Please select this vacancy to apply for a Training Contract/ two years Qualifying Work Experience to start in 2026 or 2027 in our Bristol, London, Watford or Birmingham offices . You can choose your preferred year and location on the application form. 

What does the recruitment process look like?

The deadline for submitting your online application is 5 February 2025.

Once you submit the application, you will be emailed a link to complete a video interview.  You will have one week to complete the video interview. 

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend an assessment centre at either our London or Bristol office in March.

If you are successful at the assessment centre, you will be invited to take part in a vacation scheme in June.

Offers for Training Contracts will then be made shortly after the conclusion of the vacation scheme. 

What's involved in the Training Contract itself?

Your training contract will last two years and during that time you will experience four different areas of law, with each seat lasting six months. We offer seats across a range of different practice areas, for example: Real Estate, Private Client, Charities, Corporate, Regulatory Compliance and Employment. In each seat you'll be supervised by a qualified lawyer and support will be on hand from the rest of your team and our Early Talent team.  

You'll also have the support of the wider trainee group, including a buddy from an earlier cohort. Quarterly trainee knowledge sharing meetings provide the opportunity of a more formal setting for you all to get together and share information, updates, and ideas. There are also plenty of occasions to socialise with the other trainees and the wider firm.

 Why choose us?

VWV is known for its friendly and welcoming culture so team work and collaboration is key.  With around 500 employees we're big enough to win high-profile work but small enough to know our people as individuals and help our star performers shine.   In the words of one of our current trainees: "Everyone is incredibly friendly and want to support you in doing your best. You feel like a valued team member and that your work is making a difference"

If you haven't yet started the SQE or LPC, we'll sponsor you to study a LLM in Legal Practice (SQE1&2) at the University of Law and provide a £4,000 grant while you study. If you've already completed the LPC, then we still welcome candidates who are able to qualify under that route and there is a genuine chance you may be able to start your training contract early. 

We'll also contribute to your pension pot, offer holiday allowance that increases on a year's employment, give you private healthcare and life assurance, offer a range of other extras including a cycle-to-work scheme, season ticket loan and discounts with local businesses. With excellent internal training programmes on offer to everyone it's also easy to develop and improve your skills even outside of your training contract.

We're striving to create an inclusive environment where everyone, regardless of background, can reach their full potential.  If you require any special adjustments to be made in order to be considered for this vacancy please get in touch as we're happy to make the necessary adjustments and allowances.

Who are we hoping will apply?

Training to be a solicitor is academically challenging so your academic results will need to reflect that challenge.  Non-law graduates should have also completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Law (PGDL) before starting the LLM. 

Whilst not essential, any paralegal experience you have will provide an opportunity to draw on your previous experiences from within a legal environment and demonstrate your enhanced commercial awareness.  If you don't have legal experience, don't worry.  There are plenty of valuable transferable skills that you can gain from any form of paid and unpaid work so don't be afraid to tell us about everything you can do!

We love to see applications where a passion for commercial law and our firm shine through and to hear from potential candidates who embody our core values around team work, commerciality and putting the client at the centre of everything we do.   If that's you and you have a flexible and resilient approach, then you're really ticking all the boxes!

You're interested so what happens now?

Click the apply button to start working on your online application, the closing date is not until 5 February so you can take your time to get it right. Once you've submitted your application you will be invited to complete a video interview - you can do this in your own time as long as it's completed within one week of your invitation.

If you'd like to find out more, then please click on the links below to register to attend one of our information evenings: 

• 27th November at 6 pm at our Bristol office (Bristol focus)
• 5th December at 6 pm at our London office (London and Watford focus)

Applying for a training contract can be a daunting experience, so if you have any questions then please do get in touch by emailing careers@vwv.co.uk or ecolls@vwv.co.uk