Vacation scheme / Training Contract - 2025 & 2027 - Teacher Stern

Deadline 16 February 2025

Vacation Scheme (2025) leading to Training Contract (2027)

Vacation Scheme Programme

Participation on the programme will not only give you the opportunity to come and meet us in person, but it will enable you to get an inside look at what it would be like to train and work at Teacher Stern.

It is always recommended you attend a Vacation Scheme Programme as it will increase your chances of securing a training contract with us.

How it works

Each summer, usually during June and July, we carry out two or three separate week-long Vacation Scheme Programmes. Each programme is attended by up to eight potential new trainee solicitors.

During the week, potential trainees will spend time in one of our core departments: Corporate, Commercial, Employment, Real Estate, and Dispute Resolution, and will have the opportunity to experience life as a trainee solicitor.

During the week, you will:

• Get a feel and understanding for the work the department does
• Be able to take the opportunity to interact with other departments
• Learn how our departments interact on deals and transactions
• Be able to ask questions to partners and fee earners
• Assess whether we really are the right firm for you.

During the week, you will also part take in a series of group exercises, interviews and assessments.

Don’t worry, it’s not all work and no play! There will also be a series of informal lunches and evenings out with our current trainees and other members of our trainee recruitment team.

The week will then end with a formal interview with a partner and a member of recruitment team.

Trainee Solicitor Programme

Over the two years you will spend six months in each of our three main departments: Dispute Resolution, Real Estate, and Corporate & Commercial.

A further six months of your programme may be spent with one of our specialist teams (for example in our Employment department) or in a return to one of the three main departments. You may also have an opportunity to experience and work with some of the smaller departments such as Banking & Finance, Tax and Private Client. Spending time in each department will not just make you a better lawyer, but help you hone in on those areas of law that interest you and those which you may wish to pursue in the future.

During each of the six-month ‘seats’, you will gain valuable experience in several different areas of law and work with a variety of partners and solicitors within that department. This ensures you become fully integrated within the firm, get to know everybody, gain a wide range of experience, and have a significant degree of client contact.

Most of your legal training will be on the job – there’s simply no better way to learn. But you’ll need to be much more than an expert in law to succeed as a solicitor. As such, you’ll also be given opportunities to develop and broaden your personal skill set. You’ll learn about managing clients, financial management, new business development, networking and marketing.

What we look for

We are always mindful when we recruit, that we are looking for the next generation of solicitors and partners in our firm. Many of our current partners trained with us and have made a great impression on the Firm and industry.

Ideal qualities we look for in our new trainees:

• A strong academic background (a 2.1 degree or above)
• Important personal attributes. We’re looking for commitment, drive, flair, initiative, common sense, the ability to take on responsibility, and the ability to work in a team.
• Are you approachable? Can you build and maintain excellent working and collegiate relationships?

But we aren’t just interested in academic achievers.

If you are also a high achiever in any other facet of life such as sports, hobbies or other area of interest, then we’d welcome your application.

We accept trainee solicitors from all kinds of backgrounds.

So, whether you’re a law or non-law student, a graduate, mature student, international student, or someone who wants to change career, we’d like to hear from you.

Rewards and benefits

We are keen to recruit talented trainee solicitors who will ultimately become the future partners of our firm.

In order to do so, we understand the need to recruit individuals who not only have strong academic ability but who can demonstrate other important personal attributes such as commitment, drive, flair, initiative, common sense and the ability to take on responsibility.

The remuneration package that we offer our trainee solicitors is reflective of that understanding and is highly competitive.

For trainee solicitors taking up training contracts with us, their benefit package will include each of the following:

• Competitive salary
• LPC or SQE funding assistance
• 22 days’ paid annual leave (plus public holidays) and closure days at Christmas
• Private medical insurance
• Contributory pension scheme
• Life insurance
• Season ticket loan
• Client introduction bonus

Further details regarding our remuneration package will be made available to prospective trainees solicitors upon receipt of a training contract offer.

How to join the team

Step one

– apply for the Vacation Scheme Programme

Step two

– apply for the Training Contract

Step three

– attend one of our Open Days in April 2025

Step four

– join our Vacation Scheme week in July 2025

Apply for them both via the Electronic Application Form. Apply well in advance to ensure you secure your place on the Vacation Scheme Programme.

Applications for training contracts commencing in Autumn 2027 are open on Thursday 21 November 2024 and close on Sunday 16 February 2025.

An application for a training contract at Teacher Stern, involves applying for our Vacation Scheme Programme too. Participants will be taking part in this programme with a view to securing a training contract to join the Firm, two years later.