Birmingham Training Contract
Since opening the Birmingham office in 2015, we’ve built a consistently profitable and strong legal capability, working in corporate, litigation, real estate, and real estate finance.
Over your training contract, you’ll rotate through four different seats. You’ll build on your skills as you go, learning how to deliver level-headed advice to clients and deepen your commercial instincts and sector expertise.
Your seats will take place across a variety of practice groups within the Birmingham office. Each of these will last six months and will help you scope out where your interests lie and which area best matches your developing skill set.
Applications Open: 16 September (for TC’s commencing in 2027)
Application Deadline: 31 March 2025
Birmingham Trainees:
Year 1 – £37,500
Year 2 - £41,000
Birmingham NQ salary - £85,000
About our Birmingham office
We are proud to invest in and support the city by providing attractive career opportunities as well as by undertaking a variety of community and pro bono activities. For more than 6 years, teams across our Birmingham and London offices have collaborated to assist children to apply for British citizenship, with Kids in Need of Defense (UK). Some examples of local partnerships include our work with the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trusts and The Wildlife Trusts who we’ve partnered with to provide pro legal advice, donations and skilled volunteering, including team Wild Work Days to support conservation and habitat restoration efforts at local nature reserves. As well as education programmes supporting young people build their literacy and confidence through our partnership with ChapterOne.
What we do
Formally launched in 2015, our Birmingham office offers comprehensive legal solutions in our key practice areas - Corporate & Finance (Corporate, Commercial, Real Estate, Real Estate Finance, Asset Finance, Construction); Disputes; Global Regulatory; and Intellectual Property.
Our lawyers work seamlessly in integrated teams, as extensions of our London-based Legal Practice Areas and alongside our international teams, providing clients with access to Hogan Lovells' sophisticated global resources while delivering personalized services. We act for many of the world’s largest and most influential corporations and financial institutions, and our work on complex and multi-jurisdictional transactions regularly places us at the heart of exciting and high-profile deals. Our strategic advice in ground-breaking disputes has both clarified English law and set precedents for future cases.
Our practice areas
Our Birmingham office reflects the firm’s commitment to providing innovative and cost-effective solutions for the delivery of legal services. In addition to the extensions to our Legal Practice Areas, it is also home to the firm’s Legal Delivery Centre, which handles document review and due diligence, and to a variety of Business Team functions, including Compliance & Conflicts; Finance; Knowledge; Marketing & Business Development; People; Practice Operations; and Technology.
Our Legal Delivery Centre is the base for a strong paralegal community, who work alongside, and as an integral part of many of our practice areas and work across a number of key matters.
The key traits of every Hogan Lovells lawyer
Intellect and intellectual curiosity
We challenge conventional thinking and that often means doing work with little precedent. You’ll need to be ambitious and able to look beyond the obvious to deliver something unique and exceptional. We also look for a strong academic record from GCSE onwards up to a 2.1 across your degree and above (or equivalent).
.webp "Commercial awareness")
Commercial awareness
Clients need us to be their trusted advisors across their business. You’ll need to be comfortable speaking their language and interested in how business works.
Communication and interpersonal skills
When working with clients it’s important to be able to communicate in both a clear and concise way. Good verbal and written communication skills are a big part of being a successful lawyer.
Team working & building relationships
No one can do what we do alone. You’ll need to relish being part of a team, where everyone pitches in and achieves great things as a collective.
Resilience
You’ll have a rigorous attention to detail, be calm in the face of complexity and deadlines and happy to put in extra hours if that’s what it takes to deliver exceptional work. You’ll need to be comfortable adapting to new surroundings, respond to cultural nuances and tackle the unpredictable with confidence.
.webp)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the qualification route?
LLM SQE 1&2
Our Birmingham trainees study for the LLM SQE 1&2 at BPP University in Birmingham.
You’ll study in Birmingham and benefit from the social events and presentations we run at our Birmingham office.
What financial assistance do you offer?
We’ll pick up the bill for all your course fees and SQE exams. We’ll also pay you a maintenance grant of £12,500 to support you in your studies.
Can I apply to both Birmingham and London?
We ask you to submit just one training contract application per year, so we recommend that you apply to either Birmingham or London.
How many trainees do you hire per year?
We currently recruit two trainees to our Birmingham office.
Can I find out more about the online Watson-Glaser critical thinking test?
- We use the Watson-Glaser critical thinking test.
- The online critical thinking tests assess how well you can absorb and analyse information.
- They measure your ability to evaluate arguments, deductions, inferences, and conclusions.
- They're good predictors of success in roles where you need to see things clearly from many angles and separate facts from assumptions.
- To get a feel for the intellectual demands you'll experience from day one, you can take our practice test.
- Be sure to read the feedback you receive as it will help you with the formal assessments.
How do I request adjustments during the assessment process?
We are committed to ensuring that our recruitment processes are fully inclusive and as barrier-free as possible. This includes making adjustments for candidates with disabilities or long-term health conditions. If you wish to discuss adjustments or issues at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact our Early Careers Recruitment team who will be happy to help you.
Some adjustments we have made in the past include (but are not limited to) providing extra time for reading and writing, different interview formats, extra time at interviews, and additional guidance and support, where appropriate, at each stage.
Do you recruit on a rolling basis?
Yes. We often invite candidates to take the Watson Glaser test and we screen candidates’ applications before the application deadline. We therefore, encourage applicants to apply to us as early as possible, but only after you have had enough time to thoroughly research the firm.
Who should I contact if I’m having problems with my application?
For technical queries, please email our dedicated address: support@candidats.io
If your query is about the content of the form, please contact our Early Careers Recruitment team.
If my application is unsuccessful can I reapply?
You may make one application per *recruitment cycle for a vacation scheme or direct training contract (in any location).
*Our recruitment cycle runs between 1st September and 31st August each year.
I would require visa sponsorship to work in the UK. Can I still apply for a training contract?
Yes, we accept applications from candidates who require visa sponsorship.
If I was unsuccessful in my vacation scheme application can I apply for a direct training contract instead?
We only consider one application per recruitment cycle (either a vacation scheme or a direct training contract application). However, you are welcome to reapply to the firm in future recruitment cycles (which start in September each year).
Birmingham Training Contract
Are you ready?