DWF

Keeping its eye on the (crystal) ball, DWF is “a firm that’s looking to the future,” with its trio of legal, business and tech services.

DWF training contract review 2026

About the firm

There's a saying that goes: ‘While you were sitting around, waiting, doing nish, I was out, making moves.’ While this may be a side-effect of being chronically online, it’s a saying that certainly springs to mind when thinking about DWF’s latest developments. Just last year, the Manchester-born global outfit joined the small but growing crowd of private equity-backed law firms. Going back a few years, the firm also made history when it became the largest listed legal business on the London Stock Exchange in 2019.

With an anything but ordinary path, something else trainees appreciated was that unlike traditional law firms, “DWF isn’t just a legal provider, but a business that provides consulting services. With its investments in technology like EVOClaim and its contracts with AI providers, it’s a firm that’s looking to the future,” hitting the trifecta of client’s legal, business and tech needs.

“DWF isn’t just a legal services provider...”

“I knew there would be many opportunities thanks to the firm’s broad offering of practices,” one interviewee noted of their attraction to the firm. Indeed, the firm’s expertise includes corporate and commercial law, insurance, dispute resolution, employment, finance, regulatory & data, real estate and tax. It’s the firm’s nationwide health and safety, personal injury, and product liability (food) practices that clinch top-tier recognition from Chambers UK. The firm receives further recognition for its banking and finance and professional negligence work in London, while the firm’s competition law know-how shines regionally.

Eleven offices call the UK home with Manchester and London taking the largest number of trainees. The rest can be found split between Belfast, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Leeds and Edinburgh. DWF also has offices in Newcastle, Southampton and Bristol which don’t currently take on trainees, though the latter takes on apprentices. Add a further 23 international offices to the list and you’ve got the full picture of the firm’s reach. Despite these slightly larger proportions, one interviewee explained: “Across the offices the cohorts are small at DWF, I was looking for a firm that would give me that responsibility and ownership, and not one that would wait until qualification to suddenly start training you!”

Training Contract Structure

Newbies rank preferences for seat allocation, though there’s the understanding that second-years closer to qualification will get priority. There are also lots of opportunities to do a client secondment, which is “encouraged. There’s a lot of large insurers, banks, commercial retailers, as well as a few in the sports retail space.” Spoilt for choice there!

Seat Experiences

Trainee Life

“You can have a chat and laugh about normal stuff too; it’s not just work work work.”

Insiders had lots to say about friendliness and approachability within DWF’s culture. “From day one, everyone has been approachable and normal, and that’s meant in the best way possible!” a source quipped, “you can bring your whole self to work. You can have a chat and laugh about normal stuff too; it’s not just work work work.” But of course, there is work to be done, and even then our interviewees sang praises for “the level of trust and respect you get here – you can’t take it for granted. You have a voice; your teams want you to get the most you can out of the training contract.”

Outside of the occasional Thirsty Thursday drinks and pizza games night, there’s plenty to get stuck into in DWF’s social calendar, including local Christmas gift appeals, Santa fun runs, the London Legal Walk, football and netball games, and client events and fundraisers. As one explained, “There is a conscious effort to make events less alcohol-heavy. There’s a new initiative where you’re randomly matched with someone you haven’t worked with before to have coffee.”

Trainees can also get involved in DEI networks and schemes across the UK, and the firm’s also got men’s mental health, menopause and carers support in place. On the point of diversity in the workforce, sources acknowledged that there is work to be done, but highlighted that among their cohort “there’s a broad range of ages and career changers and people who had a later start. It’s not just those fresh out of uni.”

Trainees are expected to be in person in the office 50% of the time, translating to two to three days a week (although some teams might be in more). Sources valued what this meant for on-the-job learning. “I like the flexibility, and I learn more from being in,” we heard, “and also, if I’m struggling, I don’t have to message someone and wait 15 minutes to be told ‘Oh, that’s not what I meant!’”

Of course, the on-the-job training is also supplemented by more formalised training, including team specific training sessions and access to DWF Academy – “a big bank of resources with mandatory modules.” Trainees are also able to pick up a lot from their supervisors, and while styles varied slightly from supervisor-to-supervisor, sources on the whole were content with their “willingness to answer queries.”

Turning to hours, one trainee declared: “You get the quality work, but you don’t have to sacrifice your life. It’s a good balance here!” The majority of sources reported starting between 8.30 to 9.30am and wrapping up at around 6.30pm. “It’s common to get away by 5.30pm as well!” we heard, but as per the nature of transactional and contentious practices during crunch time, “there are late nights,” sources forewarned, “It’s nothing too terrible, though. You’re sometimes logging off at 10 or 11pm.”

These late nights certainly didn’t go unnoticed, however, with one source sharing, “After a 7.30pm finish, the team took me out as a thank you for the extra work. It was rewarding!” In terms of compensation, however, an interviewee noted: “Salary-wise, there is room for improvement as it’s lower than our competitors.”

Qualification

Come qualification, a job list is sent out and candidates can apply for up to two positions. An interviewee advised: “This is the time to back yourself and state why you want to be in that team.” Individual departments then deal with any assessments and interviews required for the positions. A few of our sources mentioned that this year “there’s been some competition for jobs, but that just goes to show that everyone has loved their time here!”