Wragge & Co LLP

"Trainees are the lifeblood of the firm. We invest considerable time, energy and experience into each of our trainees, ensuring they become the lawyer they want to be." Ian Metcalfe, managing partner

The Training contract

At Wragge & Co, you're a lawyer from the word go, which means we give you early responsibility, big-ticket work and plenty of partner and client contact.

In terms of trainee numbers, we believe in keeping it small. For 2014, we'll recruit 20 trainees into our Birmingham office and five into our London office. Because you're one of a select few, you're not in competition for quality work.

During your training contract, you'll spend six months in four different practice areas or "seats". These are usually made up of a non-contentious, contentious, real estate and option seat. The option seat is as it sounds. You have the option to go on a client secondment or focus on an area that's of particular interest to you. It's your choice.

Training and development

Making great lawyers is what we do. And by making great lawyers, by constantly developing your skills and adding to your knowledge, insight and experience, our clients have access to the best minds in the business.

Our training programme begins before you start your training contract. Working with the Birmingham College of Law, we've created a bespoke LPC programme for our future trainees. This course will give you an incredible insight into Wragge & Co as you’ll use our own precedent forms when drafting documents and attend partner-led seminars to provide real insight into our work.

Once you’ve started, you'll go through a comprehensive induction programme to help you settle in and a tailored Professional Skills Course. You’ll have your own mentor, a trainee solicitor, to help you through the first few weeks. They're great for answering the questions you might not want to ask anyone else. You'll also have a principal, a partner, to act as your mentor throughout your training contract.

The quality of our training programme was recognised at the 2011 LawCareers.Net's Training and Recruitment Awards where we won the Best Trainer award in the national/large regional firm category.

International opportunities

We're a UK-headquartered law firm that thinks and acts globally. As well as our own offices in Abu Dhabi, Brussels, Dubai, Guangzhou, Munich and Paris, we have a trusted global network of leading independent law firms.

Today, a quarter of our work involves two or more countries. We work on international arbitration and projects, mergers and acquisitions and much more. Day-to-day our lawyers could be helping to shape the health policy of governments in the Middle East or dealing with a Fortune 500 company, financing road deals in Croatia or protecting or enforcing IP rights in China.

To see more of our international work and clients, or to find out about our overseas offices, go to the international section of our corporate website: http://www.wragge.com/international.asp

Client secondments

We need our trainees to think like a client and we believe the best way to develop this skill is by working with one of our clients on a secondment. Finding out first-hand what a client's work life is like by living it. Trainee secondments have included Unilever and Mercedes-Benz.

What we look for

We work with some of the world's biggest brands and blue-chip names. They demand legal advisers who know their stuff inside out, who will know exactly what needs to be done in any given situation. That's what going beyond the law is all about. And that's what we expect.

We don't, of course, expect that on day one. We look for talent and we seek out potential. A strong work ethic is essential. We're the sum of our parts here, and our diversity is our strength. Age, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability are irrelevant. When it comes to recruitment, we're only interested in aptitude.

We want you to have an idea of what life and work would be like as a commercial lawyer, so it’s important to do your research. We'll want to know why Wragge & Co appeals to you. Be ready to tell us why we're the right firm for you, not just why you think you're right for us.

We're not prescriptive when it comes to qualifications. So we don't ask for particular grades at A Level or degree. We look for bright, intelligent people and we think that our selection procedure measures whether you have the skills and attributes needed to become an impressive, commercially well-rounded lawyer.

How to apply

To apply for a training contract you need to first complete the online application form, which you can access via the “Apply” section of our graduate website. We want you to tell us a bit about yourself and why you're applying to Wragge & Co. Throughout each stage of the application process we will let you know whether you have been successful as soon as possible.