DLA Piper UK LLP

DLA Piper is one of the world’s largest law firms, supporting businesses across the globe with their commercial legal needs. We now have 4,200 lawyers working in over 70 offices in Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and the US.

The firm

Our vision is to be the leading global business law firm, delivering quality value added services to our clients, who include some of the world’s leading businesses, governments, banks and financial institutions. DLA Piper offers trainees the opportunity to apply for a range of international and client secondments. Our future trainees have access to our website ‘Inside DLA Piper’ where they can, amongst other things, contact one another via chat forums, and keep up to date with what is going on in the firm wherever they are in the world.

DLA Piper has an extensive Corporate Responsibility programme to support local communities around each office, and our employees are actively encouraged to get involved!

The firm welcomes applications from students who come from either a law or non-law academic background.

The training programme

Following a comprehensive residential induction, trainees complete four six-month seats during the course of their training contract. If you want responsibility, we will give you as much as you can handle and your progress will be monitored through regular reviews and feedback. The compulsory Professional Skills Course is run in-house and is tailored to our trainees. This, combined with on-the-job experience, provides trainees with an excellent foundation on which to build their professional careers.

The summer scheme

The firm operates a formal summer placement scheme, which runs between June and August each year. The placements last for two weeks and allow a thorough insight into DLA Piper via work experience and shadowing, social events and talks. There are approximately 170 places available nationwide.