Slaughter and May - True Picture

Slaughter and May training contract review 2024

The Firm

In today’s uncertain world, social media dating tips are as sure a source of wisdom as any. Among the top-tier is the not-so-old adage ‘find yourself someone who can do both’. Enter magic circle heartbreaker, Slaughter and May. “The multi-specialist approach really appealed to me,” one right-swiper commented. “As someone who was interested in various different areas in law, I didn’t like the idea of being tied down to one niche area.” This multi-specialist approach is designed with the idea that lawyers should be equipped to handle a broader range of matters than if they were to specialise from the off, making it more feasible for a client to have a single point of contact at the firm. “But more than that,” another admirer elaborated, “the idea of working to become an expert in several different disciplines under a broad umbrella was exactly the style of learning that I was used to during my degree.”

“Having a UK-headquartered firm means that, as a London trainee, you are at the centre of things.”

The firm’s bread and butter is its work in corporate and finance. Slaughter and May collects top-tier Chambers UK rankings in London for its banking & finance (borrowers), competition, corporate/M&A, financial crime, and tax. There’s also a top-tier ranking in non-contentious insurance nationwide to boot. Unlike some of its magic circle counterparts, Slaughter and May has relatively few overseas offices, with their international spread limited to Brussels, Hong Kong and Beijing. For the current crop of trainees, however, this was part of the draw: “Having a UK-headquartered firm means that, as a London trainee, you are at the centre of things. I didn’t want to be a part of a satellite office of a US firm.” That's not to say the firm's work isn't international either, the firm has a 'relationship network' of overseas firms to enable them to work cross-border.

The Seats

The current cohort had the option to rank the seats that interested them before starting, “then halfway through your first seat, you’ll have a sit-down with HR and discuss what you’d like your training contract to look like. Shortly after that they’ll send through your seats fully allocated for the full two years.” Everyone must do at least three months in a contentious seat, and all trainees will be allocated a six-month seat in both corporate and finance, “because the majority of work that we do for clients is corporate-focused. Corporate is really broad, with three sub-groups based around senior partners, and finance is the same.” There’s also the caveat with the corporate and finance groups that if trainees have spent six months in at least one of them, they’re able to go on secondment during the subsequent seat.

“Post-Covid, it has taken a while for the firm to put out the same number of secondment options that it had pre-pandemic,” one trainee told us, “but they are increasing. Only recently they opened up a Japan secondment, and there are options in New York, Spain and Hong Kong.” Previous options have included Amsterdam, Paris, Frankfurt and Sydney, though it changes year on year. There are client options too, to the likes of Rolls-Royce, ASOS, Diageo and Booking.com.

There are three teams that fall under Slaughter and May’s corporate umbrella, each novelly named after the head of each team. Trainees in a corporate sub-team will spend three months with two different supervisors over the course of the six months. “My day-to-day goes right back to the multi-specialist approach,” one source explained. “I could be doing insurance one day, due diligence the next, and M&A right after.” As another outlined, “there’s a lot of your bog-standard M&A, but there was also a lot of corporate governance and advisory work, things like updating the guidelines in terms of new ESG requirements and disclosures.” Typical trainee tasks included the likes of drafting board minutes and fee proposals, as well as corporate data room tasks as part of the due diligence process. “Come February/March time, there’s also plenty of annual reports and AGM notices when that season comes around.” There’s a host of household names and major businesses among the firm’s corporate client base too, with Vodafone, Legal & General, Aviva and GSK all making an appearance. In one recent matter, the firm advised Vodafone on the possible combination of Vodafone UK and Three UK.

The finance department at Slaughter and May was previously split into two sub-departments covering project finance and “more pure finance, but it has since been merged into one group.” Trainees here will come across the full spectrum of finance work, from capital markets and leveraged finance to projects and securitisation. The firm’s finance clients include names such as JPMorgan Chase, Santander and Virgin Money. In one recent deal, the firm advised online payment services provider Stripe on the regulatory aspects of its UK and EU expansion. “They try to give you plenty of responsibility, but you are often drawing on existing materials, so it was a good first seat in that sense,” one trainee explained, “and there’s a lot of good training as well.” Task-wise, “there hasn’t been much of a difference between finance and corporate. I’ve been drafting board minutes, reviewing ancillary documents (the one’s that aren’t too advanced) and managing the signing process.”

“It’s an exciting time to be a part of the group.”

“We had something like 70 fee earners last year, and we are now coming up to 120,” one insider revealed, “so it’s an exciting time to be a part of the group.” The group in question is the disputes & investigations practice at Slaughter and May, which specialises in major class actions and group litigation, banking disputes and competition damages actions for corporate companies and financial institutions. “Because of the multi-specialist approach, I did everything from competition litigation to arbitration work and regular High Court litigation stuff, so it’s a real mix,” one trainee commented. One recent case saw the firm advise Credit Suisse in the High Court litigation surrounding the ‘tuna bond scandal’ – allegations of bribery and corruption around the $2 billion financing of state tuna fishery and maritime security projects in the Republic of Mozambique. Trainees in the seat can be brought on to draft some of the core documents and attend hearings around some quite complex disputes, but the current crop were quick to emphasise that the challenge is part of the appeal. “Once you get involved in a problem, and you are trying to find a solution, something you thought you’d find boring tends to become much more interesting,” one explained. “People like solving problems, and they like finding answers, and the more technical and difficult it is to understand, the more quickly time ticks by.” Spoken like a true lawyer.

Another of the departments on an upward trajectory iscompetition: “It’s grown tremendously over the last couple of years. The department is frenetic, but you have a good range of work,” a trainee remarked. Once again, the multi-specialist approach brings plenty of variety: “The groups are all very broad. Competition encompasses everything competition-related, so things like merger control, antitrust and cartel agreements will all come under that bracket.” There is plenty of research into EU and UK case law in the department, from drafting parts of merger notices to the Competition Markets Authority in the UK, to work for large American clients on ongoing EU investigations. In fact, trainees in the seat have the option to do three of the six months on secondment to the firm’s office in Brussels. Trainees told us that with such a heavy international element, being able to speak another language is particularly helpful too. “At a trainee level you are 100% a multi-specialist,” one commented. “There’s quite a lot of admin work on the trainee front, managing data files, preparing submissions and proofreading. But then there’s also competition-specific elements like product research and multi-jurisdictional analysis.” At the time of writing, the department is advising Google on a number of ongoing matters, including its obligations under the Digital Markets Act.

Trainee Life

In both corporate and finance, “the teams are really built around partners’ specialities, which makes things feel much more organic.” Of course, the work surrounding more specialist areas means trainees need to spend time familiarising themselves with particular concepts, systems and jargon, “which can mean you miss out on some of the more substantive tasks. But we do have a lot of paralegals who can help ease our workload on the admin side, which frees us up to focus on some of the more interesting stuff.” There’s room too, for trainees to be bold: “It’s up to the trainee herself to put her hand up for more substantive work.”

How helpful supervisors were was a little bit luck-of-the-draw for the current cohort: “Some supervisors are very stretched, so won’t have the time to engage very much,” one lamented, “but if that’s the case you’ll end up doing more work for the associates you’re around.” This was balanced too with the fact that come the end of a seat rotation, all trainees will have a sit-down with their supervisor, which includes more formal feedback and a score. Structured training includes “departmentally-scheduled legal substance sessions” run by partners and associates. “Some are more like a lecture,” whereas “some of them involve role-play and exercises to do with other trainees, which can be quite fun.”

Trainees at Slaughter and May are expected to be in the office in Moorgate four days a week, with one day working from home. “Once you’ve been an associate for six months, that then switches to two days from home.” While there will inevitably be periods when the hours are more demanding, “there is the general expectation that what goes around comes around, so in quieter periods, enjoy your time off and get ready for the intense periods!” One estimated, “I think on quieter days I probably finish at around 6.30/7pm, and then on busier days maybe 10.30/11pm. But there is the flexibility to go home at 7.30pm, have dinner, and then log back on from home.”

The £50,000 first-year trainee salary and end-of-year bonus was well received too: “The salary may be higher elsewhere, but I think there is a culture that comes with that,” ie,a culture “with no excuse to work anything less than all the time.” Slaughter & May operates a ‘no target hours’ policy, which “really does help to create this culture of people working together. It’s very much of a teamwork approach.”

“It’s more nerdy here, but the people are nice.” 

There was more of that to be found in the firm’s D&I efforts. “We’ve got something called a network of networks,” which includes a social mobility network, and LGBTQ+ network, and a Christian network, among others. “In the first two weeks, the group I’m in had a curry night with the new trainees and associates, and that was a really lovely warm welcome.” Firm-wide, Slaughters has brought back its annual party around November time at the Grosvenor, “which was really good fun.” There are also celebrations for Christmas and Eid. “A lot of the social events do focus on pubs,” one reckoned, “and there are a lot of us that would prefer to do something else.” But don’t get the wrong idea: “You hear stories from other vac schemes, and they sound like party firms! It’s more nerdy here, but the people are nice.” 

Shortly before qualification, trainees are enrolled in a business skills training programme, which includes training on things like confidence, effective communication and leadership styles. “Towards the end of the training contract, you have a conversation with HR about what you did and didn’t enjoy, and what kind of law you see yourself doing,” one trainee explained. “Once you’ve sent them through a preference, there isn’t an interview process or anything like that; it’s simply a case of waiting to hear about where they are going to put you.” In 2023, the firm retained 84 of 87 qualifiers.

How to get a Slaughter and May training contract

See firm's website for application deadlines

Initial applications 

Applications for both the training contract and work experience schemes at Slaughter and May begin with a straightforward online form, plus a CV and one-page covering letter. “I just wrote why I wanted to join the firm and why I wanted to be a lawyer,” one of the firm's trainees recalled. “Keep it short and sweet, though it does need to be formal of course.” Oh, and make sure you leave out the ampersand: it's Slaughter AND May.

“We don’t have set criteria demanding you have three As at A-level,” a source in recruitment says (the firm, rather vaguely, asks for 'good' A-levels), “but we do look for a strong 2:1 degree.”

Vacation scheme 

Slaughter and May starts receiving applications for its summer work experience schemes in autumn, and it's worth getting in there early as the firm schedules interviews on a rolling basis. The summer schemes are aimed at penultimate-year law and non-law students. 

The interview takes place virtually with a partner and an associate, and includes a discussion about a topical article. 

Summer work experience students have the option of interviewing for a training contract during the last week of their placement. The firm informs us they aren't given special treatment over direct applicants, however, and are also required to do the written exercise direct applicants do as part of their interview process (see below).

The firm also runs a week-long spring scheme for first-year law students and second year law students on a four-year degree students, three spring open days for law and non-law students in their first year or second year of a four-year degree, and a two-day winter workshop in December for non-law finalists and graduates.

There are usually around 25 students on each of the work experience schemes. All students sit in a single department for the duration of their visit, and take part in various workshops and case studies.

Training contract applications 

The firm typically receives around 2,000 applications each year for up to 95 training contracts. In 2022 around 400 students were invited to an interview day, which included a written exercise, an interview with two partners, a chat with a trainee and a short interview with HR. 

According to the firm's trainees, succeeding at interview involves “showing you can think laterally. They don't want you to repeat verbatim what you learnt at law school; they want new solutions and fresh ideas.” Our grad recruitment sources tell us the firm is particularly interested in those who demonstrate “the ability to show grit under pressure” and have “a range of interests outside the law.”