Dentons - True Picture

Dentons training contract review 2026

The Firm

As anybody who follows football will tell you, there are plenty of teams that have suffered a bit of an identity crisis in periods of rapid growth. Fortunately for the folks at Dentons (which stands as a result of more than 40 mergers in the last twelve years), it’s a growth mindset that the firm was careful to navigate well: “There is still very much an entrepreneurial spirit, as there was in the early days, in our current format,” training principal Eleanor Hart highlights, “we have more people in more places that any of our competitors... But one of the unique things, other than our sheer size, is that we’re polycentric – without any dominant office or headquarters. You’re still very much working at the law firm in the location where you’re based, but you are collaborating daily with colleagues throughout the UK, Ireland, the Middle East and globally.”

It’s true too that Dentons is the largest law firm in the world by number of offices, with more than 12,000 lawyers split between 200 offices in 80 countries. The largest portion of the firm’s trainees are based in London, with a handful in Milton Keynes and the rest residing in Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scotland.

“I could devote a lot of time to my career in an environment that is supportive – and that is true of Dentons!”

As you might expect from that sort of headcount, Dentons is very much a full-service firm, with over 50 Chambers UK and over 100 Chambers Global accolades. The firm’s UK-wide rankings include the likes of commodities, franchising, infrastructure (PPP), retail, sanctions and transport: rail (across franchising, projects, and rolling stock), alongside a top-tier nod in hotels and leisure. What’s more, all this is on top of top ranked practices in competition law and transport: rail in Scotland, and environment and climate change in London.

Despite its strength in depth however, the general consensus was that the firm has maintained that human touch: “I could devote a lot of time to my career in an environment that is supportive – and that is true of Dentons!” So, who is the ideal candidate? As Hart puts it: “One thing is important to us and that is diversity of thought. We encourage candidates from any and all backgrounds who are challengers. People who want to think about things differently.”

The Seats

When it comes to seat allocation, the process begins a month or so before the rotation. “You rank six preferences of the seats you’d like to do - with number one being your top choice - into an algorithm,” interviewees explained. This pulls up alongside “a chat with early careers about what you’ve been enjoying and where you’d like to go next.” Like most firms, second years have priority as they near the end of their training contracts. Insiders told us that some seats such as specialist teams like TMT, energy and employment are quite popular.

Secondments are part of the same seat allocation process, although some might require an interview too. We heard that both client and international opportunities are available. That said, the number of opportunities received some mixed feedback, as “one of the downsides. It’s disappointing being a big international law firm with limited international secondments.”Previous opportunities have included a disputes secondment to the Hong Kong and a client secondment to Toulouse. Client secondments, however, appear plentiful – “there are lots of opportunities for client secondments!” These are across a number of areas including banking, energy, retail, government and even a pro bono secondment.

Dentons’ banking and finance practice encompasses a number of different groups - “some of the teams are very large” – reflective of the breadth of practice. These groups are lending and restructuring, assets, trade and export finance, and debt capital markets, structured finance and derivatives. Prospective trainees will find that some recognisable names including NatWest, HSBC and Société Générale make up the books here.Trainees work on private and public transactions in general lending across mid-market and big-ticket deals, involving the financial services, insurance, transportation, energy, retail and infrastructure sectors, to name just a few. Being fast paced, newbies become well accustomed to “the signing matrix; you’re the most active during a signing and closing making sure that every party has signed the agreement,” an insider highlighted, with the opportunity to pick up the pen to “draft amendments to transactional documents.”

“The global network that’s there in theory, it really works. It’s great seeing that.”

As for a stint in the capital markets space, derivatives “is complicated” sources emphasised. With “a good mix of advisory and transactional work,” trainees get involved in reviewing and drafting amendments, writing legal opinions and summaries, alongside communicating with clients and local counsel: “It’s super cross border. You’ll be reaching out to counsel wherever Dentons has offices. The global network that’s there in theory, it really works. It’s great seeing that.” What’s more, we heard that “you attend industry briefing calls and get exposure to 50 or so banks by sitting in on Zoom calls – you get good commercial awareness as a result” too. In one recent example, the team acted for various counterparties to Ahli United Bank as it restructured its funding arrangements to be Sharia compliant following its acquisition by Kuwait Finance House.

Restructuring and insolvency handles “some exciting high profile and high value bankruptcy and restructuring plans,” such as bankruptcy proceedings, special administrative regimes, and financial recovery from insolvent companies on behalf of administrators and liquidators. For the avid tea drinkers, you might be interested to learn that the team advised Zetland Capital Partners, a junior secured lender and shareholder, on the restructuring of Typhoo Tea.

Day to day, rookies dive into “business development, running regular market research, looking to see who might go insolvent.” On the transactional side, as is the case with restructuring plans, trainees take on more of a case management role “making sure there is access to the right files, billing and invoicing” as well as drafting ancillaries. When it comes to court processes, they also tackle research into particular points of law, bundling and correspondence with the court, and third parties.

Dentons’ corporate  offering spans equity capital markets, private equity and M&A, and so while the majority of the work comes from the trainee supervisor, you can pick up work from associates across those groups. With lots going on an insider stressed that “Dentons aren’t shy in giving trainees work to dive into!” This includes research tasks and gradually picking up drafts of ancillaries such as board minutes, resolutions, loan agreements, and corporate authorizations for share purchases. Some big names can be found here from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office, to Thomson Reuters and Capita. One recent headline included having advised Jacob Solutions, a science based consulting company, on its government cyber intelligence spin-off business and their merger with Amentum.

Another of the firm’s larger practices is commercial real estate, where trainees can roll up their sleeves early on, across both sales and leases: “You start off with simpler things, like collating due diligence and drafting ancillaries,” a trainee outlined, to “more responsibility such as seeing smaller matters through from opening to completion, billing the client as a primary contact, with a great level of supervision.” Rookies support on bigger matters too, such as for John Lewis, Taylor Wimpey and Sainsburys.

As a snapshot of the scope, recently the team advised Mapletree Investments on a £1 billion acquisition of student housing across the UK and Germany. For those interested in the construction elements, there is a planning seat which handles advisory, transactional and litigious work. And for when things go wrong, there is also a contentious construction seat for trainees UK-wide.

“It’s cool to see what you are doing play out that way…”

Over in dispute resolution, the work spans commercial and corporate litigation. Some of which is “high profile and in the news. It’s cool to see what you are doing play out that way,” insiders enthused. As one trainee explained, the cross-border element does complicate things: “It’s a much more research-heavy seat because it could be in one country at one minute and another for the next, and the law is completely different.”

Trainees in the seat also assist by making notes from attending counsel calls, hearings and court, as well as with drafting witness statements and consent orders. There’s an array of clients from across sectors too, including Silverstone Circuits, EDF Energy and TUI Airways. In one recent case, the firm advised Columbia Pictures on a long-running dispute relating to ownership of the company behind Octonauts, a popular children’s TV programme.

Trainee Life

“The culture at Dentons is at its forefront, after international presence,” one source told us. Trainees emphasised that this makes for a positive working environment – one that is “friendly and very open. People want to see you do well.” Another highlighted that particularly amongst the juniors, “it’s not competitive or sharkish. It just doesn’t feel that way.”

“It doesn’t feel like a London centric firm, the offices work closely together.”

Trainees also have the opportunity to work in more than one office, whether that be Edinburgh, Glasgow, London or Milton Keynes, to get an insight into another base: “It doesn’t feel like a London-centric firm, the offices work closely together.” Situated within a stone's throw of the nearest train station, the Scottish offices were described as well-connected and the same goes for London, which is packing up to move to One Liverpool Street in 2026.

Across the board, trainees noted that: “seniors and partners are very approachable. You’ll be in the kitchen making a coffee and they’ll ask how you are doing. It’s a nice vibe as people are really busy, but not too busy to not be nice.” Moreover, there are occasions to socialise as well. The trainees and solicitor apprentices have their own social budget, there are regular end of the month socials. In particular, the London office hosts ‘Pub in The Hub’ each Wednesday to connect, and of course there are seasonal events in both London and Scotland.

Each office has their own charity of the year, partnering with organisations such as Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity, Fighting Against Cancer (FACE) and FEAST With Us. Each office hosts events from raffles, bake sales and walks to “the world’s tallest abseil, a skydive the year before,” and a kilt walk up in Scotland. The affinity group networks also are active with networking and informative talks from endometriosis awareness to events marking cultural occasions such as Diwali and Ramadan. Sources highlighted Black Professionals Network, Fusion for Asians and South Asians, GLOW for LBGT professionals, Inspire for women, and networks for neurodiverse lawyers and parents and carers.

As for inclusion, “there is such a mix of people from all backgrounds. I thought that breaking into law would be difficult but not at Dentons - you fit straight in.” What’s more, “we were one of the first firms to have apprentices qualify as associates,” Hart highlights. “We will just be coming up to our third year celebrating the promotion of apprentices to associates, and we’re incredibly proud of that.”

As for supervision, we heard that it varies from supervisor to supervisor and seat to seat, depending on how busy things are. Given the open plan nature of the office rookies sit near or next to their supervisors, and often have “recurring weekly meetings, which can be formal or informal, just a five-minute coffee, or an hour sit down to discuss where you can improve.”

Trainees also have formal mid and end of seat reviews too. Newbies have a week-long induction process and have access to a library of in-depth online resources. Formal training is provided weekly by departments. In corporate, for example, “it covers common tasks from closing processes and due diligence, and the department provides updates on key issues and what has changed.”

On the topic of hours, interviewees described working on average between 9am and 6.30 – 7pm. Although this was caveated with the fact that, with busy practices or crunch points with closings or filings, “there have been later nights.” As one source attested: “It’s not constant crazy late nights, I’ve only had a few in six months in transactions.” Although the hybrid work policy is fully flexible, trainees are “encouraged to be in the office as much as possible to learn from proximity.” And so, most reported being in three to four days a week. Citing the firm’s investment and hours at the trainee level, sources were satisfied with their compensation: “It’s absolutely fair.”

Come qualification time, the process begins about a month or two into a trainee’s final seat. The timeline is made clear, and a list of available jobs is released. Candidates can make up to two applications submitting a 2,000 – 3,000 form and statement on their motivations for wanting to join a particular group. Following which they have an hour interview with two partners about motivations, alongside some more technical questions.

On top of this (depending on the department), they might have to prepare a case study to discuss. Given that it's quite a formal process, a few did gripe that “it’s a very intense process for people who have already done a six-month seat and hour-long interview, it adds a lot of stress.” In 2025 the firm did not disclose its retention statistics.

How to get a Dentons training contract 

Vacation scheme deadline:

• Trainee Solicitor Programme deadline: 31 January 2026 [London & Milton Keynes]; 31 March 2026 [Central Belt]
• Middle East Trainee Solicitor Programme: 30 January 2026
• Spring vacation scheme deadline: 7 December 2025 [Milton Keynes]; 23 November 2025 [London]
• Summer vacation scheme deadline: 23 November 2025 [Central Belt]; 26 January 2026 [Dublin]
• Middle East Summer Insight Scheme 2026: 30 January 2026
• Open days 2026: 8 February 2026 [London and Central Belt]
• Solicitor apprenticeships: 21 December 2025 [London and Milton Keynes]

Initial screening 

Applying to Dentons begins with an online form. As part of the initial screening process, the firm scores each applicant on a number of core factors including motivation, drive, and commercial awareness. 

Early Careers Manager Rosie Buckley tells us when it comes to past experiences, the firm "doesn't need to see commercial work experience, but is hoping to see that candidates have researched a career in law and have started to develop relevant skills." A candidate's motivation and commercial awareness are drawn out through questions “tailored towards candidates' achievements and their research on commercial law and Dentons.” Whilst the firm does look at academics, “they are not the most important part of a form, and if candidates feel they can submit a strong overall application we want to hear from them.'” 

First-round interview 

Candidates whose forms meet the firm's requirements are invited to complete a Legal High Potential assessment. This assessment includes scenario-based, numerical and verbal questions.

The assessment “looks for candidates who are excited to embrace the future of law and apply their intellect and creativity to a variety of work-related situations.” The questions do not require any prior knowledge or experience. 

Candidates who are successful in the Legal High Potential assessment will be invited to undertake a short video interview.

Assessment Centre 

Hopefuls who impress enough in the first round get a crack at the final stage. Candidates face an assessment centre consisting of a role play exercise, a written exercise, a case study and a final partner interview. 

All in all, “we're looking for ambitious, commercial and forward-thinking candidates because that's what we are as a firm,” Buckley says, reminding applicants that “you've got to want to work for an international firm, as trainees end up getting involved in a lot of cross-jurisdictional work here.” 

Vacation scheme 

In 2025, Dentons hosted spring vacation schemes in their London and Milton Keynes offices, as well as a summer scheme in Scotland. On top of getting a taster of the firm's work there are social events and learning sessions dotted throughout the scheme. Our sources' number-one tip for getting the most out of the scheme? “Speak to as many current trainees as possible – that'll contribute a lot to your understanding of what the firm's about.” 

Interview with Eleanor Hart, training principal

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

Eleanor Hart: We’re the world’s largest law firm – we have more people in more places than any of our competitors. But at the end of the day, we’re still a traditional law firm with a multi-service practice offering leading, quality advice across our local and global offices. But one of the unique things, other than our sheer size, is that we’re polycentric – without any dominant office or headquarters. You’re still very much working at the law firm in the location where you’re based, but you are collaborating daily with colleagues throughout the UK, Ireland, Middle East and globally. In terms of size, we have 780 fee earners across the UK, and 60 fee earners in Dublin where we opened an office in 2020. We have 140 fee earners across nine locations in the Middle East across seven countries; we have significant expanse. Our Middle East practice is very well established and it’s the largest international firm that operates there.

As for our culture, as the largest law firm because of our polycentric nature, you still very much feel part of a law firm within our location. There is that smaller feel in terms of culture, and it’s not very hierarchical – it's open. ‘Always human’ is one of our values and it really resonates; people are comfortable being able to engage with anybody and that is helped by the fact we are open plan – everyone is sitting together in the same space and engaging with each other. Also, given that it’s been 10-15 years since we’ve been expanding, there is still very much an entrepreneurial spirit, as there was in the early days, in our current format.

CS: Are there any highlights from the last year you think it would be helpful for our readers to know about? 

Hart: We always like to think of ourselves as entrepreneurial, and our early careers campaign tagline is ‘Challengers Accepted.’ As a result of that, the initiatives and campaigns that we’ve been doing really stand out to me. As a firm we’ve gone out to lots of different organizations to get a real understanding of how they are experiencing artificial intelligence, what it means for them and their business, as that impacts us not only as a business but also the advice that we give. We’ve engaged with various organizations including our clients. That really resonates with the fact we’re not just sitting and thinking we need to do things the same way we are looking to be innovative and look at things differently. We want to not just be the largest law firm but the leading law firm. In terms of our early careers, we’re looking for people who are going to have that diversity of thought, skills, experience and looking to shape the future of law. There’s a lot of change and none of us have the answers in terms of what that will look like, but we’re hoping to have people that are going to embrace that.

We were one of the first firms to have apprentices qualify as associates. We will just be coming up to our third year celebrating the promotion of apprentices to associates, and we’re incredibly proud of that. Also, we launched our Next.Talent. It’s an online student network with around 2,400 members where they can get some experience of what it means to be a lawyer, learn more about law and the firm. In terms of inclusion, which is a big part of what we do, we have a new partnership with the Lawscot Foundation for aspiring Scottish lawyers from less advantaged backgrounds. This works alongside existing programs that we have like the Now to Next scholarship for students of Black heritage and a mentoring program. All of which work alongside the inclusive tools that we have.

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

Hart: For us it’s about giving people those tools and responsibility to take charge of their own careers and provide structure in terms of their development, and to give people that confidence to take responsibility for their own learning as well. There is a lot of structure, but our Early Careers team are really fantastic at providing that individual support as well. They really know each individual and have individual support as well, it’s very much a not one-size-fits-all. There is a real supportive environment because there’s a real flat structure, we don’t feel sort of hierarchical structure. The Early Careers team is very much involved, but equally in each department we have an Early Careers Partner who is dedicated to support the early careers alongside our talent development team.

The actual trainee cohort themselves support each other, new trainees will have mentors in the second year and it’s a very tight knit network. They nominate peers within each of the relevant years to represent the other trainees, not just in terms of development but from a social perspective as well. Your first support network are your fellow trainees when you start your job and it’s vital to have that network. We also have a well-established wellbeing campaign which is ‘work well, live well’ with a lot of mental health support, not just at the early careers level but across our business support services and fee earners as well. We’re very committed to ensuring that everyone strives, thrives and reaches their full potential. We spend quite a lot of time in the office, and we want to ensure that people enjoy that as well.

Trainees are also really encouraged to get involved in our CSR initiatives and I know they really enjoy getting involved in that because it gives them a real sense of further responsibility in terms of the legal and non-legal work that we get involved in.

CS: Could you tell us more about the secondment opportunities available? 

Hart: We do lots of secondments. There are some international secondments available in other offices, but more available in the Middle East part of our partnership and there are some overseas pro bono secondments as well. Recently we had secondments to Singapore and France, but the vast majority of our secondment opportunities are with our clients and lots of different sectors, from banking, employment and projects (this will obviously depend on rotation by rotation). It’s great because it not only builds people’s confidence in terms of being able to go out there, giving them great experience of working, but in-house often you get a bit more responsibility that really helps hone your commercial expertise. Also, it shows the importance of the early stages of your career building those client relationships; we get a lot of really good feedback from our trainees in terms of those opportunities.

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?

Hart: We have a very flexible hybrid policy which is a combination of remote and office-based work. There are no targets in terms of days in the office, but we encourage teams to have anchor days for collaboration and connection, so coming into the office on Tuesday or Thursday. We do see the importance of face-to-face work and development, we very much encourage people to come in, to be able to connect.

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

Hart: One thing is important to us and that is diversity of thought; we encourage candidates from any and all backgrounds who are challengers. People who want to think about things differently. Anyone who feels they might be interested, we’re very keen to hear from you - look at our open days and apply to our vacation schemes just to get an idea of who we are and what we are about. If you are passionate and want to be a lawyer, then this is a great place to work.

CS: Does the firm have any set recruitment targets around diversity?

Hart: We are very keen to ensure that we are getting the best candidates by opening our pool to everybody. Back in 2018, we implemented the contextual recruitment system (CRS) ensuring that even now at interviews we don’t see people’s CV and background. We are very much looking at people as they come.

We offer a lot of mentoring programs and have social mobility partnerships, such as with the Lawscot Foundation and the Now to Next scholarship. We’re trying to build that presence to ensure people have an early start, making a difference by speaking and engaging with them at an earlier stage, which is why we have our virtual work experience program. We want to open people’s eyes to what a great career in law is, and that it is there for everyone who has the drive for hard work whatever your background is – supporting people to know that law is an option.

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

Hart: One of the reasons I put myself forward to be the Early Careers Development Partner is I’m really passionate about showing what a great career in law is and making sure that we open it up from a social mobility perspective. People think that law is very traditional; we want to make sure it’s open to everyone because it’s an incredibly satisfying and rewarding career. Go for it if it’s something that you want to do. Make sure to research and speak to lots of people, even if it means just sending out messages on LinkedIn. People are very open to engage in what they do, ask questions to understand what it’s about and what it involves. Our Experience Dentons program isn’t just about us Dentons but about law. It’s a great place to start in terms of application research and thinking about the unique points for a particular firm. Think about practical examples and put yourself in those examples to make yourself stand out. When you give that personal history that can make a real difference, in terms of what it is you have done and why you want to be a commercial lawyer.

Be succinct and focused in terms of word count. Write it and then see what you can take away, 250 words are about right. I always draft an e-mail, save it and then delete words, to see what is needed. If you are lucky enough to be put forward to interviews, take time to prepare some answers you think people are going to ask – and be yourself and confident. I know that’s challenging but certainly at Dentons we really are proud of encouraging people during the interview process to make what is probably a difficult thing a positive learning experience. Even if you don’t succeed at an interview, you’ll have learnt and taken something from it, and that is going to help you in a future interview. Not like some of the horror shows that I had interviewing for training contacts almost 30 years ago. We want people to feel encouraged and supported, it gives the best out of people as we’re all human. I don’t want anyone to feel intimidated or panicked. It might be the first time that you’re meeting someone but we’re all just people.

Lastly, we have some information on our website about AI about what we think more generally, but also in terms of our recruitment process. We do appreciate that people might use it as a sort of starter and as a springboard, that’s the reality of life; we do that in our firm. But we just say clearly you still need to think about your own personal input and insights, it shouldn’t be used in isolation. We are comfortable that people do use it, but it needs to be used in a thoughtful way, and we have guidance in case that is helpful to know.