At Slaughter and May we don't pigeonhole our lawyers - all are trained to advise on the full range of work within their practice area, gaining experience across different types of work while developing the deep expertise needed to advise on complex, high-profile and ground-breaking matters. This is in sharp contrast to the experience that you might have at other City firms where, as a trainee or solicitor apprentice in, say, a finance group, you may well work in a very narrow area, repeating the same type of transaction many times over.

As a trainee or solicitor apprentice in one of our groups, you will work on the full range of transactions on which the group advises. In a corporate group, for example, one month you could help guide a client through the defence of a hostile takeover and the next you could be advising that same client on an equity issue. In dispute resolution, you could attend a hearing on a civil litigation matter in the morning, then meet a client to prepare for a mediation that afternoon.

We believe this makes for a far more fulfilling career. It provides challenge and interest, exactly what great minds need. It means that you develop technical excellence, commercial awareness and professional judgement from an early stage, which will support your career long term.

It also allows you to develop deeper relationships with clients, because you get to know their businesses better, and means you can provide advice on their most complex, strategic work as well as their day-to-day legal issues.

That said, it is hard work. You have to cover more ground and we set exacting standards for our work and performance. But with our collegiate approach, the support is always there.  Although we record time, our lawyers have no billing or time targets -  creating a collaborative environment where expertise, time and knowledge are willingly shared.