Wilsons - True Picture

Wilsons training contract review 2026

The Firm

When you think about training contracts, most think of life grinding on stressful deals in a bustling city among the tall, grey glass skyscrapers, working off nothing but excess caffeine and no sleep. But rest assured, lawyer life isn’t always like this, and trainees at Wilsons can attest to it.

This Salisbury-based firm sits just a stone’s throw from Stonehenge and is known for its private client and charities work, as well as a growing commercial department. Training principal Charlotte Watts explains that “we’re based in Salisbury, which is lovely, and although not a major legal centre, the work we do is as good as you’d find in most London private client firms.”

“Wilsons covered quite a lot of unique areas, and I didn’t know where I wanted to qualify into, so thought that would be beneficial.”

Indeed, over at Chambers UK, Wilsons picks up top marksfor its charities: legacy disputes and education work nationwide, as well as for work relating to agriculture and rural affairs in the South West. It doesn’t end there either, as Chambers High Net Worthplaces the firm in the top bands for their private wealth law and private wealth disputes work.

Naturally, trainees told us that they’d been drawn to the firm’s countryside location, as well as its family-friendly reputation. As one source joked, “I’m a country mouse, not a city mouse - I would never be drawn to the giant city firms!” They added that what encouraged them in particular was “how long the staff and partners have been at the firm. That’s a great tell for a great place to work because people don’t leave.”

Another of the firm’s newbies shared that they’d appreciated the range of departments the firm has to offer, as Wilsons “covered quite a lot of unique areas, and I didn’t know where I wanted to qualify into, so thought that would be beneficial.” For another source, it was a simple thing that sealed the deal: “I just applied and then really enjoyed my interview!”

The Seats

As the firm is on the smaller side, it typically only takes a small cohort of trainees each year. Though, this number increased from four to six in its latest intake, which Watts details as “the growth of the firm means we can support a bigger trainee cohort, which is good.” When new trainees join the firm, their first seats are allocated for them based on business need.

For subsequent seats, they’re asked for their top three preferences around six weeks before a rotation happens and find out a month before the switch where they’ll be sitting for the next six months. Trainees told us that second years get priority given the fact they’re nearing qualification, but everyone’s preferences are considered from their second seat onwards.

In the firm’s property seat, insiders shared that they appreciated the variety of work available to them, even just over the course of a day: “I liked how different it was. I could spend my morning doing commercial work and my afternoon doing residential.” Given the small size of the team, trainees told us that they’d been able to work closely with the firm’s property partners, and that responsibilities typically included “a lot of contact with clients, and also with third parties like the land registry and mapping companies who we employ to produce plans.”

Interviewees added that while they were “never heavily involved with many projects,” they were instead given the chance to do “bits and bobs for most things across the variety,” including working on deeds of release, granting leases, sales, and “a bit of everything really!” Though the firm has a reputation for its private client work, the firm also does a lot of work with charities and this department is no different, with the firm’s property clients including Sense, The National Deafblind Association.

“I was involved at every stage of the process, and had regular contact with clients too.”

Wilsons’ property and commercial litigation seat was one where trainees felt that the team had made sure they were involved in matters as early as possible. They were given tasks like attending client calls and taking attendance notes, doing research tasks, and drafting things like engagement letters and letters before action. “I was involved at every stage of the process,” explained a trainee, “and had regular contact with clients too.” Over the last year, examples of the firm’s commercial litigation clients include Wallgate, Carlton Civil Engineering, and Greensleeves Homes Trust.

Sources were pleased to share that they’d been able to get a good amount of drafting experience in the seat, as well as having the chance to work closely with clients. Some mentioned that they’d perhaps expected more involvement with the courts given the contentious nature of the seat, but put their lack of court attendance down to the fact that the matters they were working on were generally wrapped up before that became necessary.

The firm’s probate team takes on a lot of the firm’s charity work. They ensure that the will that someone leaves behind is valid, ensuring that the money they leave to (in this case) charities, ends up where it should. Trainees tend to get stuck in quite quickly in this team, one source shared that “you get a much broader overview of how the real estate management process works.”

But trainees also got involved with a diverse range of tasks: “From one day to the next you don’t know what you’ll be doing. One day it’s getting the police to get squatters out of a house, the next you’re selling a house or cleaning out a hoarder’s home, then you’ll be doing a really complex IHC100 firm!” This seat usually involves a lot of managing your own workload as we heard it can be admin heavy, but even so, the firm make sure to “get you involved in every stage.” Clients include some recognisable names too, like Macmillan Cancer Support, RSPCA and the RNLI.

Over in tax and trusts, trainees felt that they were being supervised slightly more closely than in other departments, though “this is unavoidable because when law firms are giving tax advice, they want it to be really accurate.” They also shared that this close supervision helped them to learn as much as possible from partners because “you can gain so many skills and see so many different ways of doing things, so that’s good.” Sources appreciated that they had the opportunity to be exposed to lots of different kinds of work given the various specialisms of members of the team.

Typical work in the seat involved drafting wills, letters of wishes, LPAs, deeds of trust, and deeds of appointment, as well as other documents where applicable. Thanks to the nature of this work, a trainee shared that “it’s a lot more client exposure, and you do come across some really niche points, which can be quite challenging but also very interesting.”

Trainee Life

Being on the smaller size, trainees get to feel part of the firm pretty swiftly, as Watts notes “we need our trainees to contribute, which means that from day one they’ll be doing really good work, interesting research, having client contact and attending client meetings. We want trainees to feel they’re part of the firm and can talk to anyone about it, and that they’re doing valuable work helping the clients.”

This certainly resonated with our sources as, talking about the culture, one shared that “it’s a very friendly firm, very family-oriented, and very work/life balance-oriented.” In short, “the overwhelming feeling of Wilsons is that it is everyone just wants to help each other. We’re a really tight-knit team,” noted another.

“The firm is very generous, community-spirited, and very friendly.”

As such, we heard there’s plenty of cross-working across different departments, which in turn means there are a fair few social events too. These include the firm’s summer party, Christmas party, regular celebratory drinks and client events throughout the year. The pleasantries extend beyond the firm walls too, as we were told “the firm really is embedded in the community.” As one insider elaborated: “Wilsons sponsors a lot of amazing charities and music events, so we get to know local people, the firm is very generous, community-spirited, and very friendly.”

Speaking of the community, trainees enjoyed working from the firm’s Salisbury office. “We’re located basically in the middle of town, which is great.” This means they’re a stone’s throw away from the shops, the cathedral and the train station. This was particularly handy as it called for some “lovely summer walks at lunchtime.” The firm also has an office in London, though no one works permanently from it and the opportunity for trainees to visit is rare. This usually only happens when there are signings with clients based nearer the city.

Given the ideal location, interviewees tended to report coming into the office very frequently and tended to only work from home when there was something like an online course to do, most lived within a walkable distance to the office in any case, and sources reported that they never were working late into the night.

“Everyone’s very supportive if you’re at full capacity and need a bit of help.”

In fact, we heard that trainees worked the standard 9am to 5pm, and “there’s no obligation to work past 5pm really.” A trainee clarified that they’d “worked over that once, but only out of necessity, so 9am to 5pm is really standard.” Sources were also appreciative about the fact that “everyone’s very supportive if you’re at full capacity and need a bit of help.” Supervisors got a big thumbs up too: “I have weekly catch-ups with my current supervisor to make sure we’re on the same page about everything and quite often they will update me on matters I might have stepped back on.”

On a firm-wide level, the firm supports mental well-being through hosting monthly mental health coffee mornings, and trainees highlighted the firm’s mental health first aiders as a helpful resource to lean on. Sources also shared that the firm were performing well when it came to gender diversity, as “there are a lot of women in high level positions,” though they did acknowledge that “the nature of the area maybe makes racial diversity a little more difficult.”

In terms of training, trainees told us that their PSC training comes from the Law South Group, which involves mandatory commercial skills training through some online and off-site training sessions with trainees from other firms in the group. The firm also hosts regular update sessions where lawyers meet in the office boardroom to share any updates from recently attended events or learning sessions and regular webinars with industry updates. Though a lot of learning tends to be done on the job and sources emphasised that the firm “do encourage you to go and explore things and to mention it if you don’t know something. They want you to dig deeper on things where you can.”

Interviewees told us they were generally well compensated, but some did also feel that some of the work they were doing meant that their salaries were perhaps lower than they should have been: “I’m aware that it’s quite below the industry comparably, maybe not outside London but certainly for the types of client and the level of work we’re doing.”

When qualification comes round, we heard it is a pretty informal process, with HR releasing a list of NQ jobs for trainees to apply to. We heard there was no selection process and Interviews will only take place if two people go for the same role, but heard the latter example is a rare instance. When it came to retention, trainees did share that “a lot of people do stay on. There’s quite a lot of people here that trained here or might have left and come back.” In 2025, the firm retained 50% of qualifiers.

How to get a Wilsons training contract

Vacation scheme deadline (2026): 31 March 2026

Training contract deadline (2028): 30 April 2026

Applications

Applications for Wilsons' training contracts are found on its website and must be completed by 30 April 2026 for its 2028 start. For those interested in the vacation scheme in 2026, the application must be in by 31 March 2026.

The firm runs an assessment day, in which approximately 16 people are invited and complete both individual and team tasks.

The vac scheme

The firm’s vac scheme runs over a single week in June, during which each person will spend one day each in five different teams throughout the week.

Interview with trainee partner Charlotte Watts

Chambers Student: How would you describe the firm? How would you describe its position in the market?

Charlotte Watts: We’re based in Salisbury, which is lovely, and although not a major legal centre, the work we do is as good as you’d find in most London private client firms. It’s very unique, and I think we’re competing with the really big regional private client firms and the London firms as well for the work we do. I think it’s a really good position to be in – we live in a lovely place and don’t have the commute others have, but we can still do the same quality of work. We also have a growing commercial department which focuses on owner-managed businesses, and that comes from our private client work as well. We’ve got our charity legacy work too which is, again, quite rare, and as a firm really punches above its weight.

CS: Are there any highlights from the last year you think it would be helpful for our readers to know about? E.g., changes to the training contract, office moves, etc.

Watts: We’ve certainly grown in the last year and we’re very busy. Our commercial team had a really busy year with lots of deals going on, the firm is definitely growing and, from my own perspective, we’ve had a really good, busy year with lots of interesting work. It’s difficult to talk about most of my work because although I do litigation, hardly any of it goes near a court. We’re acting for a lot of high-net-worth clients and do some really interesting work without being able to say much about it. We’re also looking forward to welcoming our new trainee cohort in September. We used to take up to four trainees and now we’ve got space for up to six. The growth of the firm means we can support a bigger trainee cohort, which is good.

CS: How would you describe the training environment/culture that you have aimed to create at the firm?

Watts: We want to create an environment where the trainees feel comfortable and happy and able to ask anyone questions. We’re a friendly firm, and we want to create an environment where trainees feel they can approach everyone and that they also feel they’re really part of the firm and an important part of the cases we’re dealing with, which they are. The size of firm we are, we need our trainees to contribute, which means that from day one they’ll be doing really good work, interesting research, having client contact and attending client meetings. We want trainees to feel they’re part of the firm and can talk to anyone about it, and that they’re doing valuable work helping the clients. That’s the culture we want to create and for them to feel like individuals as well.

CS: What’s the current set up with remote working for trainees? Is there a set number of days where trainees are expected to come into the office? / How has the pandemic impacted the way the training contract is run?

Watts: I think most of our trainees, if not all, are in the office all the time. We think it’s important at that stage of their legal journey that they’re in the office as much as possible so that they can learn from the people around them. We have a lot of hybrid working here, but the trainees haven’t actually asked for it. If they did, the maximum we’d probably agree to is two days from home (although this does differ from team to team and the business needs). It’s so important when you’re starting legal training to really immerse yourself in it and being at home can feel a bit isolating. Especially when you’re starting at a new place and getting to know people, it’s much easier in the office.

We do have a lot of remote working here, but people are in the office at least three days a week, so there’s always someone in the office a trainee can speak to. We encourage trainees to be in the office all the time and most of them are quite happy with that. When they qualify, they might go to a more hybrid arrangement, but most, at least initially, want to be in the office as much as possible. Most people’s commute is probably less than half an hour and a lot of the trainees can walk to work, so it’s much easier than a London commute, for example. There’s a good social scene in the office, where they can mix with other trainees and paralegals as well as others in the office. From a social point of view, it works better coming into the office, and you can get up to speed much more quickly because you’re here.

CS: What sort of person thrives at the firm? How can a candidate really impress at interview?

Watts: Obviously doing their homework on the firm and showing that they are genuinely interested in the firm is the first thing. I also think attention to detail is so important when you’re a solicitor, so making sure you’ve proofread your application and are giving detailed answers in interviews.

Someone who can use their own initiative. We like trainees to take responsibility from day one, not to just do what they’ve been asked, but if they notice something to mention it to their supervisor and to take it forward if appropriate. We want trainees to really think about the cases they’re working on and to take responsibility as well so it’s not such a big transition when they qualify. It’s important to feel they’ve got some ownership from the start, so trainees that are keen to get stuck in from day one and think a bit around what they’ve been asked to do, that’s the sort of trainee we like to have.

CS: And finally, do you have any advice for those thinking about pursuing a career in law? Either at your firm or more generally?

Watts: Try to get work experience. I know that’s easier said than done but if you can get some experience and see what the job really is about that’s got to help you make your decision. Otherwise, talk to people who are lawyers; friends, friends’ parents, anyone you can find really to find out what the job is like. Read the legal press to see what’s going on in the law too. Also, I know unis put on talks and things, so attend those and immerse yourself as much as possible. Talk to as many people as possible who work in the field and try to brush up on your knowledge of the firms you’re aiming for. If you know anyone who’s a lawyer, try and tap them up for some information, that’s a key thing to find out a bit more about what it’s really like. I remember when I was applying, it’s difficult to know what it’s actually like unless you’ve spoken to someone or seen how it is. You can normally find someone, maybe through a university tutor. Keep persevering as well, the training contract market is so competitive but I think if you get knocked back the first time, just keep trying. When you’re applying, try and get a feel for the firms and whether you think it will be a fit both ways. There are so many different types of firm, so there’s one out there for pretty much everyone, and you’ve just got to find what sort of firm that is to be the right fit for you.