When applying for a traineeship, depending on how you intend to build your career and practice law, you may want to consider spending your training days for one type of law firm or another. This article will help you start to narrow it down by briefly discuss the major differences between the different types of legal firms in the UK.

• City firms – As you might imagine, these types of firms are located in Central London. Most of their work is commercial based, although there is an ever-growing international component to their practice as well. City law firms are very large, and almost 1/3 of trainees’ jobs are accounted for by these London firms. Some of these firms offer full service practice, meaning that they cover virtually all areas of law; whereas others are niche firms, offering services in specialized areas of the market. From a student perspective, there are some who feel that they are just a number and their work goes unnoticed; but on the other hand, others love the rush and the high pressure situations, citing that they are given large amounts of responsibility right off the bat.

• International firms – These firms are typically located in major commercial cities around the world. London boasts a number of international firms including magic circle, and silver circle firms. The nature of work undertaken by these firms is primarily commercial and corporate. Trainees in these law firms are given quite a bit of responsibility for large contracts in areas such as mergers and acquisitions, banking, corporate and financial law. Often trainees also have the opportunity to spend a six month term in an overseas office.

• Regional firms – These firms are located outside of London in areas including  Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds and Manchester. They are smaller than City firms, but nonetheless have a sizeable presence. These types of practices offer all services, and trainees really have a chance to get their feet wet from the start. Although the pay for these trainees is somewhat lower than those in city firms, cost of living is less, and typically so are the amount of working hours.

• Specialist firms – These boutique or niche firms often specialize in a very narrow scope of law. The size of practice can range from very small (sole practitioners) to larger firms. Although these law firms only offer a handful of traineeships, trainees have the opportunity to create dynamic and trendy careers in areas including  professional negligence, immigration, IP, and other areas of law.

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