Addleshaw Goddard

With a multitude of practice strengths Europe-wide, AG is a shaw thing for trainees looking to cast their net far and wide.

Addleshaw Goddard training contract review 2026

About the firm

There’s no getting past it, London is the centerpiece of the legal market in the UK. Yet that’s certainly not to say that it’s the only legal hub. In fact, there are cities outside of London that offer rapidly growing legal markets. Markets that provide a perfect platform for early career lawyers: “I knew I wanted to stay up north but wanted that high calibre of work,” one trainee at Addleshaw Goddard told us, “I wanted to feel like a city lawyer, but I didn’t want to sacrifice any of those elements training in the north.”

With a number of regional bases, Addleshaw undoubtedly gives trainees outside of the Capital access to London-level work. And not just that, the firm’s presence in the Middle East, Asia and the rest of Europe serves up plenty of work stemming from other jurisdictions too.

“I knew I wanted to stay up north but wanted that high calibre of work…”

Nationwide, the firm bags top Chambers UK rankings in areas like consumer finance, partnership, public procurement, retail, social housing finance and rail. But its regional strength is illustrated by top-tier practices in data protection & information law, real estate and restructuring/insolvency in Scotland, the likes of banking & finance, corporate M&A, litigation, real estate and employment in the North West, and construction, information technology, real estate and tax in Yorkshire.

During the application process, the consensus from trainees was that lawyers at the firm “seemed really down to earth, open and honest. The firm also had interesting work, so it didn’t feel like a trade-off between the two.” AG takes on around 70 trainees a year, spread across London, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin with a handful in Aberdeen.

Training Contract Structure

The number of seats on offer varies between offices. Some smaller departments only have a base in one or two offices, and smaller offices generally have fewer options overall. Trainees rank their top five seat preferences and have chats with HR before HR then makes the decision.

Secondments

There are international secondments available to the Middle East and Singapore, which trainees can apply to through the general seat allocation process. These “tend to be more competitive, so they advise you to flag that you’re interested as soon as possible. You need to show how it links to your areas of interest and what you want to do.” There are also regular client secondments, and we heard that obtaining one is “very, very accessible for individuals in all different offices across the firm,” with all offices prioritised equally.

Seat Experiences

Trainee Life

As one trainee was quick to point out: “That cliché scary partner doesn’t really exist at AG.” In fact, the workplace culture at the firm was something that was praised across the board: “There’s almost the expectation when you work at AG that you’re happy for people to come by your desk and ask questions.”

Each office has a few office-wide parties per year (including Burns Night parties in Scotland) with additional socials organised by departments: “Everybody gets on quite well and knows each other because of these kinds of things.” Trainees also get a budget for socials and tend to get lunch together. There are socials linked to DEI initiatives, such as an event for South Asian Heritage month and a lunch for Pride.

“That cliché scary partner doesn’t really exist at AG.”

Trainees need to be in the office three days per week. Obviously, there’s variation between offices in style and size, but the consistent theme was an open plan layout, which “makes it really easy to get to know people within the team on a personal and professional level, and makes it easier to ask questions.”

We heard that working 9am to 5.30pm or 6pm was indeed possible in many seats, provided that they weren’t unusually busy. Contentious seats tended to be the ones with longer hours, something trainees described as the “nature of the beast” in litigation. “When I’ve stayed later, I’ve been happy to stay later because I’ve felt it would help me. I’ve not felt burdened by the hours,” one source told us. “People tend to be aware when you’re staying late, and that helps because you feel appreciated.”

The consensus on compensation was that “people think the salaries in the north should be higher,” but this came with the recognition that the work/life balance is was great for the legal world: “AG really feels like a sustainable place to spend a long period of time,” said one insider, “the culture is really great, the hours for the area of law are pretty good and your life outside of work is very well respected. It’s a place I can definitely see myself for a long time.”

Trainees tend to get most of their work through their supervisors, but there are opportunities to jump on other team members’ projects here and there. Whatever their current workstream, trainees have regular catchups with their supervisors, and this “sits within the wider culture of AG. Professional relationships are quite friendly in the first instance, rather than being super hierarchical.”

When trainees rotate into new departments, there is often a day where all the trainees moving into that department travel to one office for training. There are more sessions in the first few weeks, then formal training continues throughout the seat. More broadly, “it feels like people have a lot of time for trainees,” being willing to sit them down and talk them through any questions or issues they have. Trainees also attend training sessions for the whole department.

All offices offer pro bono opportunities, with each office sporting its own designated pro bono coordinator who sends out emails with projects. In London, trainees are expected to work in a legal clinic once a month. Volunteering events include Legal Walks and trainees can take one CSR days a year.

Each year, the firm has a partner charity for which they raise money through events like quiz nights. The DEI early careers team run events for social mobility where they bring sixth form students into the office to help them learn more about how to get into law.

Qualification

Come qualification time, trainees prepare an “internal CV” covering what they did in each seat and their end-of-seat reviews, which is then sent to the team or teams into which they want to qualify. Interviews might happen if multiple people apply for the same role or if a trainee applies for a department they didn’t do a seat in. “You get this sense that they always try to retain as many people as possible,” reckoned one trainee. In 2025, Addleshaw Goddard retained 88% trainees.