CMS - True Picture

CMS training contract review 2026

The Firm

The buzz word amongst law firms these days tends to be the term ‘international’. Now, don’t get us wrong, there are indeed firms who you could describe as truly international, but others where perhaps it’s a little overstated. For CMS, the word doesn’t do enough to encapsulate the breadth of the cover it provides.

With nine offices across England and Scotland, the firm holds a whopping 84 outposts overseas in over 40 countries. Filling the ranks are 6,300 lawyers and more than 1,300 partners worldwide, putting CMS as the world’s fifth-largest law firm by lawyer head count.

“…They take a collaborative and innovative approach which doesn’t seem to be the case at other firms.” 

If you think the numbers are big on that front, it’s no different when it comes to the firm’s practice strengths. Over on Chambers UK, CMS holds 100 ranked departments, collecting top marks for work across England in corporate/M&A: £100-800 million, construction, pensions, investment funds, real estate litigation, IT and outsourcing, environment and climate change. In Scotland, it wins the highest praise for its banking and finance, healthcare,IP, litigation, planning, transport (rail), and education matters.

Due to its size, it’s no surprise the firm takes on a large cohort of trainees, in fact it is the second-largest training contract provider in the UK. CMS recruits around 95 trainees annually. Suffice to say, there is something for everyone joining the ranks, and while those we interviewed did indeed have a variety of different reasons for applying, there was one commonality among them: “The quality of life and friendly culture were why I applied to CMS. They take a collaborative and innovative approach which doesn’t seem to be the case at other firms.” 

The Seats

CMS follows a four-seat model, with each seat lasting six months. In the London office alone, there are around 20 different departments to choose from: “The range of seat’s are really good, there is quite a variety.” When the seat allocation process begins, trainees are asked to rank their top seven choices in order of preference. To help trainees decide, the firm provides a two-page guide for each department, along with past trainee insights.

Once they have submitted their decisions, the emerging talent team allocate according to preference and business need. Some felt the process could sometimes be a little more transparent, one source told us that “you don’t really know how the decisions are made.” Though, other sources appreciated that the emerging talent team have to take “an eagle-eyed view.”

There’s also a huge array of client secondments on offer, giving trainees the chance to work with major organisations: “There are about 40-50 client secondments to choose from.” To apply, you have to submit a cover letter and a CV, and we heard you may need an interview too. Worth noting is that lots of the client secondments are based in London; the one up North is remote, although they are also encouraged to apply for London-based opportunities.

We did hear that these opportunities are a bit scarcer for Scottish trainees, though this feedback has been raised with the emerging talent team. On the international side, these are determined each rotation; one source told us that Hong Kong and Mexico are the most popular.

“I even had the chance to work with a major retailer by myself.”

One of the firm’s biggest teams is corporate transactions, housing around 250 lawyers across the UK. This department is split into different teams who work with different sectors. As such, there’s a large array of clients filling the books, including the BBC, easyjet, Sainsbury’s & Aviva Investors. Because the work covered was very broad, trainee tasks varied a fair bit depending on the team and the stage of the transaction, but one insider told us that naturally “there are lots of tasks to do with company law: drafting ancillary docs, DocuSigns. due diligence reports and more project management!”

Trainees get a good overview of the different teams at the firm, largely as “you’re in charge of reaching out to various departments and collating everything.” As such, for another insider this seat was “definitely the busiest team I’ve sat in.” Overall, sources had plenty of positives about their time in this team: “I really enjoyed it, I was able to get a lot of autonomy and got to deal with clients directly.” Another added that “there’s definitely scope to get involved in high responsibility work, the firm does a good job at getting trainees involved at each stage of the transaction.”

Within the corporate transactions strand sits technology and media, which was one of the more popular seats with this year’s cohort. It’s easy to see why as again the work tended to involve big industry names, like Primark, Unilever and Sky.  One trainee described this as “the most independent seat”, as they were trusted with marking up smaller contracts without supervision. The work here was said to involve contracts, as well as business development and advisory work.

Specifically, trainees dealt with things like university and commercial contracts, keeping up to date with EU regulations and local requirements in advertising gambling, and data protection. We were told that these tasks were “good as a trainee as you get to manage your own matters.” A recent example of the work the team did involve advising the Esports World Cup Foundation on many of its advertising and marketing initiatives for the Esports World Cup 2024, one of most significance was the arrangements established with TikTok and X.

The firm’s planningdepartment sits under the general real estate umbrella at the firm. At lot of the work involves big real estate deals and housing developments, but there is a large environment, energy and infrastructure element to the work too. For example, the team in Scotland advised Flotation Energy on obtaining the consents for its development of several offshore windfarms in the UK, a few of these project matter values exceed into the billions.

Trainees get a mix of contentious and non-contentious work, and conduct tasks such as assisting with drafting contracts with the council, drafting agreements for planning, or doing due diligence reports on the planning of land if they are dealing with a corporate portfolio. One insider told us: “The workload is varied and always manageable andthe heads of department have a good grasp on what your capacity is. It’s really well managed!”

Over in the firm’s energy, infrastructure and project finance seat, known as EIPAF, the team handles more niche work in the renewable energy space, like windfarms. Clients include the likes of SSE, EDF & Octopus energy. This seat sits under the banking team at CMS. Trainees got tasked with managing CP checklists and document lists, attending client calls, drafting corporate documents. As one source put it – “trainees manage the conditions, prepare the docs and liaise with the client.” A big plus to this team was that trainees got exposed to a fair bit of the business development side of things, by attending client and networking events: “this is massively helpful, especially if you’re gearing up for qualified work!”

Getting a flavour of some of the firm’s contentious work, the firm’s infrastructure, construction and energy (ICE) disputes team got a thumbs up from insiders. We heard the work can touch on things like cladding claims and building defect litigations. Recently, the team represented AECOM before the Supreme Court in an appeal rising out of a series of professional negligence claims asserted by Barratt Homes against AECOM. The claims relate to allegations of serious structural defects across ten developments.

Typical trainee tasks included drafting submissions, sitting in on court hearings and general research tasks. One rookie shared that “it’s been interesting to see the flip side of the coin to corporate work.” Another relished the opportunity to get a good bit of client management under their belt: “I’ve done a bunch of client meetings which were really long, and you could see the negotiations happening live.”

Trainee Life

Trainees across the UK had plenty of praise for the office environments. The Glasgow and Edinburgh offices were said to be “very central, and client’s love it!”  In Aberdeen, they recently got a yoga room and a masseuse. The Manchester and Sheffield offices also have had recent refurbs, and they get free breakfasts Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The London office is very central too and has a subsidised canteen for trainees to make use of.

Another common theme was the open plan set up, which went down a treat with our interviewees: “It’s great when you’re new as you are able to absorb information through osmosis. You can hear senior people on the phone and learn how to deal with issues. It also makes it less daunting to ask for help as you don’t have to go to knock on a door.”

Trainees are expected to work at least 50% in office, which essentially means three days in. Though for trainees we heard this can depend on the team, as you have to factor in client requirements as well as team events. Some teams opted for two days in while others can ask for four. In terms of how late they work, this naturally depends on the team.

Transaction seats tended to vary and could extend late into the night towards 8/9pm and the latest reported being 3am in rare cases. Other seats had a more consistent 9am-5pm schedule but meant trainees were busy throughout. In seats like banking, there is sometimes a quieter morning, and work kicks off later in the day. We did hear from some sources that the North put more emphasis on the core hours than the London office, the latter of whom tended to work a little later.

“A lot of the partners say the people here are the backbone of the firm and they are good at showing they mean that.”

“The culture is not what you’d expect from a corporate law firm.” beamed one source on the firm culture. They added, “It’s more relaxed and people are friendly and genuinely happy to help you out. A lot of the partners say the people here are the backbone of the firm and they are good at showing they mean that.” The sentiment was shared across all of our trainees, no matter which office they were based in the UK. Another source surmised, “there is a real team ambience and strong cross collaborative element across the teams.”

Particularly, a few highlighted the firm’s DEI networks as a big plus. There are lots of different committees such as LGBT, women’s and embrace (race and equality) network, all were said to be active and constantly host events. “They’re made a good effort in recent years” one insider reflected, “There is a very strong drive to improving it where possible.” Beyond this, trainees have access to free health care and mental wellbeing, as well as wellbeing ambassadors.

There are also various social events to get involved with. A trainee from the Edinburgh office told us they have hiking club, book club and sports teams as well as casual drinks with those from the office on a regular basis. There's also bigger events like the summer party in Edinburgh Zoo. More generally, there are ad hoc events for trainees, as well as quarterly offices parties, summer parties, Christmas parties and regular office-based drinks. Ultimately though, while there is a budget to socialise, “you’re not forced to.”

In terms of feedback, there are two appraisals during each seat, and it’s common to have weekly catch ups too with supervisors.While the style of supervision depended on the person, some being more structure and others relaxed, it ultimately was received well by sources: “It’s really good, I’m never scared to ask a question.” There isdepartment specific training which varied in intensity depending on the team but overall was described as “exceptional.” There is also firmwide training for general elements required by the SRA.

On the topic of salary, most trainees agreed that pay was fair compared to market standards. There was some confusion around the London vs regional pay gap: “The difference isn’t clear, and it can be frustrating since we often work with the London team,” one trainee admitted. Still, many felt that the positive culture balanced things out: “Maybe the salary doesn’t fully reflect the work we do, but honestly, I’d take a supportive culture over more money any day.”

Qualification typically happens around April or May and is described as a more formal process. Trainees apply for roles using a cover letter and CV in response to a firm-wide job listing. Depending on the team, interviews may involve a written test or a roleplay exercise. “It felt fairly transparent,” reflected one trainee. Many said they hoped to stay on, providing their department of choice had openings. In 2025, the firm retained 75 of its 110 UK wide qualifiers.

How to get a CMS training contract

Applications open: 30 September 2024

Applications close: 5 December 2024 for regional and London training contract

Insight Programme deadline: 5 January 2025

Recruitment process

The recruitment process at CMS is designed to get to know you better as an individual. The firm receives 3000+ applications for its undergraduate programmes. The application form is straightforward - as well as providing basic information such as academics and work experience, applicants must also give written answers to three questions about the business of law and how it is changing. These questions are imperative in distinguishing between strong candidates who have a genuine interest in the firm, and the Emerging Talent team advise: “Look at our core competencies and what we’re looking for in our people and consider these in your answers, and indeed throughout the application form. This is your chance to stand out – we’re looking to recruit for future potential. We’re seeking innovative thinkers, for candidates that align to our core values, understand the business and are commercially aware. We want candidates to have done their research on the firm, to have a passion for what we do and how we can do it better.” 

Next, applicants complete an online critical reasoning test. There’s a practice test available on the CMS website for candidates to utilise as many times as they wish, with the aim being that is helps them become familiar with the types of questions that are asked in a timed environment. However, it is important for candidates to practice from a broad range of sources and really try to familiarize themselves with the process. The aim of the exercise is to test the innate critical thinking skills required as a lawyer, and whilst it’s true these can’t be learned, learning how to think in the test environment is key, and this can make all the difference between passing the test and falling below their benchmark. 

Having reviewed and scored applications along with the critical reasoning test, successful candidates will progress to a video interview. “Think of this and prepare for it like it is a face-to-face interview. Unlike the earlier stages of the process, this gives us a chance to get to know you and get a feel for your interpersonal skills. Again, practice is key, so make sure you have recorded yourself answering set questions and are comfortable in that environment. When the time comes to record, ensure that you will not be disturbed when you are doing the video interview. Take a deep breath and think about the question in the time you have before answering.” 

Assessment day 

Candidates that are successful will be invited to a face-to-face assessment day, details of which will be provided nearer to the time. Inevitably, research and knowledge of the firm and the broader commercial landscape, as well as an understanding of a candidates own skill set will prove invaluable throughout the assessment process. “We want to see how candidates think in practice, how they interact with one another and how they are able to demonstrate their skills. We are not looking for an in-depth knowledge of the law, but for individuals who are adaptable and can flex their skills across multiple problem-solving tasks and who have good learning agility.” It’s not just a one-way street, however, as the firm explains, “we want candidates to get a feel for the culture of the firm and walk away feeling like this is the firm for them.” 

Insight Programme

If you are interested in a career in law and want to know what life is really like at a future-facing global law firm, researching online is one thing. However, trying it for yourself is completely different – and that’s the purpose of this programme.

Whatever your background, the programme’s blend of practical work experience, skills sessions, trainee shadowing, and networking will build your knowledge and your contacts in equal measure. You will be invited to social events, lunches, and coffee networking where you’ll get to meet representatives from across the firm.

Successfully complete the week-long programme and you could be fast-tracked to an assessment day for a training contract.

Trainee profile 

CMS want to recruit the brightest and best future lawyers. Whilst academics and the core competencies of a lawyer are important in recruiting future talent, the Emerging Talent team emphasises that there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ lawyer at CMS. Instead, they are looking for people who are aligned to their culture: “CMS is an ambitious firm in what it wants to achieve and has already taken bold steps – so people need the ability to get on board. We are looking for people who are innovative and have a future facing outlook. We want people who will not only embrace change but create change, present ideas and see them through.”

Find out more about applications here:CMS Emerging Talent · Be the future of law