Vacation scheme 2025/Training Contract Sept 2027 - Commercial - Ropes and Gray

Application deadline: 31 January 2025

LawWorks 2024 Pro Bono Awards shortlisted firm 

Our two-year trainee programme is about more than just fulfilling certification requirements. We’re dedicated to helping individuals find their passion, grow beyond their expectations and become the best solicitor they can possibly be. To achieve this, we’ve developed a selective, personalised programme that offers significant mentorship and training, early responsibility, and the opportunity to assist with the end-to-end process of complex transactions. As a trainee, you’ll have exposure to the exciting, groundbreaking work we do for international clients, all while benefiting from the non-hierarchal, collegial and collaborative culture of a smaller office. 

Before you start, you and your fellow trainees will complete the SQE at BPP Holborn (and the GDL if applicable), so that you can begin to form close bonds with your intake.

We recruit 15 trainees a year. Typically, law students will apply in their second year of a law degree, so those applying for a 2025 vacation scheme are for training contracts commencing in September 2027. Students who are doing non-law degrees should apply in their final year. Our vacation schemes are also open to graduates. 

Our recruitment and selection processes are designed to make sure that Ropes & Gray is the right fit for each of the trainees we select. To help us achieve this aim, those interested in a training contact with the firm must attend an assessment day and, if successful, participate in a two-week spring or summer vacation scheme. The schemes are designed to give you firsthand insight into our work, our people and the unique culture of our firm.

If you need any adjustments to be made at any stage of the process, please just get in touch. 

The application form is your first opportunity to stand out. We ask one open question to allow you to demonstrate your commercial thinking, innovative approach and understanding of law as a business. Please note, we do not operate on a rolling basis. We have one application window. The closing date is 31 January 2025.

Contextual Recruitment System

We know that the most successful organisations welcome individuals from all backgrounds. To help us do the same, we’ve partnered with diversity recruitment experts Rare and use their Contextual Recruitment System in our recruitment process. The system enables us to further understand the context in which applicants’ experiences have been gained, and identify outperformers that others may miss.

Vacation scheme

If you’re selected for a vacation scheme, you’ll get to experience firsthand what it’s like to be a trainee at the firm. You’ll receive mentoring and support from your supervisor, meet lawyers from each practice group, attend workshops and interact with our employees at social networking events. In order to assess you for a training contract, you will complete an interview and a blog post task. Our trainees are recruited exclusively from our vacation schemes. You will receive a payment of £400 per week for attending one of our vacation schemes and, most importantly, you’ll come away with a crucial network of contacts.

All trainees who join us will qualify as a solicitor via the SQE route. If you have already completed the LPC, you will be required to complete the SQE1 and SQE2 to qualify as a solicitor with Ropes & Gray.

Key dates

• Application deadline 31 January 2025
• March 2025
  Assessment Days
  • 04 March 2025
  • 06 March 2025
  • 11 March 2025
  • 13 March 2025 
  • 18 March 2025 
• April 2025
  Spring Vacation Scheme (31st March – 11 April 2025)
• June/July 2025
  Summer Vacation Scheme (23rd June – 04 July 2025)