What will I do on the placement?

For each day of your placement, you'll work with a different team from our client service areas, providing you with an opportunity to experience a day in their shoes. You'll gain first-hand experience of our culture, the work we do for our clients and the opportunities we have to offer you.

You’ll experience an induction, social activities, breakfast meetings, and have the opportunity to get to know our colleagues and clients. We also want to ensure that you get a taste of our culture, so throughout the week you'll be able to get involved in any additional activities taking place in your office outside of the legal work such as:

• Community work
• Networking and Diversity initiatives
• Sports activities.

You'll also have a social event with our current trainees too.

We encourage all those interested in joining us for a training contract to apply via this route. Typically, candidates who complete a LWP tell us that their placement exceeded expectations.

What are the entry requirements?

We’re looking for people who show a genuine interest in the law. We value individuality, passion and innovation as much as we do academic achievement, which is why we operate an anonymised screening process.

To apply for our Legal Work Placement (LWP) you must be available for a one week work placement in Summer 2024 and be one of the following:

• A law or non-law graduate
• An undergraduate who's in at least their penultimate year of a law degree
• An undergraduate in their final year of a non-law degree.

What are the benefits?

For the week you are on placement with us you will be paid the National Living Wage.

Alongside gaining a real insight into the firm, you’ll experience our culture first hand and get a feel into what life could be like as a Solicitor.

Most of our training contacts are awarded to those who apply via the LWP route, as we'll see your skills, ability and passions, and know that you share our values. Although you can apply directly for a training contact, our LWP has become an important part of our process.

What to expect when you apply

Applications open 1 November 2023 and close 2 January 2024 for a 2024 Legal Work Placement.

1 - Application & Online Assessment

The first stage of the recruitment process involves a short online form where you’ll give your basic personal information and academic record.

Don’t worry, this is for reporting purposes only, we have a blind screening approach throughout our recruitment process which means your personal and academic information isn’t shared with any of our assessors at any stage.

We’ll then invite you to complete a strengths-based assessment. This will take about 90 minutes to two hours.

It’s important to us that everybody has an equal chance to succeed. The strengths approach explores what motivates and energises you, rather than placing too much emphasis on what experience you might have in any certain area.

2 – Video Interview

All candidates undertaking the online assessment will receive a feedback report outlining their key strengths. We'll then invite candidates that meet our benchmark to complete a strengths-based video interview.

3 – Virtual Assessment Centre

If successful at the video interview stage, we’ll invite you to attend one of our virtual assessment centres. You will be assessed by members of the early careers team, associates and partners, who have all been through unconscious bias training.

Assessment centres will take place across February and March.

We’ll inform all candidates who attend our assessment centres of the outcome of their application. You'll get feedback from our Early Careers team if you aren't successful at this stage.

4 – Legal Work Placement & Final Assessment

Our final stage assessment of our recruitment process takes place in June with our Early Careers Regional Representatives, ahead of final training contract offers being made in July.

If you'd like to discuss any reasonable adjustments for any part of the application process, please feel free to email earlycareers@irwinmitchell.com (in confidence) and we can discuss your needs.

“When applying for legal work placements, it was important to me that I found a firm which encouraged a good work-life balance, offered a varied training contract and was genuinely invested in their trainees. Suffice to say that my Legal Work Placement (LWP) with Irwin Mitchell did not disappoint and it exceeded my expectations.”

Nicky Tattal, Trainee Solicitor, Birmingham

Find out more

Learn more about the firm and our programmes at our events.

See our early careers events