Placement Schemes & Internships
With Placement schemes in the UK and Internships in Ireland, there's lots of opportunities for you to discover what it’s like to work at Addleshaw Goddard.
Experience our culture for yourself
With a Placement Scheme or Internship you will get to know the everyday life of an Addleshaw Goddard trainee. You will join a department, be supervised by an experienced solicitor and have a trainee buddy help you throughout your placement.
Your time with us is a chance to get to know our people and our culture while working in our business and getting involved in real life trainee work for clients.
Placement Schemes are offered in England & Scotland and Summer Internships are offered in Ireland.
We offer week-long Easter work placements in London, and two-week summer work placements in Leeds, London and Manchester.
At the end of the Placement Schemes we offer Training Contracts to successful students.
Please note we accept one application per intake year. You can either apply for our Placement Scheme or Direct Training Contract. You can also only apply for one location so please ensure you have decided where you would like to be based before applying.
Key Information
When to apply:
Applications will open for our 2024 Placement Schemes on 1 October 2023 and will close on 4 January 2024.
Dates of schemes: Dates will be confirmed in due course.
We offer week-long Easter work placements in Edinburgh, and two-week summer work placements in Edinburgh or Glasgow and Aberdeen.
At the end of the Placement Schemes we offer Training Contracts to successful students.
Please note we accept one application per intake year. You can either apply for our Placement Scheme or Direct Training Contract. You can also only apply for one location so please ensure you have decided where you would like to be based before applying.
Key Information
When to apply:
Applications will open for our 2024 Placement Schemes on 1 October 2023 and will close on 4 January 2024.
Dates of schemes: Dates will be confirmed in due course.
We offer 4 week-long Summer internships in Dublin.
At the end of the Internship we offer Training Contracts to successful students to commence in 2024.
Please note we accept one application per intake year. You can either apply for our Internship or Direct Training Contract.
Key Information
When to apply:
Applications are now closed.
Dates of schemes: Summer (dates to be confirmed).
APPLICATION PROCESS
Application Form
Candidates who wish to apply to us must complete the relevant online application form.
Voice Interview
On successful screening of your application form, you will be invited to complete a voice interview which can be recorded at a time and location convenient to you.
Assessment Centre
Successful applicants will be invited to our offices for further assessment and to meet us in person. The assessments comprise of;
UK - partner interview, proof reading exercise, group assessment and briefing exercise
Ireland - partner interview, proof reading exercise
KEY SKILLS
Key skills we are looking for during the application process:
- Attention to detail – it is important to avoid making mistakes, for example spelling, punctuation, grammar and other typographical errors. Spotting errors and ambiguities and correcting them is one way that you can show us that you have this skill in our application process.
- Commercial awareness – this is staying up to date on developments in the business and commercial world and considering how this might affect our clients. It's something that you develop over a period of time.
- Career motivation – show us that you are committed to starting your legal career in commercial law and at Addleshaw Goddard. Remember that you may need to articulate that in the voice interview or assessment centre, not just in our application form.
- Teamwork – we have a collaborative culture so it's important that you can work well with others. Show us that you can listen, communicate and share ideas. This is something that will be assessed in the group assessment in the assessment centre although you may be asked about teamwork in other parts of the application process.
- Analytical skills – as part of the assessment centre, you'll be asked to participate in a partner briefing exercise. This involves reading a pack of documents and discussing your ideas and findings with the partners. You'll be asked to give your opinion on what course of action you'd advise the fictional client to take and your reasons why. Show us that you are able to analyse the information and take several different factors into consideration.
- Decision making – show us that you can draw reasonable, logical conclusions in your decision-making process.
- Knowledge of Addleshaw Goddard - do your research before starting your application. Finding out about the type of work that we do, who our clients are and what our values are is a good place to start.
In order to apply you will need to submit an online application during the application window.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for people who have clearly researched the firm and show strong attention to detail. Our application form asks a range of questions such as information relating to your education, qualifications and work experience. There are also a series of application questions that relate to, for example, career motivation and commercial awareness.
Top tips
- Do your research before starting your application. A good place to start is to find out what work we do, what our sectors are, who our clients are, where we are based and what differentiates us from other firms.
- Make sure your application is free from errors. We often see applications that are littered with typos, have issues with spelling, punctuation and grammar.
- There's space to provide any additional information in support of your application. If you have any mitigating circumstances, we strongly encourage you to include this information.
- If you have a disability or long-term health condition, we'll provide any adjustments and/or support that you need during the recruitment process. Please let us know in your application if you think you would benefit from any adjustments.
If you are successfully invited through to the second stage of our process, you will be invited to our voice interview.
The voice interview is different to a telephone interview, it's something that you would complete online in your own time. You'll be able to see yourself on the recording, but the early careers team will not be able to see this.
Before you start your interview, there is the opportunity to practice recording so that you can get used to the system and to check that your sound is working.
When you are ready to start your interview, the question will be played on video, when the video ends, the question will remain on screen in text form and you will have 30 seconds to think about the content and structure of your answer. You will then have two minutes to record your answer and you have one attempt. There are five questions in total.
The video interview should take around 15 minutes to complete, including practice time.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for people who have clearly researched the firm and who have an understanding of the types of work that a trainee will be required to do and an appreciation of the skills that they will need to have in order to succeed. There will also be an opportunity to demonstrate your commercial awareness.
Top tips
- Before you start the voice interview, we recommend that you find yourself a suitable place to complete the assessment, ideally a quiet spot with good internet connection, where you are unlikely to be disturbed. We know that some people may not have a suitable environment to do this at home although you could find a quiet spot in your local library.
- Use the practice time to familiarise yourself with the system and to make sure that your sound is working correctly.
- Make the most of your thinking time and the time to answer the questions.
- If you experience any technical difficulties with the voice interview, please take a screenshot of the error message and send it to earlycareers@addleshawgoddard.com as we are unable to reset interviews without this.
- If you require any adjustments to the voice interview process, please do let us know as soon as possible.
If you are successfully invited through to an assessment centre for our placement scheme or training contract, you will be asked to complete a partner interview, proof reading exercise, group assessment and briefing exercise.
PARTNER INTERVIEW
The partner interview is a 30 minute assessment with two assessors. It typically involves:
- 5 minute introduction from your assessors
- 20 minutes of questions
- 5 minutes for you to ask questions
The questions are a mix of competency based, skills based, commercial awareness and career focus related questions.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for people who have clearly researched the firm and who have an understanding of the types of work that a trainee will be required to do and an appreciation of the skills that they will need to have in order to succeed.
Top tips
- Know where you are going and arrive on time. Look presentable but please note this doesn't mean that you need to wear a suit and tie.
- Revisit your research that you did on the firm when you started your application.
- The STAR technique (situation, task, action, result) can be really useful for competency based questions. Familiarise yourself with this in advance and practice how you would use this to answer a question in an interview.
PROOF READING EXERCISE
The proof reading exercise is a timed 15 minute task.
What are we looking for?
You will be assessed on your ability to pick out any spelling, grammatical and factual errors that you find within the document within the 15 minute period. This requires you to pay close attention to detail whilst also working in a timely manner.
We include this activity within the assessment centre as it's something that you would frequently have to do in real life as one of our trainee solicitors.
Top tips
- Keep your eye on the time and try to work at a pace that means that you complete the exercise. If you don't reach the end of the document, you could miss out on a number of marks.
- Make sure that you know how many pages you need to review.
- Make sure that you know exactly what the task is asking of you.
- This is not a legal assessment and there are no red herrings.
GROUP ASSESSMENT
The group assessment typically involves:
- 10 minutes reading and preparation time
- 20 minute discussion time
- 10 minute presentation time
What are we looking for?
We are looking at your ability to work with other people. Do you listen to other people's contributions and take their perspective into account? Do you work with them to build and develop ideas? Do you communicate well with them and show respect? Can you work as part of a team to present your findings and ideas? All of these skills are important for trainee solicitors to develop so do your best to demonstrate these skills.
Top tips
- Remember to be respectful of the other members of your group and demonstrate active listening.
- In order to do well in a group assessment it is crucial that you contribute the discussion, but you do not need to dominate the discussion in order to succeed.
BRIEFING EXERCISE
The briefing exercise is a 30 minute assessment with two assessors. It typically involves:
- 30 minutes reading and preparation time
- Up to 10 minutes presenting time
- 20 - 25 minutes questioning/discussion time
For this part of the process we will provide you with a pack of documents to read through about a fictional client, making notes if you wish. You will then go into the assessment with two assessors, who will ask you to present to them on some key information, for example, the circumstances the client finds themselves in and the options available to them. You will then be asked various questions about the scenario.
It is important to note that this is not a test of your legal knowledge, it is a commercial based assessment.
What are we looking for?
We are looking for an analysis of the options available to the client, including the pros and cons of each. We are looking for a structured and logical approach. This is an opportunity to demonstrate your decision making and commercial awareness skills.
Top tips
- Approach this task as though you are a trainee. If this was a real task that was put in front of you, how would you approach it?
- Is there any missing information that might change how you would approach this?
- Avoid simply reciting what you have read. Try to apply some analysis.
- There is no 'right' or 'wrong' answer to this exercise, the assessors are more interested in your thought process and how you support the decision you have made.
- Don't be afraid to talk through your thought process.
Why join Addleshaw Goddard?
We work with nearly half of the FTSE 100 and many have been with us for more than 20 years. You'll get stuck in with big projects and on international brands from day one. Are you up for the challenge? Find out why Addleshaw Goddard is the right next step for you.