LAWYER

London FAQs

 

  • Please complete the online application form here. The vacation schemes are:

    Winter Vacation Scheme: 27  October 2023

    Spring Vacation Scheme: 31 December  2023

    Summer Vacation Scheme: 31 January  2024

  • We will be running three vacation schemes in the upcoming recruitment cycle.

    • Winter Vacation Scheme:  Monday 4 December – Friday 15 December
    • Spring Vacation Scheme:  Monday 8 April – Friday 19 April
    • Summer Vacation Scheme:  Monday 24 June – Friday 5 July

    We offer places on both schemes to penultimate year Law undergraduates, all final year undergraduates (both law and non-law), all graduates, post-graduates and career changers.

  • We pay our vacation scheme students £550 a week. 

  • Our recruits almost invariably have exceptional academic grades, generally at least AAB (or equivalent) in their A-levels (or equivalent), and have graduated with, or are on course for a 2.1 or first.

  • We take all relevant information into consideration and look at your application as a whole.  If you didn’t reach the minimum requirements and you have mitigating circumstances, please provide these in the relevant part of the application form.

  • We do not offer informal work experience placements.  Eligible candidates are encouraged to apply for a place on one of our vacation schemes.

  • The deadline for applications for the winter scheme is 27 October 2023, 
    spring vacation scheme is 31 December 2023 and the deadline for applications for the summer vacation scheme is 31 January 2024.

  • We do not accept applications after the deadline.  

  • No, we do not usually accept CV applications.  If you are unable to complete the online application form please contact us at graduate.recruitment@dechert.com to discuss, in confidence, your individual circumstances.  We will be able to make adjustments to the process as required.   

  • We are happy to make adjustments to a candidate’s individual requirements.  Please contact us at graduate.recruitment@dechert.com to discuss, in confidence, your individual circumstances. 

  • We feel that the best way for you to decide if Dechert is right for you, and you for Dechert, is to complete a vacation scheme at the firm.  Therefore, we do not accept direct training contract applications. 

  • No, we will contact all applicants and aim to do so within ten working days of receiving your application.  

  • We reimburse up to £100 for travel expenses incurred if you are require to
    attend an interview at the firm’s office.

  • In this circumstance we would advise you to apply for an associate position, rather than a training contract.  Please visit the London Qualified Solicitors section of our careers site for further information.   

  • If you are unsuccessful during the application process, you will not be able to reapply during that application period.  You can, however, reapply the following autumn.  If you are unsuccessful after attending an assessment centre, we offer feedback.  

  • If you have a genuine interest in an area of postgraduate study, we encourage you to pursue this interest.  However, we do not recommend students to take on postgraduate studies to merely boost their vacation scheme application or fill a gap year.  Undertaking an MA and achieving a high grade will not mitigate for falling below our academic criteria at undergraduate degree level.  If you decide to pursue postgraduate studies you should be able to give full and convincing reasons for this in an interview.  

  • Yes. In addition to law school tuition fees, we pay future trainees £12,500 per year when they undertake the full time PGDL and SQE prep course.

  • Yes. We pay our future trainees’  law schoolfees for the PGDL or SQE prep course if they accept the Training Contract offer before they begin the course.  We ask all of our future trainees to complete these courses at University of Law Moorgate Campus.

  • We are only able to pay  law school fees for future trainees who are offered a Training Contract, and accept the offer, before they commence the course.  Similarly, we do not pay maintenance fees retrospectively.

  • Yes.  We don’t forget about you during this period, and will be in touch regularly with news and invitations to both firm wide and future joiner specific social events.  We also encourage future trainees to contact us if there is anything you want to discuss during this time. 

  • We typically take on 10 trainees each year. 

  • We have one trainee intake.  Our trainees join each year in August.  

  • We pay first-year trainees £50,000 and second-year trainees £55,000.

  • We operate a six seat, four month, rotational system, and we have seats available in many different legal specialisations in our London office.  Trainees can sit in corporate, financial services, trial, investigations & securities, finance, IP, labour & employment, real estate and tax.  We take time to counsel trainees on their career goals so that they complete seats that will suit them and align with their interests.  

  • In addition to regular trainee secondments in our international offices (Dublin and Dubai), from time to time we also offer client secondments. With a variety of options for secondments, all trainees will have the opportunity to undertake at least one secondment. In some circumstance a trainee may undertake two secondments during their training contact. Some practice groups also offer secondment opportunities to clients or overseas offices post qualification.

  • Yes.  Trainees and qualified lawyers alike are encouraged to do pro bono work.  Dechert is committed to pro bono work and all our lawyers commit at least 25 hours per year to pro bono.  In addition, we also find that working on pro bono matters helps lawyers to develop and enhance serving our committees through their interpersonal and advisory skills. 

  • We recruit people that have the potential to have long and successful careers with the firm, and we aim to keep on all our qualifiers.