Clifford Chance LLP - True Picture

Clifford Chance training contract review 2026

The Firm

The term ‘magic circle’ can stir up a number of different feelings in any prospective TC applicant. Excitement? Awe? Apprehension, even? Rest assured, our interviewees told us that though “people often get put off by the magic circle,” at least at Clifford Chance they shouldn’t be: “It’s not stuffy like some other firms.” 

Much of the draw for trainees, alongside the stellar market-leading work,  was the fact that “they broke down the stereotype of what a magic circle firm would be; I went to the open day and it was the first time I’d been in a room with so many people from different backgrounds, different unis and different careers,” and that something that we heard extends through to the trainee experience.

“I wouldn’t have gone to a firm where the people weren’t nice.”

Titles like that don’t magic themselves out of nowhere, so it should come as no surprise that a firm part of a special elite is top of the market in the UK for more than a few practices. Chambers UK  puts it at the top of the totem for: asset finance (aviation); banking litigation; debt capital markets; equity capital markets; capital markets securitisation; employee share schemes and incentives; financial services (contentious regulatory); financial services (non-contentious regulatory); insurance (non-contentious); investment funds (real estate); PE buyouts; projects (domestic and international); public international law; and real estate finance – and breathe!

With 28 offices worldwide, trainees are bound to work on cross-border matters in most of their practices – a testament to the firm’s status on the global stage too. Chambers Global  marks Clifford Chance out as a Global Market Leader in asset finance and business and human rights law, and they pick up a host of top billings in transactional and contentious practices including banking and finance, corporate/M&A and dispute resolution. Despite the accolades galore, multiple interviewees stressed that though the work is cutting edge, “that’s not what separates the firms; I wouldn’t have gone to a firm where the people weren’t nice” and suffice to say that was the overwhelming view of the firm; “nice,” and “friendly.”

The Seats

Trainees were confident that the seat allocation process ensures that “everyone gets THE seat that they want.” Each trainee gets 200 points which they allocate over the course of their four seats: “Your points are like cash, so you’re competing against others to outbid them for the seats you want.” As a result, “some people will put like, 180 points on PE and sacrifice the rest of their TC,” so while it’s not perfect, trainees felt “it’s better than going on appraisals which can be very subjective.”

For people with strong preferences: “you almost always end up with one of them.” Trainees are also almost certain to do a seat in Global Financial Markets (GFM) because “it’s the biggest area, covering general banking, asset finance and E&I” amongst others, and are required to do a contentious seat which includes insolvency, property litigation and general litigation.

As for secondments, most are allocated through the points system, butsome are partner sponsored. “Teams usually send someone they know is reliable and might be interested in qualifying,” explained one source.For those that want to travel, “it’s amazing; one thing CC does excellently is international secondments.” We heard that the vast majority of trainees who want one do go on an international secondment.

Part of the firm’s GFM group is the banking  team, which takes in a lot of trainees each rotation. This is a large department at the firm, so trainees are often tasked with handling the more administrative side of things. This usually includes primarily leading on CP checklists and reviewing and drafting ancillary documents. Sources told us they worked on both the lender and sponsor side executing loan facilities, but that most of the work Clifford Chance does is on the former.

Case in point, a number of the team’s most recent billion pound plus deals include advising Aviva in relation to the £1.85 billion financing provided by Citibank for its recommended public offer for Direct Line Insurance, valuing Direct Line at £3.7 billion. They also advised Jaguar Land Rover in connection with the refinancing of its £1.52 billion revolving credit facility.

“It’s a test of organisation.”

Sitting alongside banking in GFM, the slightly smaller asset finance teamalso offers a “very transactional” experience for trainees, but in this case, “transactions with a short horizon” so trainees often get to experience them from start to finish. Transport finance including aviation, rail and shipping finance make up significant chunks of the group’s matters and clientele. On the rail side Network Rail and Hitachi Rail sit amongst their large clients, and they have worked on big matters like advising Proxima – the first independent high-speed train operator in France – on the contracts for the supply and maintenance of its high-speed trains and on the financing of the investment.

On the aviation side, the group have recently worked for Deutsche Bank and Investec. The latter of which they acted for in connection with the senior secured financing to Atlas Air of three freighter aircraft. In terms of tasks on the newbie end, we heard it’s a big of “a test of organisation” for trainees. Sources felt that once you’ve gotten a good amount of experience, opportunities for drafting and inputting comments then are a little more forthcoming.

Covering CLOs, derivatives, equity, securitisation, structured products and debt, capital markets is one of the firm’s larger teams which features a wide variety of matters that trainees can get involved in. “There’s such a range of products” one insider told us, pointing out programme issuance, private placement, liability management and cancellation of securities as just a few. This made for a very busy and fast paced seat experience,with trainees also involved in loan and banking work for an extensive array of big-name clients including Credit Suisse Asset Management, JP Morgan Securities and Bank of America.

Trainees help with the drafting of ancillary documents like corporate authorisations but also get the chance to draft offering documents and key transaction documents like dealer agreements. “They really do lean on juniors if they are responsible,” highlighted one insider. So, if you prove yourself early on you can get a good amount of client contact and junior-level experience in this seat.

“You kind of get two times worth the experience in six months!”

Comprising of real estate finance, structured debt and loan portfolios, structured asset backed real estate (SABRE) covers matters with more of a UK focus, working with the likes of Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered. Make no mistake though, the seat was said to be just as intenseas others, and up there in terms of busyness.

A plus though that sources did note is that trainees do get a bit of say on what kind of matters they work on: “Before we start, we get to express a preference out of three strands, then halfway through we get to recalibrate that and swap a few matters.” This was seen positively by our interviewees, as “You kind of get two times worth of experience in six months!”

The seat was said to also be really good for project developmentbecause “you’re really trusted to be the project managers, so the trusted lawyers can get into the nitty gritty.” Practically this takes the form of transaction management and managing precedents – “if the Luxembourg team has a comment, you make sure that’s made it in” – but we heard that there are also opportunities to get more involved in drafting documents as you gain experience.

On the structured debt side “there’s a lot of document management, chances to markup documents.” We heard that many of the cases the department is working on are data centre-oriented. Some recent examples include advising Vantage Data Centers on the first data centre asset backed security in EMEA, as well as advising Ark Data Centres on the £200 million syndicated loan to fund the second phase of its Union Park project in Hayes. The team also advised real estate investor Castleforge in partnership with data centre operator, Galaxy Data Centers, on the acquisition of Redhill Data Centre.

Trainee Life

With over 200 trainees alone at Clifford Chance, it should come as no surprise to hear that the sheer scale of the firm results more in cultures than an overall culture. As one trainee put it, “Each department is like its own home, with different leaders, different rules,” and as a result, “you can have different experiences from department to department.” Regardless, interviewees did agree that there is an overall vibe: “A common theme is CC people are very helpful because, at the end of the day, they really do enjoy the job!”

This positivity seeps from the top down as “the partners love what they do and are happy to chat about it.” Ultimately, with a firm this size it’s almost inevitable that you’ll get the odd personthat every trainee won’t sync with, but on the whole partners show they care even by remembering your name. As one source joked, “it’s like you’re a real person, not a drone!” Partners can have pretty busy schedules so “you might not get hold of them immediately,” but our interviewees were pleased to report that in those circumstances “you can set up coffee chats for later down the line.”

Somewhat uniquely situated in Canary Wharf for now, the firm’s 2028 move to the City will continue to provide coffee-spots aplenty for budding solicitors. Currently, departments are separated by floors with newbies usually placed in an office with a junior and a partner which was received well “because you pick up things you don’t realise – the things you hear are so helpful!” Beyond the learning-by-osmosis that comes by working in the office “you have everything you need here!” Associates and trainees get a free gym membership – “there’s a pool!” – canteen, a Deliveroo allowance past 7pm and a cab home past 8pm.

All of this gave trainees everything they needed for the times they had to work past their typical hours, which can vary significantly between seats. For some seats, the work is market dependent, so at their most erratic “some weeks you can be billing 20-hour days, but the following week you could be doing a lot less. So, it all depends on the deal flow.”

For the most part though, our interviewees felt the hours were sustainable over the two years. The firm expects trainees in the office for 50% over the course of two weeks, but for some departments like real estate which are “sometimes still paper-focused” it is beneficial to be in more frequently, something that was matched by partner expectations.

“London really does go above and beyond.”

Another benefit of going into the office, we heard, was the fact that “It’s a very social firm,” particularly with more junior people as “there’s good social mixing between trainees and NQs.” Trainees have two large socials a year which have included boat and rooftop parties in the past. On top of this, there are practice groups and firmwide events to bolster the calendar, with some practices even having sports teams like a squash club in antitrust and a football team which competes in a league. If none of those take your fancy, we were told by one insider that “you can set up anything.”

Diversity, equity and inclusion plays a big part in social life at Clifford Chance as affinity groups are “very active; London really does go above and beyond whether it be socials, talks or panels.” A “good budget” helps to drive the groups’ events with the Jewish Network, Islamic Society, Arcus (the LGBTQ+ network) and the Gender Parity Network hosting multiple gathering a year, like the Diwali party, a Pride art exhibition and even a talk with the first all-female team to cross the Atlantic – “with nibbles after!”

The level of supervision is something that can vary, but trainees felt their supervisors were “overall approachable, collaborative and consistent,” and there was the general feeling that you could go up to any senior to ask for help – “I never had any issues with that.” The typical mid and end of seat appraisals also helped to provide feedback for trainees. Though, our interviewees told us the formal training was one of the big highlights. When they start, newbies go through one week of foundation training in-office before moving into doing training sessions alongside the work in their seats.

“For the first three months you get weekly trainings delivered by specialists and knowledge lawyers,” insiders told us, which can be on “processes, documents, hot topics, client preferences and internal processes that are helpful to be familiar with.” On top of this, the firm now also puts on training on tech and AI: “You get background on what LLMs are, how to effectively engineer a prompt and helpful use cases.”

“It’s a great place to grow.”

All in all, the trainee experience was one that’s sweetened by the salary. One source reflected, “we are well compensated relative to other firms. We are where we should be – slightly more than silver circle, slightly less than American.” Compensation jumps upon qualification which “isn’t another formal process, which is nice.” Applicants simply submit their top two preferences to HR and, while trainees are encouraged to talk to the partners and associates of the departments they’re thinking of qualifying into, we were assured by insiders that this is just an expression of interest,so there are no interviews.

By right of being at Clifford Chance, some insiders noted that you may see some “recruiters jumping into your inbox come qualification,” but for the most part, trainees weren’t looking around. As one interviewee surmised, “it’s a great place to grow; the work and the people are amazing, and the firm is investing in the future.”  In 2025 the firm retained 89 of 107 qualifiers.

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