Shoosmiths: They are a full service UK law firm offering you an experience in a variety of areas including commercial contracts, banking & finance, corporate, litigation & disputes and real estate. In addition to these they have other practice areas which may offer seats on a slightly less regular basis and may include IP, EU & Competition, pensions, insurance, regulatory & compliance, planning and construction & engineering. They don’t have any compulsory seats, but you must sit within 3 distinct areas of law consisting of at least 1 non-contentious, and 1 contentious area. They allocate no more than 1 trainee to each team, which means you will enjoy high levels of involvement with the team. Over 2 years you will complete 4 x 6 month placements, one of which could be a secondment to a client’s in-house legal team. They have 9 offices in the UK which offer seats: Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Nottingham, Reading and Southampton and another 3 offices which do not offer training seats: London, Basingstoke and Belfast. They will also provide financial assistance and a maintenance grant for both the GDL and LPC.