Baker McKenzie - True Picture

Baker McKenzie training contract review 2026 

The Firm 

Everyone has their favourite sweet treat: cookies, brownies, cinnamon buns. No matter your preferred dessert, it can sometimes feel hard to make that definitive decision between a donut or a slice of cake. Luckily, at this Baker, you don’t have to choose, thanks to the full-service, global nature of this patisserie - sorry, firm.

As Baker McKenzie’s training principal James Robinson tells us, “The word everybody uses when they describe Baker McKenzie is ‘global,’ and it’s true! We see that in the day-to-day work we do. We’re very, very international in our approach, with the transactions, disputes and investigations we work on.”  

“I wanted a firm that understood what a true global perspective was, and I didn’t find another firm that matched that level of outlook.” 

Naturally, Baker McKenzie’s global approach was an appealing factor for those training at the firm, who boasted that “every single deal I’ve been on has had some multi-jurisdictional element to it.” Another insider nodded, “I wanted a firm that understood what a true global perspective was, and I didn’t find another firm that matched that level of outlook.” The prestige of the firm was also significant for interviewees who wanted “bigger clients, bigger transactions and bigger deals.”

It’s not just the work that was attractive though, with a trainee sharing that: “the people are really friendly too, and they view you as an actual part of the team, not just a cog in the machine.” This combination was important for another rookie who explained that they were looking to: “strike the balance between getting on the most crucial projects and deals going on in London, while maintaining that work-life balance and avoiding burnout.” 

Don’t just take our word for it. Bakers’ reputation is vouched for by Chambers UK, coming out on top in areas including employment and information technology and outsourcing in London, while commercial contracts, media and entertainment, tax, telecommunications and sanctions reign supreme across the UK. The accolades don’t stop there either, with Chambers Global giving the firm props for its strength in employment, contentious tax, and technology work in the UK.  

The Seats 

Trainees felt that the seat allocation process at the firm worked well, with them ranking each of the firm’s 16 available seats in order of preference before each rotation. What particularly impressed newbies was the opportunity to nominate a priority seat which they are guaranteed to sit in, usually in their second or third seat. “There’s some concentration around the most popular seats, like disputes, IP tech, or M&A,” noted a trainee, “so it’s a bit trickier to get some of those unless you use your preference choice.”

The opportunities for secondment at Bakers are seemingly never-ending; so much so that an interviewee told us that “there are actually more international secondments on offer than trainees in my cohort!” The majority of fourth seaters go on secondment, and Robinson explains that “we encourage it because it’s part of what makes the job fun and we want people to enjoy their work, to enjoy their training contract, to go on to become associates who enjoy doing that work.” It’s also worth pointing out that the firm takes on two cohorts each year. 

“There are actually more international secondments on offer than trainees in my cohort!” 

Banking and finance was a popular seat, with trainees sharing that they could get involved with work from the five sub-practices within it: leveraged finance, trade finance, real estate finance, projects, and restructuring and insolvency. “Generally, a trainee sits in one of those areas,” a source elaborated, “but you’re encouraged to work across as many as you can. That’s been great for me, because I had the scope to go around and meet loads of people. So, I worked across all the sub-practices and got loads of skills.”

The seat also has a reputation for offering a good amount of responsibility, with an interviewee observing that “you’re given as much responsibility as you prove you can handle.” So, as another added, “there’s quite a lot to get involved with,” listing tasks like drafting ancillary documents, registering securities, drafting duty of care documents, managing conditions precedents and liaising with local counsel. It’s no wonder there’s lots to do, as the firm regularly works with some of the biggest global banking clients, including Bank of America, HSBC and Morgan Stanley.  

The firm’s corporate work is spans across five subgroups: corporate finance, corporate energy and infrastructure, M&A and private equity. In the corporate reorganisations seat, trainees shared that they’d been working on carve-outs, cash repatriation and general advisory matters – the last of which juniors have been able to get involved in quite a bit: “We’ve been advising clients on EHS (environmental, health, and safety), corporate governance matters, and delivering training sessions for directors on their duties as board members.”

Don’t confuse this with the restructuring and insolvency work that you might find at other firms (or even within Bakers’ aforementioned banking and finance department); this practice deals with internal restructuring, “so it’s nothing to do with insolvency. It’s about moving around subsidiaries to other parent entities and things like that.” Responsibilities for the team’s newest recruits include a good amount of client contact and drafting, which “started from ancillaries and progressed from there. Once you show the associates that you can be trusted, they’re very comfortable with letting you handle the drafting, but they ease you into it, train you, and teach you,” relayed one trainee who’d sat in the group.

A notable matter the firm has recently worked on is Carlsberg’s £3.3 billion acquisition of Britvic, which was led by the corporate team but also required involvement from other cross-practice teams including banking and finance, commercial, employment, pensions and intellectual property.  

Another popular seat was with the firm’s commercial team, which is home to five subgroups: commercial tech & transactions, data & cyber, regulatory, IP, and trade, sanctions & customs. “You’re able to work across all of them,” we heard, “and encouraged to get substantially involved in three.” The breadth of work available led one source to describe it as “chaotic but really fun,” noting that “you could be working on six different matters in the same day for six different work providers, so in that team, communication is paramount.”

Interviewees relayed that they’d been given a number of responsibilities during their time in the seat and were getting to do plenty of drafting on documents like software licence agreements for the commercial work, and GDPR policies on the data side of things. It’s no surprise given the global nature of the firm that multi-jurisdictional research was part of every subgroup! The data and cyber work available can also involve corporate support and pro bono work, while the trade subgroup offers the chance to get involved in business development through mediums such as the firm’s sanctions blog: “Trainees are encouraged to write about new, topical things – anything that might be of interest to our clients,” a source detailed.  

“Trainees are encouraged to write about new, topical things – anything that might be of interest to our clients.” 

In the firm’s employment team, insiders felt there was “a good mix of advisory, contentious, and transactional work.” Typical responsibilities in the seat include bundling, helping with data subject access requests, doing first-level document review and conducting specific research tasks on a multi-jurisdictional level. We heard that litigious work meant that juniors can attend hearings, while transactional work involves more corporate support, where insiders shared that they review employment contracts, “looking at red flags, liaising with other Bakers offices and outside counsel, and working with clients to figure out how to transfer employees.”

On the advisory side of things, a trainee laid out a common example for us: “A client will ring and ask us what the law is on something. A common one is how to track office attendance, so we go to each of the offices to get advice and collate it into a nice, pretty document so that the client has all their advice for each jurisdiction.” Juniors were pleased that “especially as a trainee, there’s a big emphasis on getting as much variety in your work as you can. They really make sure we’re not stuck doing a bundle for litigation for a really long time or just working on one transaction for ages.” 

In M&A, insiders described being involved in “an interesting range of work.” An interviewee expanded on that point: “We have the massive, global, cross-border transactions that Bakers is known for, but at the same time, there’s some more technical work with startups, helping them to raise seed investments and things like that.” The group often works on carve-outs, and a trainee explained this further: “Where a business is carving out its own business line, often those are on a really immense scale, so you’re liaising with tons of countries across the world to get documents signed, or to understand the more local processes of the things we need to do to maintain the masters transaction list.” Oh – and rookies are also helping to draft ancillary documents! 

Trainee Life 

The Baker McKenzie office moved in October 2023, and trainees were still buzzing about the new space. The office is open plan, with sources appreciating that “you get to sit in different places every day, and that’s really nice because you’re not limited to one partner in an office; you get to meet so many people!” Another excited newbie shared that “people take calls at their desks, and I think from a trainee perspective, that’s super helpful because I can hear a partner talking to a client on the phone. Listening to that gives you an insight into what that’ll be like when you’ll have to do that as an associate or partner.”

Insiders felt the office was well-located and had a good amount around it too: “I’m not even close to exploring all the coffee spots yet!” The canteen and roof terrace received glowing reviews from our interviewees, characterised as ideal places to spend lunchtime: “We’ve had some really nice lunches on the terrace!” (We should note here that temperatures were above 20 degrees for the full week we were conducting our Bakers interviews!) 

“I’m not even close to exploring all the coffee spots yet!” 

Lawyers are expected to be in the office three days a week, with each team having specific anchor days. “Different teams have different approaches,” a source told us, “but trainees do tend to come in most often anyway. We’re encouraged to come in four days a week, but we’re never really expected to come in on a Friday.”

Juniors did mention that hours could get long, particularly in transactional seats, but “long hours aren’t encouraged. It’s very much a ‘hazard of the job’ situation,” this trainee continued, “People try their best to manage client expectations and mine, so if they know something will take a while or be a late night, they’ll tell you in advance.”

When they were working longer hours, rookies also appreciated that “they’re very kind about it and very appreciative of the work. The next day, they’ll tell you to log off as early as you can, and that’s really appreciated when you’re in a busy period and had a busy day the day before.” They were also pleased that “the partners and resource managers are conscious of people being overworked, so if you pull really long hours for a consistent period of time, they’ll check in and see if you need a hand or to pull back a bit.” 

Those we spoke to felt their supervisors had been a good resource to help them with their work, as well as getting settled at the firm. “My supervisor is a senior associate and they’re super lovely,” smiled a newbie, “We meet every week to discuss what I’m working on or if I’ve had any issues, and they’re super open to me asking any type of question – from a personal perspective or a work perspective. They’ve been really good at obtaining feedback for me and giving me good tips too.” Though trainees could get work from their supervisors, they were quick to clarify that “they’re not just work providers; they’re more for guidance and support.”

Training was described as something that began quite formally, “and then it shifts over to learning on the job.” Most departments also host a type of ‘lunch and learn’ to provide training or updates in their practice, “and there are department-wide training sessions, as well as the opportunity to go over firmwide or other departments’ training – depending on what they cover.”

Insiders felt supported by their colleagues and felt that they were developing their skills because “everyone is very understanding that you haven’t done something before. So, even when they’re giving instructions on a matter or task, they’ve taken the time to explain and ask if we have any questions.” In fact, all of our sources had nothing but lovely things to say about the firm culture:"It's one of my favourite things about the firm, people are generally very friendly and very open." We heard social events vary from team to team but involved anything from impromptu drinks all the way to away days, there are also firm wide events filling the calendar like the Christmas party.

On the diversity and inclusion front, the firm has a lot of groups for people to get involved in, and these groups also host a load of events. “We have a number of diversity groups including BakerEthnicity, BakerOpportunity and BakerWomen,” explains Robinson, “and we encourage trainees to get involved with the firm across the board and not just in their practice. We encourage them to engage holistically, and to be active in doing pro bono work and getting involved with other initiatives.”

Juniors were happy that pro bono is “a very important part of the firm,” too. This interviewee added: “Bakers encourages trainees to take on pro bono work quite a bit, and sometimes, there’s even a pro bono seat available if we have enough trainees.” Sources were impressed by the fact that the firm had acted for the UNCHR as interveners in proceedings related to the UK government’s Rwanda policy and shared that they’d been able to work with pro bono clients such as Amicus, WWF and even the London Symphony Orchestra! 

Bakers’ newest recruits felt well-compensated by the firm, underlining that “Bakers maintains the perfect middle ground in terms of salary and the hours you put in.” Interviewees also told us that the qualification process was pretty straightforward. They felt the firm was transparent about the process, as “every six months, the training principal and graduate recruitment do a talk with the trainees to go through what the last round was like, and you get to ask questions about it. They don’t give you specifics, but you see the statistics.”

The process involves trainees having meetings with grad rec to discuss where they want to qualify, and then officially applying once a job list has been released. There’s no formal interview process; instead, conversations are kept pretty casual, which our sources appreciated: “I love that aspect of it. It makes it feel a lot more relaxed, and you can dictate things a little more and speak to who you want to speak to.” Baker McKenzie did not disclose its 2025 retention rate.

How to get a Baker McKenzie training contract 

Vacation scheme deadline:

Spring Vacation Scheme (Tuesday 7 April – Friday 24 April 2026)

• Applications Open: 1 October 2025
• Applications Deadline: 1 December 2025

Summer Vacation Scheme (15 June – 3 July 2026)

• Applications Open: 1 October 2025
• Applications Open: 1 January 2026

First Year Insight Scheme (6 – 7 May 2026)

• Applications Open: 1 October 2025
• Applications Close: 1 February 2026

Training contract deadline:

Direct Training Contract

• Applications Open: 1 February 2026
• Applications Close: 1 April 2026

Open Day Information:

Tuesday 7 October 2026:  Employability Open Day

Monday 20 October 2026: Pride at Baker McKenzie

Tuesday 28 October 2026: Black Heritage Open Day

Thursday 30 October 2026: Opportunity Open Day

Monday 3 November 2026: Non-Russell Group Open Day

Monday 10 November 2026: Women’s Open Day

Thursday 13 November 2026: General Open Day

Applications

The application process for a vacation scheme and a training contract are the same. The process begins with an online application form which includes a short series of questions to assess candidates' knowledge of, and commitment to, Baker McKenzie specifically and the key skills that the firm looks for.

"When candidates are applying to Baker McKenzie, they should focus on their motivations for joining a global commercial law firm, and in particular, Baker McKenzie," according to Graduate Recruitment Officer, David Roe, who adds that seemingly small things like spelling the firm's name wrong, referring to it as an American firm, or using stock answers to questions are all important to avoid.

The application form is your opportunity to tell us about your experiences to date, and showcase how your experiences would make you a good commercial lawyer. 

Interviews and assessments  

After applying online, successful candidates are asked to complete an online test. This is followed by a competency-based and strengths-based video interview.  

From here, those who make the grade – vacation scheme and training contract applicants alike – attend an assessment day which consists of four different exercises, including a group exercise, and candidates are interviewed by both partners and associates. “We interview as many non-law as we do law students, so there's not a lot of focus on legal terminology,” Roe assures. “Rather, the day is focused on your commercial awareness and ability to work with others.”  

Vacation scheme

Baker McKenzie runs two vacation schemes in a year, one in spring and one in summer. The spring and summer scheme both run for three weeks. Participants visit two practice areas during their placement; these are chosen based on their preferences submitted beforehand. The vacation scheme includes talks from each department, networking lunches with partners and associates, and a Q&A session with the management committee, plus social outings.

All vacation schemers have an interview with a partner at the end of their visit. This takes the form of “a discussion about what they've learnt during the scheme and how they found the placement,” according to Roe.

Open days 

In addition to its vacation schemes, Baker McKenzie run a series of focused open days to give more specific insights to individuals from a diverse range of backgrounds. Alongside a general open day that provides a perfect taster of life at Baker McKenzie and gives a feel of what a career in the field of law is like more generally, there are also six additional days, each of which is aligned to one of the Baker McKenzie employee affinity networks. Each open day includes interactive workshops, practice group overviews, application tips and the opportunity to network with partners, associates and trainee solicitors.