Vacation scheme / Training Contract - 2025 and 20276 - Akin

Deadline 5 January 2025

2025 Spring Vacation Scheme dates: Monday 31 March – Friday 11 April 2025

The spring scheme is open to penultimate-year law students, final-year students and graduates of any subject. We invite up to 15 successful candidates to take part in our yearly vacation scheme. 

Our preferred method of trainee hiring is via our vacation scheme because it is the best opportunity for you to experience life at Akin, and for us to get to know you better.

Our two-week spring vacation scheme is the perfect way to experience what life is really like as an Akin trainee. We have carefully designed a comprehensive programme of interactive training sessions, workshops, networking opportunities and exciting social activities to help you get to know your fellow scheme participants and reps from across the London office. When you’re not attending timetabled sessions, you will split your time between two practice groups and work alongside our partners, associates and current trainees. Whether it be drafting documents, researching points of law, or attending client meetings — you’ll be supported and guided each step of the way by your dedicated scheme supervisor. 

Although we will be assessing your performance during the programme, we appreciate that you will also be working out whether we are the right firm for you. Your supervisors will provide us with detailed feedback about your time sat in their departments, and you will also get involved in a mixture of written and group tasks. At the end of the scheme, you will be offered the chance to interview for our two-year training programme starting in September 2027.

Training Contract Programme Structure

We recruit a maximum of 8 trainees each year and therefore you will be integral to the team from day one. Expect plenty of responsibility and the chance to play a meaningful role in fast-paced, sophisticated client matters.

Over the course of your two-year training programme, you will rotate across four different practice areas, spending six months in each. This provides you with the best opportunity to acquire a breadth of experience and an indepth understanding of our business, our work, our clients, and our people. All of our seats provide opportunities to gain exposure to multi-jurisdictional work and our global teams and clients. Everyone’s legal journey is different. Although you may already have an idea about the type of work you’re interested in, our advice is to remain open-minded. Our Trainee Development team will be on hand throughout your training to help you navigate seat choices and help tailor your training programme. 

Key practices include: 

• Financial restructuring 

• Corporate/M&A 

• Energy & infrastructure 

• Finance 

• Financial regulatory 

• Funds/investment management 

• Litigation/arbitration 

• International trade 

• Antitrust & international competition 

• Tax 

All of our trainees sit in one or more of our flagship transactional seats and one contentious seat, to give a strong foundation of our key business areas and to build diverse skill sets. In addition, there are opportunities for a tailored international or client secondment.