Business Services Academy

The Slaughter and May Business Services Academy is our new graduate scheme launching in September 2024. This is a two-year programme designed to give a thorough understanding of the breadth of career opportunities available within the Business Services teams supporting our law firm, and to gain experience in different operational business disciplines, helping you to decide which avenue you would like to focus on wherever your career takes you next.

Training will be provided throughout the programme to help support your development into a well-rounded professional with a broad business skillset. Over a two-year period, you will work with our talented teams from across the business specialisms of People, Technology, and Clients, with the programme structured to provide you with a fantastically broad experience.

You will learn how each specialism works and more importantly, how they all fit together, developing technical skills and people skills along the way.

During this two-year programme, you will undertake four ‘seat’ rotations of six months each, across different areas of our Business Services teams. During each seat you will be taught key skills unique to that discipline, whilst also developing the more general skills essential in today’s business environment.

To help you navigate the world of professional services, we have grouped seats together into broad areas of specialisms, referred to as ‘tracks’, so that over the course of your time with the firm, you will have the opportunity to experience a wide spectrum of the different disciplines within the firm.

The tracks are as follows:

• People and Operations (“People”)
• Technology, Legal Ops and Project Management ("Tech"); and
• Clients and Business Development (“Clients”)

Your first 18 months will include a seat from each track. In your final 6-month seat you will have the opportunity to express a preference for one of the tracks and complete another seat from that track.

As an employer who values Responsible Business and is at the forefront of driving change within the legal sector, each track includes the option to complete a Responsible Business or Environment seat. We expect everyone who completes the programme to undertake at least one Responsible Business or Environment seat over the course of their two years with the firm.

We are committed to providing our people with the best development opportunities in the legal industry.  Our programmes are designed to develop, connect, and empower you to reach your potential.

Throughout your two-year journey, our Learning and Development team will provide you with a range of sessions that develop your skills, build confidence, and make connections in the firm enabling a culture of support, collaboration, and inclusivity. These sessions will likely include:

• Bespoke induction
• Practical skills programme
• Technical training
• Networking
• Peer-to-peer collaboration
• Team support and supervision
• Commercial and market awareness

In order to qualify for this programme you should meet the following criteria:

• BBB or higher at A-Level
• Be a final year university student or a graduate
• If an undergraduate, be on track for a 2:1 degree.  If a graduate, have a minimum of a 2:1 degree

We will consider all qualifying applicants, irrespective of their chosen degree discipline, and we are open to more experienced graduates as well as those who have completed their course of study more recently.

The rationale for our flexibility regarding background is simply that we aim to employ those with the brightest minds, regardless of what or where they have studied.

We are looking for enthusiastic individuals interested in a career within professional services with the following skills:

• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to manage multiple priorities
• Ability to work well within a team and build strong working relationships
• Comfortable handling, analysing and presenting data
• Proactive and self-motivated
• Commercial awareness
• Thinking ahead and problem solving
• Attention to detail

All applications are considered on their own merits and we encourage you to include details of any mitigating circumstances which may have impacted your academic results.

We use the Rare Contextual Recruitment System as part of this application process. The system helps us identify high-potential candidates by putting applicants’ grades and achievements in the context of their social and educational background.

Applications are now closed.

View the Business Services Academy Brochure which will provide more detail about the structure and content of the programme, who we are looking for and how we will invest in you once you join.