Addleshaw Goddard LLP - True Picture

Addleshaw Goddard training contract review 2026

The Firm

There’s no getting past it, London is the centerpiece of the legal market in the UK. Yet that’s certainly not to say that it’s the only legal hub. In fact, there are cities outside of London that offer rapidly growing legal markets. Markets that provide a perfect platform for early career lawyers: “I knew I wanted to stay up north but wanted that high calibre of work,” one trainee at Addleshaw Goddard told us, “I wanted to feel like a city lawyer, but I didn’t want to sacrifice any of those elements training in the north.” With a number of regional bases, Addleshaw undoubtedly gives trainees outside of the Capital access to London-level work. And not just that, the firm’s presence in the Middle East, Asia and the rest of Europe serves up plenty of work stemming from other jurisdictions too.

“I knew I wanted to stay up north but wanted that high calibre of work…”

Nationwide, the firm bags top Chambers UK rankings in areas like consumer finance, partnership, public procurement, retail, social housing finance and rail. But its regional strength is illustrated by top-tier practices in data protection & information law, real estate and restructuring/insolvency in Scotland, the likes of banking & finance, corporate M&A, litigation, real estate and employment in the North West, and construction, information technology, real estate and tax in Yorkshire.

During the application process, the consensus from trainees was that lawyers at the firm “seemed really down to earth, open and honest. The firm also had interesting work, so it didn’t feel like a trade-off between the two.” AG takes on around 70 trainees a year, spread across London, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin with a handful in Aberdeen.

The Seats

The number of seats on offer varies between offices. Some smaller departments only have a base in one or two offices, and smaller offices generally have fewer options overall. Trainees rank their top five seat preferences and have chats with HR before HR then makes the decision.

There are international secondments available to the Middle East and Singapore, which trainees can apply to through the general seat allocation process. These “tend to be more competitive, so they advise you to flag that you’re interested as soon as possible. You need to show how it links to your areas of interest and what you want to do.” There are also regular client secondments, and we heard that obtaining one is “very, very accessible for individuals in all different offices across the firm,” with all offices prioritised equally.

In the restructuring department, there is overlap between the transactional and contentious workstreams and lawyers in the team work on both. Folks in distressed real estate also sometimes help out on transactional matters. The department has both national and regional clients, for example, in the North East of England, where the team advised the Yorkshire Building Society on updating its standard terms and conditions in relation to corporate lending. According to one trainee, there’s a “nice mix of smaller matters going on and large restructurings.” This means there’s “a lot of opportunity to do interesting research tasks there.”

We heard that trainees can “essentially run” some of the smaller transactions. They also draft, review and negotiate documents, deal with queries from administrators and complete security review reports for lenders. “That team is really great, they really value the trainees and give them a lot of responsibility,” one told us, as well as training in the form of detailed feedback from seniors. We heard that depending on what kind of work a trainee does in this department, it can count as the mandatory litigious seat.

“…someone took me under their wing and was really thorough with me. I learnt a lot through that.”

The infrastructure, projects & energy (IPE)  departmentworks on projects in both the UK and further afield. As the department’s name implies, there’s plenty of variety in the work, but this comes with the “expectation that you have a good understanding of those sectors and you keep up to date with it.” That said, trainees liked how this kind of work “feels very relevant.” The firm’s projects include wind farms and even bus transport networks, but one of its more high-profile projects involved working for the National Wealth Fund on the Sizewell C nuclear power plant in Suffolk.

Focusing in on the trainee experience: “It didn’t feel like I was just doing the menial work. I felt very involved,” said one interviewee, adding that seniors try their best to get trainees involved in whatever they want more practice doing. “It felt like someone took me under their wing and was really thorough with me,” one trainee told us, “I learnt a lot through that.” Trainees reported that there are “good opportunities to draft documents, from security documents in finance deals to long advice notes for transport matters.” Trainees also attend client calls, carry out due diligence on the finance side and handle documents for the projects work.

Transactional real estate is one of the firm’s largest departments. In Scotland, there are separate English real estate and Scottish real estate teams, as the law can differ quite a bit between the two jurisdictions. However, the teams’ work can also overlap a fair bit and a lot of the partners in Scotland are dual qualified, “so trainees get good experience in work on both sides of the border” despite being assigned to either English or Scottish law. Workflow is similar in all UK offices.

At the start of their seat, trainees will keep on top of admin. As they gain experience, they get to take a leading role on smaller and lower-value transactions, which means liaising with clients and the other side and drafting under the supervision of a partner or managing associate. They also get to work on big development projects and property acquisitions, “where you would get to contribute to doing title reviews on big projects.” One recent sale agreement saw the firm advise the Royal Mail on the sale of its depot at Royal College Place in the King’s Cross area of London to a joint venture between Reef and GIC, a Singaporean wealth fund.

Work in finance disputes involves debt collection and dealing with debtors. The work is on the more technical end and mostly concerns banking and finance law (ranging from smaller court actions reclaiming small sums to calling in standard securities). We heard there’s a lot of court engagement, meaning trainees can have the chance to go to court themselves. One source told us they “really enjoyed it from the beginning” because they got their own case load and responsibility for liaising with the client on those cases.

Trainees get quite a lot of autonomy, being expected to carry out tasks like drafting emails or court papers before running them by their supervisor once they’re done. Drafting opportunities include letters before claim, settlement letters and claim forms. They might negotiate with debtors on the phone and play a supporting role on larger transactions, doing tasks like bundling. As one added: “I felt like the training was really thorough,” in the form of close support and regular guidance from their supervisor.

Trainee Life

As one trainee was quick to point out: “That cliché scary partner doesn’t really exist at AG.” In fact, the workplace culture at the firm was something that was praised across the board: “There’s almost the expectation when you work at AG that you’re happy for people to come by your desk and ask questions.” Each office has a few office-wide parties per year (including Burns Night parties in Scotland) with additional socials organised by departments: “Everybody gets on quite well and knows each other because of these kinds of things.” Trainees also get a budget for socials and tend to get lunch together. There are socials linked to DEI initiatives, such as an event for South Asian Heritage month and a lunch for Pride.

“That cliché scary partner doesn’t really exist at AG.”

Trainees need to be in the office three days per week. Obviously, there’s variation between offices in style and size, but the consistent theme was an open plan layout, which “makes it really easy to get to know people within the team on a personal and professional level, and makes it easier to ask questions.”

We heard that working 9am to 5.30pm or 6pm was indeed possible in many seats, provided that they weren’t unusually busy. Contentious seats tended to be the ones with longer hours, something trainees described as the “nature of the beast” in litigation. “When I’ve stayed later, I’ve been happy to stay later because I’ve felt it would help me. I’ve not felt burdened by the hours,” one source told us. “People tend to be aware when you’re staying late, and that helps because you feel appreciated.”

The consensus on compensation was that “people think the salaries in the north should be higher,” but this came with the recognition that the work/life balance is was great for the legal world: “AG really feels like a sustainable place to spend a long period of time,” said one insider, “the culture is really great, the hours for the area of law are pretty good and your life outside of work is very well respected. It’s a place I can definitely see myself for a long time.”

Trainees tend to get most of their work through their supervisors, but there are opportunities to jump on other team members’ projects here and there. Whatever their current workstream, trainees have regular catchups with their supervisors, and this “sits within the wider culture of AG. Professional relationships are quite friendly in the first instance, rather than being super hierarchical.”

When trainees rotate into new departments, there is often a day where all the trainees moving into that department travel to one office for training. There are more sessions in the first few weeks, then formal training continues throughout the seat. More broadly, “it feels like people have a lot of time for trainees,” being willing to sit them down and talk them through any questions or issues they have. Trainees also attend training sessions for the whole department.

All offices offer pro bono opportunities, with each office sporting its own designated pro bono coordinator who sends out emails with projects. In London, trainees are expected to work in a legal clinic once a month. Volunteering events include Legal Walks and trainees can take one CSR days a year. Each year, the firm has a partner charity for which they raise money through events like quiz nights. The DEI early careers team run events for social mobility where they bring sixth form students into the office to help them learn more about how to get into law.

Come qualification time, trainees prepare an “internal CV” covering what they did in each seat and their end-of-seat reviews, which is then sent to the team or teams into which they want to qualify. Interviews might happen if multiple people apply for the same role or if a trainee applies for a department they didn’t do a seat in. “You get this sense that they always try to retain as many people as possible,” reckoned one trainee. In 2025, Addleshaw Goddard retained 88% trainees.

How to get an Addleshaw Goddard training contract

Vacation scheme deadline: 12pm on 6 January 2026 (The firm recruits exclusively through its vacation scheme)

Insight Day 2026 deadline: 12pm on 10 February 2026

Applications

Each year the firm receives around 4,000 applications. The initial stage is a short application form. All applicants are then asked to complete a critical thinking test.  Those who pass the initial stage are invited to a voice interview. At this stage, an HR source tells us, the firm looks at (amongst other things) "commitment to the firm and the passion to pursue commercial law as a career." Successful applicants are invited to one of several assessment centres.

The assessment centres include a partner interview, a group exercise, a technical assessment and a proof-reading exercise. A current trainee had this to say of the day: “I hadn’t been in an office environment before, but I didn’t feel any undue pressure. Everyone was pretty relaxed and approachable throughout.” From here, training contract offers are made for applicants via this route.

The vac scheme

The firm runs summer vacation schemes in each of its UK offices (Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester). The Glasgow, Edinburgh and London office also offer an Easter scheme. The Easter scheme lasts for one week and each of the summer schemes lasts two weeks. There are around 90 places available in total. Students are allocated to a different department for each week and usually asked for preferences beforehand.

Former attendees praised the vac scheme as “an excellent opportunity to experience real, unsanitised work,” with one even telling us their experience was “pretty much representative of the kind of work I do now as a trainee. For example, I got to take a crack at the first draft of a witness statement, alongside bits and bobs of admin.” Our sources' advice for impressing? “Relax a bit, show your personality, and don't be afraid to go speak to as many people as possible, at all levels.” Social activities include dinners as well as outings like pizza-making classes or crazy golf.

Attending a vac scheme automatically includes an application for the training contract. The firm makes its offers directly off the back of a candidate's performance on the vac scheme and only recruit from the vac scheme, they do not run a summer recruitment process.

Trainee profile

Sources agreed that being “personable, approachable and collaborative” are crucial qualities for prospective trainees. Our HR source emphasises that “candidates need to link their passion for law with why they want to work at this firm over others,” adding that “those who are unprepared certainly don't impress.” Indeed, as one solicitor involved in recruitment remarked: “It's weird when people haven't really researched the firm. They sometimes don't know that we have multiple offices or the kind of matters we work on. The difference is evident between those who have done masses of applications and those who've really concentrated on a few.”

In addition to its activities at Russell and non-Russell Group universities, AG holds several open days and attends several law fairs (virtual and in person) to meet and greet potential applicants.