Addleshaw Goddard LLP - True Picture

Addleshaw Goddard training contract review 2025

The Firm

The recipe for a successful law firm requires many things, some ingredients that spring to mind are a strong calibre of matters, exceptional lawyers and a positive work environment. But there’s also a special Addle-sauce that gives Addleshaw Goddard just that extra edge. Notably, it’s a firm that has comfortably secured a national presence with six offices across England (London, Manchester, Leeds) and Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen.) But AG didn’t stop there, as it's spent the last few years adding an array of offices across the globe, a total now standing at 19, across Europe and the Middle East. To put it into perspective, there hasn’t been a year since 2019 when the firm hasn’t opened an office, this year’s opening was in Madrid. Training principal Richard Yeomans tells us the rationale behind this ambitious streak: “we’re an all service firm and we want a meaningful presence in every office we open.” Trainees agreed, noting the firm’s commitment to growth as a highly appealing factor for joining, one surmised that “you can tell they want to get bigger and better. It’s not stagnant at all.”

“It’s so cliché and I’m gonna make myself sick, but they’ve all become my family.”

With so many offices, it should come as no surprise that the firm has mastered its craft in a fair few different practices. Indeed, our colleagues over at Chambers UK hand out top honours in practices like real estate litigation, banking & finance, construction, corporate/M&A, employment, restructuring/insolvency and more to AG, in fact there are over 80, so it’s best you head on over to the website to get the full lowdown. But at AG, it’s not all just about quantity, as all of our interviewees highlighted the quality of the culture underpinning it. Yeomans puts this down to a simple ethos: “it’s not about holding onto your work here, it’s all about collaboration.” This sentiment shone through across our chats with trainees, who all praised the collective nature of the firm.  In fact, it’s that which really made the difference for many: “the people are the best part of my job!” One particularly self-aware source decided to get in all their feels about it: “it’s so cliché and I’m gonna make myself sick, but they’ve all become my family.”

The Seats

The firm offers four seats at six months each, and trainees get to give five preferences before the start of each one. Trainees reassured us that the firm works hard to give them the seats they want, and the chances of getting a seat they didn’t put down happened maybe once during their TC. We heard that one seat could potentially be taken up by a secondment, with spots up for grabs in international offices such as Oman, Dubai and Singapore, as well as in Europe. With the exception of Germany, all secondments require you to have an understanding of the local lingo, so language skills are a big advantage. Client secondments are also popular, and competitive, and there’s plenty of options to choose from.

Trainees in the infrastructure, projects and energy (IPE) seat will get the privilege of dipping their toes into all three of those ponds: “as a trainee they give you equal opportunity to spread out across the whole team, at the very least you’ll get a flavour for all three groups.” The seat can be quite research heavy which sources enjoyed. One reflected that “a lot of it is very much researching underlying policies per regulations. It doesn’t feel like the law necessarily, but it does feel like you’re contributing a lot to the team.” As there are different areas of expertise across the team, trainees were exposed to a variety of tasks including assisting with due diligence, financial completions, client meetings, drafting. Real estate, general commercial and corporate work slips in as well and “we deal with all the technical aspects of IPE work, so we’ll handle those than say the broad corporate group for example.” For example, the firm represented European Energy UK, a Danish based renewable energy company, on the divestment of a solar project which involved the sale of shares in the project company. Insiders stressed that it was important to be vocal in order to pursue specific interests: “If you are interested in a particular type of work, they are keen to get you some exposure and they’re open to that.” That led to a growing sense of responsibility within the group as another source explained “the more they know you the more they trust you and the more they give you.”

The finance group is broken down into a whole range of subdivisions including leveraged finance, structured finance, corporate finance and debt capital markets. We heard there was a bigger number of trainees per cycle in finance, which strengthened the sense of collaboration: “there’s a real team feeling amongst trainees.” But it’s not just the trainees lending support, as one shared that seniors “throw you in the deep end but in a nice way! They helped me believe in myself which was really nice.” Of the work involved, you can expect “the usual things” such as board minutes, ancillaries, notices, memos, CP checklists and plenty of client contact. Sources praised the calibre of the work and the fact that, simply put, it actually mattered: “there’s no faux work for trainees here. It’s all important and necessary.” They’ve worked with plenty of familiar names too, like recently representing Klarna, the financial services company, in its application to the FCA to authorise its UK payment related regulations, allowing it to continue to function within the country.

The transactional real estate team carries out most of its work up North, one insider shared “it was daunting when I first joined, the team is massive!” But don’t be put off, as trainees get filtered into their respective sub-teams. Trainees spoke of a strong commitment to their learning in this seat as it’s structured to improve your capabilities over the six-month period: “the responsibility is huge. You get your own little matters which help you come to grips with the firm’s resources. I found that really useful.” Tasks included organising paralegals, drafting, leases, land registry searches in a variety of areas such as big property deals, commercial property, office and retail spaces and more. The firm is also open to trainee’s specific interests within the practice, so “you get a broad exposure to a lot here. You can voice what kinds of things you want to do.” It’s also a great seat for networking, as one source revealed that “I got to know a lot of people by the end of the seat and get used to many different working styles.”

“No one day is the same which is really exciting, it’s my most varied seat by far.”

Trainees sitting in the commercial disputes seat argued that you won’t find a seat with a more mixed selection of work on offer: “no one day is the same which is really exciting, it’s my most varied seat by far.” This range encompasses fraud, corporate, insurance, product liability and more. Some of the elements that sources were most excited by were the opportunities to go to court as well as client contact, both of which we heard happen often. Other bits of work interviewees found themselves doing included trial meetings, counsel meetings, drafting witness statements, research, bundling, letter writing and attending mediations. This diverse workload was only seen as a positive amongst trainees as “they push you to do new things, but you always feel very supported. My confidence grew so much in those six months.”

Trainee Life

The intensity of supervision will largely come down to the individual that trainees report to, but overall, sources were pleased with the level of support they received. “Some are more hands on whereas others just let you get on with it,” one trainee explained, “the supervision is left to you to determine how much you want.” Though all of our interviewees were confident that if you needed to speak with your supervisor about work or something personal, they’d always make the time to lend an ear. Training is broken into trainee specific sessions (usually at the beginning of your seat) and then department sessions with the regularity of those depending on the team: “the sessions are really useful, most weeks we get training from updates on the law to new technology.”

Chatting with trainees about the different offices, the Leeds and Manchester offices seemed well positioned, as the former is right by the train station and the latter close to the city centre. In London, excitement was palpable for the big move to a new space. One source in particular beamed: “The new office is so boujee! I can’t wait till we’re there.” All AG trainees are expected to be in three days a week, with the firm providing work from home equipment for the work from home days, but it’s recommended trainees be in more if possible. Sources seemed to take this recommendation on board: “I make a conscious effort to come in most days as a trainee, I think it’s really good for development and networking.” As you’d expect from law, hours will vary, but maybe not to the extent you might assume. Most of our interviewees aimed to finish by 6pm, and only a handful mentioned needing to work late or (even more rarely) on a weekend to meet deadlines. Given this, most trainees on our list felt well compensated for their work and pay was given a big thumbs up across all of the offices.

“I think the firm did a good job of selecting people that are similar and would be friends.”

We’re sure you’ve heard lots of people gush over the culture of the firm they’re working at before, but the trainees of AG were eager to stand out from the pack: “I know everyone always says this, but it’s really true here,” one source began, “the culture is great, and all the trainees are really close to each other!” Trainees often eat lunch together and meet up as often as they can outside of work, but the firm also throws a trainee conference held in one of the offices every year: “there are workshops and lots of opportunities for getting to know each other, that was held in Manchester this year.” The camaraderie was palpable, as one source pointed out that “I think the firm did a good job of selecting people that are similar and would be friends.”

As with all firms in the sector, there are strides to be made when it comes to the diversity of the legal workforce, but according to our sources, this is a goal AG takes seriously. “I get the sense they really care about it and they’re sincere,” noted one source. Recently, the firm held an ethnicity event - Ethnicity.Talent.Law - which connects ethnically diverse students with ethnically diverse lawyers. We also heard many teams run a fortnightly DEI talk that someone can volunteer to host on a topic of their choosing: “there was a really interesting one on things that were developed for others with disabilities that benefit able-bodied people like sloped curbs, the topics really range.”

When qualification comes around, for most it’ll be a relatively simple process of an internal CV and overview of their seats that gets sent off to the department they are interested in. Most will be spared the anguish of an interview, to the joy of some of our sources: “qualification has always killed me off with anxiety in my head, but it’s not so bad here!” This is because the firm takes the approach that you have already been interviewed over a six-month period. The only two exceptions being if they have not sat in that seat before or if there are more applicants than there are vacancies. Luckily, everyone we spoke to aimed to stay at the firm for a long time, following in the footsteps of some of the OGs: “loads of partners have done their training contracts here. People that stay here, tend to stay here for yonks!” In 2024, the firm retained 76% of qualifiers.

How to get an Addleshaw Goddard training contract

Vacation scheme deadline (2024): 6 January 2025

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.