Solicitor Apprenticeship Programme - September 2027

Cooper & Hall Limited; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 21,000 - 30,000; Full time

Job summary

Weil in London offers a six-year Solicitor Apprenticeship Programme. If you’re an ambitious school leaver, you’ll learn across multiple practice groups, rotating through several fee-earning teams to gain broad experience from day one.

You will start with four months in business services, have structured study time to complete your SQE, and progress toward qualifying as a lawyer within the firm.

Responsibilities

• You will spend your first four months in business services to understand how the firm works.
• You will rotate through three-to-four fee-earning teams to understand the work in-depth.
• You will have structured study time throughout the programme to complete your SQE.
• After six years you will qualify as a lawyer at the same level as a graduate Trainee.

Job description

With approximately 1,200 lawyers in offices around the world, Weil operates according to the “one firm” principle, allowing it to bring the right mix of firm-wide skill and local-market presence to deliver the coordinated legal advice necessary to help its clients achieve their sophisticated goals and objectives.

Established in 1996, Weil’s London office is the largest of its European offices and the hub of its European practice. The office is a leading player in the UK legal market and is consistently regarded as one of the most successful London offices of a US-based law firm. The firm supports a varied client base of European, US and global private equity houses, corporates and financial institutions on domestic and cross-border matters.

Weil’s strategy is focused on long-term investment in recruiting and retaining exceptional talent at all levels. The firm’s people celebrate diversity and inclusion, and its award-winning pro bono programme is deeply ingrained in the firm’s culture.

Main areas of work

Weil provides clients with legal expertise at the highest level across its key practices of Private Equity and M&A, Funds, Finance, Structured Finance, Restructuring and Disputes & Investigations, and has been involved in some of the most significant, high-profile and prestigious mandates across all its legal specialisms. The majority of the firm’s work involves multidisciplinary teams across the specialist fields of Competition, Corporate Governance and Compliance, Employment, Intellectual Property, Management Incentives, Pensions, Real Estate, Tax and Technology, leveraging the expertise of its full service capabilities for its clients.

Inclusion

Equality for all has been at our core since the firm was founded. We honour this commitment through action, to create a culture where our differences are respected, celebrated and valued. We are a workplace of equal opportunity; a workplace in which every member of our firm can bring their whole self to work.

Apprenticeships

Our six-year Solicitor Apprenticeship Programme is your opportunity to get started and grow faster. If you’re an ambitious and driven school leaver, come and make your mark at our leading global firm. Over six years, you will receive an unparalleled foundation in how to develop a career as international lawyer. You will learn your craft inside this leading global law firm from day one, building your experience across a range of practice groups and working directly with trainees, supervisors and mentors to help you develop the critical skills to thrive in one of the most exciting industries.

Alongside learning on the job, you will receive formal training and have protected study time to obtain your law degree as you complete the programme. You will be supported at every stage but we will challenge you to be your best. If you’re ready to step up, this is a unique chance to earn money as you train, forgo student debt and learn to be a lawyer from those who are the very best in their field.

You will spend your first four months in business services to give you an overview of how our firm works, familiarise yourself with working in an office environment and start building your network. You will then rotate through three-to-four fee-earning teams to understand the work we do in-depth and where you might want to specialise.

You will have structured time to study throughout the programme, but after your fourth year you will take eight months out of the day-to-day business so you can focus on your SQE. After completing your SQE you will spend six months in three separate teams, and potentially an international secondment. This mirrors our graduate Trainees’ experience. After six years in total, you will qualify as a lawyer at the same level as a graduate Trainee.