Slaughter & May: Each seat lasts either three or six months and together they give you the opportunity to experience both contentious and non-contentious work. During each seat you will share an office with an experienced lawyer. Most trainees spend at least two six-month seats in the multi-specialist Corporate and Commercial and Financing groups. Subject to gaining some contentious experience, you choose how you spend the remaining time. It can be divided into two or three specialist areas or focused on one. The specialist groups include: Competition, Dispute Resolution, Tax, Real Estate, Pensions & Employment, Financial Regulation, Information Technology and IP. You also have the opportunity to spend at least one of your second year seats on secondment. These secondments are either to one of Slaughter & Mays offices or to one of the independent law firms they regularly work with. Trainees have recently spent time in Amsterdam, Auckland, Barcelona, Brussels, Helsinki, Hong Kong, Madrid, Milan, Munich, New York, Oslo, Paris, Stockholm and Sydney. Secondments typically last six months, except that trainees doing a seat in the Competition group have the opportunity to spend three months in Brussels. They sponsor both the GDL and LPC and provide a maintenance grant.