience and taster section for more information.

We accept applications from graduates who may require visa sponsorship to work as a trainee solicitor in the UK.

Eligibility for sponsorship under the Skilled Worker visa is subject to specific criteria set by the UK Home Office, including minimum salary thresholds that vary by occupation. For trainee roles, only some of our locations meet the minimum threshold required for Skilled Worker visa sponsorship if you are classed as a ‘new entrant’ and these thresholds are regularly reviewed by the Government.

If you are considering applying for a role in one of our UK offices, we encourage you to consider your options for obtaining and maintaining your right to work in these roles, and the UK, throughout the duration of the training contract. Trainee solicitor roles can be found under occupation code 2412 should you wish to review the relevant visa eligibility criteria and salary thresholds to determine whether sponsorship of a Skilled Worker Visa may be available for your chosen location:

• Skilled Worker visa guidance Skilled Worker visa: Overview - GOV.UK
• Going rates for eligible occupations Skilled Worker visa: going rates for eligible occupations - GOV.UK

You can find details of our Year 1 trainee salaries by location on our Legal Cheek firm profile TLT - Legal Cheek

If you require any adjustments to the application form or assessment process, please email train@tlt.com and we will provide you with the support you need. All requests are dealt with confidentially and sensitively by a member of the HR team.

An assessment centre is a combination of tasks and activities that test your suitability for the training scheme, it usually includes a strength based interview, a group based assessment and an in-tray exercise.

We would recommend that you attend one of our open evenings which we usually host during the live application period, where we run through tips on how to prepare for our assessment centres. If you attend one of our office based open evenings it’s also a great opportunity to meet new people, network and meet the early careers team.

Yes. For our apprenticeships, we ask for a minimum of 120 UCAS points and accept any qualifications that accrue UCAS points. For our training contracts, we ask for a minimum of 120 UCAS points and a 2.1 degree.

However, we do have a space for mitigating circumstances on our application forms and we partner with Rare Contextual Recruitment System to help us to understand the context in which candidates achieved their grades.

1 October 2024 - Vacation Scheme & Training Contract applications open

16 October 2024 - Legal Solicitor Apprenticeship applications open

Throughout Autumn 2024 - Training contract open evenings

10 January 2025 - Vacation Scheme applications close

January 2025 - Apprenticeship Open Evenings for students plus parents/guardians

23 February 2025 - Legal Solicitor Apprenticeship applications close

14 March 2025 - Virtual insight scheme registration closes

31 May 2025 - Training Contract applications close

Applications for our Belfast office are now closed and will reopen again in May 2025.

No, we are unable to consider applications sent after the deadline.

Yes. Please take a look at our routes to law to find out what you are eligible for.

• Make sure you read the question and answer it exactly as written. Does it ask how or why? Explain your statements fully. Are there two parts to the question? Make sure you cover both.
• Don’t use essay language or unnecessary words. Practising lawyers communicate with clients as simply and clearly as possible.
• Proofread your form before submitting. Have you made any spelling or grammatical errors? Have you written the firm name correctly? Have you used the correct words in context?
• Structure your answer clearly. Does the answer flow and make sense?

We believe that strengths-based interviews are the best form of interviews for early careers. The interview focuses on your motivations and what you enjoy doing, rather than previous work experience. This allows you to be authentic in your answer and use transferable skills and examples. The questions are standardised, meaning that all applicants receive the same interview with assessors who are trained at interviewing people.

We host a number of presentations, open evenings and workshops that will help to prepare you with the necessary skills to excel in group exercises. Go to our events page for more information.

Yes, we have a number of exciting client secondment opportunities in the majority of our locations.