Irwin Mitchell - True Picture

Irwin Mitchell training contract review 2025

The Firm

As the saying goes, it’s location, location, location that’s most important. A lot of firms take their pick from the legal hubs on offer here in the UK, but personal injury heavyweight Irwin Mitchell’s approach was to set up shop (almost) everywhere. Prospective trainees apply to a specific office from among the twelve that offer training contracts. So, predictably, the office locations on offer were a major factor for the current cohort. Some wanted to stay closer to family or in their uni town, while others were drawn to the bustling London legal scene. But wherever they ended up, trainees were clear that the “massive benefit of having offices across the country” was the opportunity to collaborate with the others, offering a chance to get involved in “different work, depending on the market there.” At the time of writing, the biggest trainee pools were based in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and London, with the rest split between Bristol, Cambridge, Chichester, Gatwick, Newcastle, Reading, Sheffield and Southampton.

Given that Irwin Mitchell is known for its work in medical negligence and serious injury, it’s no surprise that it was one of the main draws for trainees at the firm, but that’s not to say it’s a one-trick pony: “The firm has a great range of departments,” one told us, “so it’s a good place to learn.” Irwin Mitchell has several highly ranked departments both nationally and regionally in Chambers UK, including top-tier nationwide nods in personal injury (industrial disease and international personal injury), product liability and Court of Protection work.

The Seats

It’s worth noting that a good proportion of the trainees at Irwin Mitchell paralegalled at the firm first and applied for the training contract as internal candidates – in past years, it has been anywhere from 30% to 50%. Regardless of where your application comes from, however, applicants must pick between the legal services for businesses and legal services for individuals streams, with around two-thirds of current trainees on the legal services for individuals stream.

Seats at Irwin Mitchell are a little different: instead of doing four different seats, trainees do three, then repeat a seat in the department into which they hope to qualify. According to training principal Emma Rush, this “helps to provide a stable environment in that area and a smoother transition” to being an NQ. After all, Rush adds: “We want to make it less stressful for them.” Which seats are available varies between offices, so Rush advises trainees to research this before applying. Trainees are asked toput forward three choices in order of preference. There’s no guarantee that trainees will get their first choice, but we heard that graduate recruitment “generally try to prioritise you in the next round” if you don’t get a seat you wanted.

“The thing you have to remember is that you’re helping people.”

The work in medical negligence and serious injury is generally “very similar,” with both departments built around helping clients with life-changing injuries to win compensation. In medical negligence, we heard the work is “enjoyable” and “client-facing” with “a lot of opportunities to get stuck into litigation and work on behalf of vulnerable clients.” For example, trainees are part of the team who handle calls from new inquirers. Given the nature of the work, one trainee said the “only issue” was that “sometimes you would get emotionally involved in a case,” but training and support are available for those who feel emotionally affected. As one trainee was quick to point out: “The thing you have to remember is that you’re helping people.” The firm handles a lot of claims related to negligence during childbirth, which can often result in life-changing conditions like cerebral palsy. In one recent case, the firm represented the family of a child in a legal challenge against East Kent Hospital University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust alleging that a failure to undertake suitable investigations within A&E led to meningitis, which led to a brain injury.

“…you hear of great things happening for clients.”

Inserious injury, trainees liked that they were working directly for clients rather than insurance companies because “you see how it benefits the client.” Cases take several years, so trainees are unlikely see them through from start to finish,but “you hear of great things happening for clients; it seems like a rewarding team.” As one trainee put it: “I enjoy the rehab and quantum side” of this litigious seat.We heard thathere is “quite a lot of legal research” and “looking at different legal concepts and applying them to cases.” The department is split into several teams – neurotrauma and multi-track – and “each team deals with different aspects of a case to make sure they have the right experience.” In both serious injury and workplace illness/injury, most client meetings take place in clients’ homes, which “helps you build a good rapport with them.” In one high-profile public matter,Irwin Mitchell has been acting in a cross-border case for British Olympic sprinter James Ellington following a road accident in Spain which ended his athletics career.

Clients in Court of Protection are usually “passed across from the serious injury team,” having received a payout for “some negligence-based injury.” The Court of Protection team “act as professional deputy for the client,” corresponding with the Court of Protection, managing the client’s everyday bills and assets, and helping arrange any necessary accommodation, such as modifications to the client’s home. While the firm is involved in plenty of contentious Court of Protection work, trainees in the seat will more often find themselves working on the non-contentious side. To prepare for busier periods of client contact, trainees receive training on how to work with particularly vulnerable clients and clients with brain injuries. Each client has a deputation meeting every year in which they “go through everything” Irwin Mitchell is doing on the client’s behalf. Trainees attend one or two of these meetings every week, and “eight out of ten times” they take place in the client’s home. One trainee said that “it’s nice to get out” of the office and that they “underestimated the value of networking with senior people in the team.” As for day-to-day tasks, “I didn’t ever find myself doing admin, I expected as a trainee to be given rubbish jobs,” but “my supervisor clearly cares about what I’m doing and cared about the work I was given.” Trainees reported drafting witness statements and court application letters to clients and other parties.

The family department is based out of the head office in Sheffield but works nationally, with staff in offices across the country. One trainee said that the advantage of having a national team is that with “such a big team, there will be someone who is a specialist,” whatever it is that the client needs. Irwin Mitchell has “teams of excellence” dedicated to specific aspects of family law, such as adoption, relocation, abduction contact orders and domestic abuse. Trainees can sign up for these teams to have exposure to particular elements of family law. Due to the sensitive nature of the work, it is highly confidential, but, in general, the department does “a lot of high net worth divorces” and TOLATA work. Typical trainee tasks included drafting court documents, attending court, taking new enquiry calls and setting up appointments.

On the business side, corporate is “one of those seats where it can be very busy at certain times and quiet at other times.” One trainee described beginning this seat part-way through a large transaction as a “baptism by fire, but I enjoyed that.” Another trainee clarified: “I felt I had enough work but not an overwhelming amount.” The firm handles share transactions, asset acquisitions and private equity. In one recent deal, it advised West Cumbria Mining, a company which produces metallurgical coal to supply the steel industry, on matters including the company’s share structure and ownership. Day-to-day tasks for trainees include file openings, ancillary documents, due diligence,project management, completion filings and, on the sales side, analysis of data rooms. The corporate team sometimes “work closely with banking and real estate colleagues,” which gives trainees the opportunity to “network within the firm.” Trainees described working “right under” senior associates and partners and “plenty of client contact.” As one source put it: “I enjoyed it because it was very fast-paced.”

Irwin Mitchell’s employment group covers both contentious and non-contentious work. The group handles “a lot of discrimination cases,” mostly representing educational institutions against claimants, but also high net worth individuals. The department is split into a team carrying out advisory work and another doing legal expense work, the latter of which only happens in Birmingham and Leeds. In one recent case, the firm represented the former head of trading at an international bank in a whistle-blowing and race discrimination claim around protected disclosures over many years concerning the bank’s breaches of financial regulations. The current crop spoke of attending client calls, taking attendance notes, drafting particulars of claim and settlement agreements and carrying out “ad hoc research and advice” in response to questions from the employers the firm represents. As trainees were quick to point out, the “work itself is very technical” because “the law is ever-changing.”

Trainee Life

According to trainees, Irwin Mitchell’s “flexible by choice” policy is “one of their biggest selling points.” The current crop cited examples of colleagues who were able to work 7am to 3pm to fit tasks in around the school run. In fact, we heard that working 10am to 6pm instead of 9am to 5pm is “not a big deal” as long as you receive permission from your supervisor. How often trainees are required to go into the office varies greatly between locations and departments, but a consistent theme was that “most juniors prefer the office atmosphere and the social aspect of it.” While some trainees choose to come in more often than others,most teams have an “anchor day” once a week when the whole team shows a face.

“…it’s a bit like going for a haircut, you want your hairdresser to do it rather than the trainee.”

The consensus was that trainees on the legal services for businesses stream generally worked longer hours than those on the legal services for individuals stream. Overall, most trainees worked 9am-5.30pm or 6pm. We heard the corporate team is “similar to other City firms,” in that they can “work silly hours,” but they’re the “only team in Irwin Mitchell which has that kind of expectation.”  One trainee added: “From what I’ve heard from other firms, I got off pretty lightly” in corporate, usually working until 6pm and “occasionally a crazy night if there was a completion.” All trainees have billing targets; trainees reported that it’s “easy” to meet the target in personal injury departments where the cases are no win, no fee, but much harder in seats where the clients are privately paying, since “it’s a bit like going for a haircut, you want your hairdresser to do it rather than the trainee.”

Opinions on compensation were divided. Trainees in London earn more to offset the higher prices in the capital. Some trainees would like the regional salary in more expensive locations like Manchester, Gatwick and Bristol to be increased to keep up with how “the cost of living has shot up massively” in these areas in recent years. However, trainees in the North were generally very happy with their salary. One said: “Especially for Sheffield, I don’t think there’s anywhere you could go get a better salary.” 

Trainees told us that the social life varied a bit between offices, which was mostly put down to the varied head count. “Trainees play a very active role in the social side” by being involved in the working groups which put on events in the office. These enable “mixing with lots of different people you normally wouldn’t mix with day-to-day.” Some of the larger offices like London and Manchester have sports teams which the firm funds. One trainee’s comment that “theonly thing I think would be better is higher office attendance” was representative of the general consensus across all locations.

Supervision was something that the firm “should pride themselves on,” according to sources. It goes without saying that supervision style will vary in a firm with so many offices and practice areas, but, in general, trainees liked that “partners and senior associates will give you tasks and feedback on those; it gives you the support you need to learn.” Trainees have monthly supervision meetings, three of which involve being rated in key practice areas, and the other three are less formal check-ins. Each department has practice development lawyers who “specialise in training and keeping us up to date with recent laws.” More broadly, there’s “always someone on hand to ask questions.”

Trainees did mention a little uncertainty around qualification,but the general consensus was that the firm does “try and tell you which seats have NQ positions and guide you into those seats.” The process involves the firm asking trainees which seat they would most like to repeat, and usually, the trainee qualifies there: “As always, it depends on the business needs, whether there’s funding, and whether they want you and you want them.” In 2024, the firm retained 27 of 32 qualifiers.

How to get an Irwin Mitchell training contract

Training contract deadline: 2 December 2024

Vac scheme deadline: n/a

Application and video interview

Irwin Mitchell receives over 5,000 applications each year for its 50 or so training contracts that are up for grabs. For Stage 1 of the recruitment process, the firm uses an anonymised screening approach where a short initial registration is followed by an invitation to complete an online strengths-based assessment and a strengths-based video interview, which lasts for 20 to 30 minutes and aims to assess a candidate's “passion for the role and firm, with questions designed to assess potential and what motivates you; rather than any previous experience,” early careers manager Alex Burgess tells us. There are usually some IM-specific questions too, so be sure to brush up on your knowledge of the firm's practice areas and geographical coverage.

Assessment centre

At Stage 2, roughly 250 people go through to the assessment centre, which involves a discussion and decision-making exercise, a written task and interview, plus a Q&A with the current trainees.

The discussion and decision-making exercise varies each year, but IM always looks closely at “how candidates collaborate and interact with one another to achieve the desired objective.” For the written exercise candidates are provided with a question and are asked to prepare a written document giving their thoughts. Then there's the interview, which is carried out by two members of the firm, who could be either partners or senior associates. This involves a mix of questions covering the candidate's motivations, their knowledge of the firm and how they would approach a given scenario.

Vacation scheme

Going forward IM are no longer having a vacation scheme.  Instead, for Stage 3 of the process, everyone who passes the assessment centre will need to attend a one-day, in-person, insight day. This ensures all candidates get to experience life at IM to discover what the office is like they’ve applied to, meet the people they’ll be working with, and understand more about IM and the trainee role.  There will be some assessed elements to this last stage and a chance for candidates to ask questions to ensure they feel Irwin Mitchell is the right place for their career.

How to wow

“As a firm we are looking for high achievers,” says Burgess. “We look for candidates who can display a whole array of positive qualities. We want to give applicants the opportunity to sell those skills, whatever their background and experiences through our recruitment process.” 

It's particularly important to demonstrate interpersonal skills too, as Burgess adds: “You'll be dealing with clients and colleagues on a daily basis, so interpersonal skills are incredibly important towards succeeding.” The firm looks to provide opportunities to those who have a passion for the law and who want to make a positive difference to both society and their future careers.