Simmons & Simmons LLP - True Picture

Simmons & Simmons training contract review 2025 

The Firm 

From couscous to Bora Bora, there’s a precedent for when things are so nice, you say them twice. In the case of Simmons & Simmons, the firm has been around for a while. With its London presence stretching back as far as 1896, it even gives the magic circle firms a run for their money when it comes to longevity. Since the firm shares a birthday with the modern Olympic Games too, it’s probably fitting that it’s got a significant global presence of 19 overseas offices. Simmons & Simmons UK contingent is split between London, Bristol and Cambridge. London takes on the majority of trainees, with a handful heading to the South West. The firm’s Cambridge office is home to Simmons Wavelength, its team of legal engineers. 

Simmons & Simmons has four core sector focuses: asset management and investment funds, financial institutions, healthcare and life sciences, and technology, media and telecommunication. The firm is acknowledged by Chambers UK in each of them too, with top-tier rankings in investment funds nationwide and banking and finance lenders in London, as well as recognition for its transactional and contentious life sciences work nationwide and IT in London. Speaking of the latter, Simmons & Simmons was one of the first firms to set up a fintech fund. The firm is also flagged as the crème de la crème for their employment expertise in Chambers Global.

“It was very conversational, not necessarily informal, but more focused on me as a person than a box-ticking exercise.” 

Some of the current cohort highlighted their first impression of the graduate recruitment team at university law fairs: “Immediately I had a good feeling,” one trainee told us, a feeling that extended right through the interview process: “It was very conversational, not necessarily informal, but more focused on me as a person than a box-ticking exercise.”  

The Seats 

When it comes to seat allocation, London trainees rank eight seats in order of preference, whilst those in Bristol choose six. The Bristol office is smaller, so naturally has a few less seats, but rest assured: “There’s no difference in product or work or client delivery.” Before they make their choices, newbies can attend the firm’s ‘seat change’ fair to get an idea of the options available to them. There’s a requirement for trainees to do at least one contentious seat, and they can apply for international and client secondments in the same way as for normal seats. We heard the firm usually has three international and three client secondments on offer, on the global side, these have included seats in the firm’s Singapore, Dubai and Paris offices. 

The bankingdepartment at Simmons is split into four teams – real estate finance, fund finance, transactional banking, and restructuring and special situations. Trainees liked that this gave them the chance to get involved in lots of different kinds of work, with one acknowledging that “at other firms those areas are separate seats, so you could do six months in each of those, but here you’re given the opportunity to work in each of those areas within the one seat, which I really appreciate.” The team regularly work with banks including Santander and HSBC, and recently advised HSBC on the financing of a revolving facilities agreement. Typical trainee tasks include managing the conditions, drafting and liaising with the other side. Interviewees told us that this is a seat where “if you’re confident and capable, you can assume more responsibility” by getting involved in more advanced drafting and deal management. The seat received glowing reviews for being a place where you “can really build yourself up, can have really quick wins, build relationships with other people on the team, and be proactive. Knowing the expectations can set really good habits for the rest of your career.”  

“The nature of being a funds lawyer is that you have to also know your regulatory stuff!” 

Within the firm’s broad financial services offering, there are seats available in private funds, hedge funds and derivatives. Life in the seat often involves work with asset managers, and trainees told us that they could take a first stab at the main documents, as well as requesting that clients and third parties review those documents. One trainee who had been working in private funds explained that they were also involved in regulatory work as part of the firm’s financial services regulation team: “The nature of being a funds lawyer is that you have to also know your regulatory stuff!” Trainees in the hedge funds subgroup had worked with asset manager clients, particularly “coordinating, and then reviewing comments and incorporating them.” The financial services regulation group takes on marketing work, funds work, cross-border work, Caymans work, and ESG. The cross-border work was described as “easy for trainees to get into. You’ll be liaising with foreign counsel, coordinating advice, reviewing it, and presenting it to the different jurisdictions.” In one recent matter, Simmons worked with Schroders to provider regulatory support on the launch of the UK’s first LTAF (Long Term Asset Fund), a regulated fund designed to help with investment in long-term assets for an investor base including retailers.  

A popular seat among trainees was employment, a team that covers both the contentious and advisory aspects of employment work. The advisory side often involves reviewing a company’s employment policies across jurisdictions, and as one trainee shared, this requires “you to stay on top of the black letter law, particularly, EU law.” Trainees reported more of a project management role within the team, as there could be “anything from five to thirty jurisdictions for a review of something very specific and bespoke, so you’ll get all this advice back, do a first level review, and sometimes work out how to make it more digestible for the client.” To put this into some real-word context, the team recently worked with Evercore to advise them on the regulatory compliance of employee incentives and remuneration across more than seven jurisdictions. On the contentious side, trainees can jump on whistle-blowing, discrimination, or unfair dismissal claims to name just a few! 

“…to work out essentially the key question we’re all trying to work out – has the law been broken here?” 

Over in disputes and investigations, there’s a lot of work to do with financial crime, covering things like bribery, corruption and financial fraud. As such, the team regularly liaise with and draft letters to the Serious Fraud Office. Trainees in the seat get involved in a lot of contentious tasks – preparing bundles, helping with the logistics leading up to trial, and doing a fair amount of document review too! Whilst document review can make trainees elsewhere moan and groan, interviewees shared that they were “encouraged to take on more responsibility; really looking into the narrative rather than just saying whether a document was relevant or not.” “There are masses of documents, and you need to be on top of using the document hosting platform, and be able to manipulate that efficiently and effectively to assist your colleagues,” explained one source. If you fancy yourself a bit of a detective, the investigations side of the work could be for you. It often involves writing reports about key individuals, timelines and chronologies, “to work out essentially the key question we’re all trying to work out – has the law been broken here?” 

Trainee Life 

Simmons & Simmons trainees in both London and Bristol rated their office spaces highly, and a London trainee shared that the open-plan layout of the office made it easier to learn from others and ask questions. The Bristol office in particular was described as being pretty laid-back, though one interviewee added: “I’m not saying we’re coming in wearing crocs and shorts or anything, but it’s a bit more friendly I’d say.” Bristol trainees were pleased that the firm was encouraging of them heading to the London office too: “If there’s ever an event in the London office, or a meeting, they’re encouraging of you to go and meet the wider team, and I think that’s great,” explained one source.  

“…they have a lot of respect and understanding that trainees are brand new to this and we’re developing and learning.” 

Trainees told us that standard working hours were from 9am until “maybe 7pm or 8pm,” but that hours in busier seats could be “really intense, like it’s not rare to have a 10pm or 1pm finish at least a couple of times a week.” We’re looking to the transactional seats here, as one interviewee noted that “people over in real estate are finishing by 6pm every day!” Despite potentially intense hours, we heard that “people are very aware that you’re sacrificing your evenings and will thank you and try to help you to manage your time.” Trainee insights about the culture of the firm reflect that comment too, with those at the firm sharing that “everyone is genuinely so friendly, and they have a lot of respect and understanding that trainees are brand new to this and we’re developing and learning.” This came through in the comments of another source too: “It’s not been hard to speak to people about their careers and get advice, and wider than just on a piece of work,” they explained.  

The social life at Simmons got glowing reviews from trainees too, as they told us that there are lots of sporting events and more casual ad hoc drinks too. “I’ve loved it,” shared on interviewee, “there may be large parts of the industry based around drinking, but I haven’t found that here. They do sports nights and classic socials, but also thins like drag bingo, so there’s something for everyone!” The drag bingo event was organised by the firm’s LGBTQ+ network, and we heard that the social mobility network is pretty active too. The firm have active partnerships with Brampton Manor Academy, 10,000 Black Interns, and 10,000 Able Interns, with one source sharing that “generally there are interns in for a week most months, and a lot are for social mobility and D&I schemes.”  

Supervisors too came in for praise. We heard that trainees were often supervised by associates, and one source was excited to share that “all of my supervisors have been great. They’ve been very keen to talk about areas of improvement and to have the discussions about qualifying in the seat.” Their advice wasn’t just work-related either, as one trainee explained: “With a job as intense as this, your personal life can really affect it, but she was there for all of it, and it really showed when it came to end-of-seat meetings – I felt like I could trust her to promote me as best as she possibly could and really give an accurate representation of me.” As well as the learning on the job that comes with any training contract, trainees shared that they received a lot of formal training. This included training at the beginning of each seat, and things like the firm’s compass training, which works to improve trainees’ soft skills. 

Pro bono is a pretty big deal at Simmons too, where “even at trainee level where we don’t have a billable target, we’re told to do 25 hours of pro bono.” One of the firm’s biggest opportunities is a programme which works with a legal clinic in Battersea to help people with benefit claims where they feel an incorrect decision has been made: “Sometimes that’s just writing a form and other times it goes all the way to the tribunal, and I’ve been able to advocate for them.” The firm also work with Bristol law clinic, and that work is “very well respected. If you had the Bristol law clinic and a client matter came in, everyone would still treat the pro bono work as a priority.”  

Trainees thought their salaries were competitive, especially those in Bristol who considered themselves amongst the highest paid in the city! Moving to the topic of qualification, we heard that the firm do a good job of guiding people through the process. The firm host a call every six months for trainees to learn about the process and ask any questions, and all trainees are welcome to join it. There’s then a call specifically for fourth seaters to make sure everything’s clear and to kick off the process. NQs explained that they were sent a preliminary survey to identify three choices before vacancies are released. Once the list is released, trainees submit their ranked final preferences. A match-making process then takes place between those choices and the department’s ranking of trainees. Interviews are only necessary if a position is oversubscribed, but this wasn’t necessary during this year’s process. In 2024, the firm retained eight of nine qualifying trainees.

How to get a Simmons & Simmons training contract 

Spring insight scheme 2025 (London):  9 – 10 April 2025

• Applications open: 10 December 2024  
• Deadline: 31 January 2025 

Winter vacation scheme (2024, London):   2-6 December 2024

• Applications open: 25 September 2024  
• Deadline: 25 October 2024  

Summer vacation scheme (2025, London): 30 June - 11 July 2025 

• Applications open: 1 November 2024  
• Deadline: 6 January 2025  

Summer vacation scheme (2025, Bristol):  16 – 27 June 2025

• Applications open: 2 October 2024  
• Deadline: 15 February 2025 

Summer internship (2025, Dublin):  16 June - 11 July 2025

• Applications open: 15 October 2024
• Deadline: 15 December 2024  

Evolve Placement Year (2025, London): September 2025 – September 2026 

• Applications open: 2 October 2024
• Deadline: 15 February 2025 

Application process   

The firm offers around 24 training contracts each year in its London and Bristol offices. The firm no longer offers direct training contracts in London and Bristol, so interested candidates will have to complete a vacation scheme at the firm prior to applying. Roles are filled on a first-come, first-served basis, so the firm advises candidates to apply as soon as possible.   

Prospective recruits submit an online application form, blended online assessment including situational judgement, applied intellect and video interview questions. The cream of the crop then attends an assessment day that involves written, a client discussion, an analytical exercise and an interview.   

Vacation scheme   

Simmons & Simmons runs a week-long winter placement for final-year law and non-law students and graduates from all disciplines. The firm also runs a two-week summer scheme in the London office, and a two-week summer scheme in Bristol. They are all open to penultimate-year law and non-law students, plus all final-year students and graduates.   

Vac schemers split their time between two different departments: “I did half in corporate and half in tax,” reported one former participant. “I got to help with an M&A deal and went to all the negotiation meetings. 99% of it went over my head, but it was great to see what I might be doing in a few years' time.”   

Get some insight   

The firm runs a two-day spring insight scheme in the London office. Apply by 31 January 2025 to be in with a chance of attending.   

Legal tech placement   

Simmons & Simmons has a year-long legal tech placement, called Evolve.   

There are two roles on offer, lasting 12 months with two six-months rotations, one in the firm's 'innovation and business change' department and one in its emerging technology team. The former works on delivering the firm's strategy, especially through new tech and services. Emerging technology is one of the firm's legal teams, advising clients in this sector. Those on the placement can expect to do market research, assess new technology, come up with new ideas, help organise events and do legal research.   

The placement student will be evaluated during the programme and if they meet the required standard will be offered a training contract.  

Dublin Training Contract  

Simmons are recruiting for training contracts in Dublin which will see trainees complete the PPC at Blackhall as well as 24 months’ work experience rotating through various practice groups.

The Dublin programme is open to graduates from all degree subjects who have completed and passed all eight FE1 exams. The firm is recruiting for trainees to join the firm from May 2025 onwards. 

• Applications open: 16 September 2024  
• Deadline:  16 November 2024  

Dublin Summer Internship 

Simmons run a four-week long summer internship in their Dublin office for recruiting penultimate and final-year university students and graduates of any degree subject. 

• Applications open: 15 October 2024  
• Deadline:  15 December 2024  

Solicitor Apprenticeship  

Simmons offers a solicitor apprenticeship and is recruiting for apprentices to join their London and Bristol office starting in September 2025.  

Qualify as a solicitor and earn while you learn through the firm's six-year solicitor apprenticeship programme. Four days a week will be spent gaining practical work experience and one day a week studying with BPP University.  

During your studies, you’ll complete your LLB (Hons) Law and Legal Practice and go on to study towards the Solicitors Qualifying Examinations (SQE). On successful completion of the SQE, you will qualify as a solicitor at the end of the programme.  

• Applications open: 1 December 2024  
• Deadline: 15 February 2025