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DLA Piper

19 July 2016 |

About us

DLA Piper is a global law firm with lawyers located in more than 30 countries throughout the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East, positioning us to help companies with their legal needs anywhere in the world.

We became one of the largest business law firms in the world in 2005 through a merger of unprecedented scope in the legal sector. We were built to serve clients wherever in the world they do business - quickly, efficiently and with genuine knowledge of both local and international considerations. Whether our clients require seamless coordination across multiple jurisdictions or delivery in a single location, they can count on us to deliver the right service and solutions.

In the UK, we provide full service legal advice from London and the major UK centres. These include Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield.

Unlike many law firms, we are organised to provide clients with a range of essential business advice, not just on large scale mergers and acquisitions and banking deals but also on people and employment, commercial dealings, litigation, insurance, real estate, IT, intellectual property and plans for restructuring.

Because we are there for the important everyday issues, not just the big, less frequent deals, our relationships with our clients are extremely important. We have a comprehensive, award winning client relationship management programme and our brand is built upon local legal excellence, global capability and long-term full service relationships with our clients.

At DLA Piper, we look for opportunities to use our strength as a leading global business law firm to make a positive contribution in our local and global communities. Our Corporate Responsibility initiatives embody our values and demonstrate how they are embedded in the way we engage with our people, our clients and our communities.

Who should apply

We are committed to attracting, developing and retaining the best people as our continued success relies on our ability to provide a supportive, inclusive and motivating environment where everyone has a role to play in supporting the delivery of outstanding service to our clients.

We offer exceptional career opportunities to our aspiring graduates, in an environment that is challenging, rewarding and, we believe, truly different from our competitors.

We are looking for highly talented people who can demonstrate an affinity with our values to help us achieve our vision of becoming the leading global business law firm. Within our trainee cohort we need a diverse group of talented individuals who have a consistently strong academic performance, formidable commercial acumen, who are articulate, ambitious, driven with sharp minds, enthusiasm and intellectual curiosity.

In return, we offer a dynamic and diverse environment in which people can build a long and fruitful career and have their success rewarded.

As we recruit two years in advance we developed 'The Pipeline', an online portal where future trainees can contact one another, read blogs from our current trainees, share stories and are kept up to date with news from the firm.

Training Programme

Upon joining the firm all trainees in the UK attend a residential induction course, which gives them the opportunity to network with colleagues and speak to senior people within the firm to learn more about our visions and values, before joining their respective offices.

Trainees then go on to complete four six-month seats and are given an opportunity to express what areas of law they would like to experience during their training contracts. They also have the opportunity to do a seat abroad, or a client secondment. Current international secondments include Bangkok, Dubai, Hong Kong, Madrid, Moscow and Sydney.

Our refreshing approach to learning and development where people are encouraged to take on early responsibility, combined with an open door policy, provides our trainees with an excellent foundation on which to build their careers.

After qualification our award winning training programme ensures that all employees are developed throughout their time at DLA Piper, as we believe in investing in the careers and reputation of our people.

Work Placements

We offer approximately 130 placements across our UK offices and use these to recruit our trainees. Participants spend time with two different departments and are fully immersed into life at DLA Piper. They are given real work to develop their legal and wider workplace skills, as well as demonstrate their ability. In addition they take part in work shadowing, court visits, bespoke presentations, group activities and social events with our trainees. The aim is that, by the end of the scheme, participants have a real feel for our work, clients and people.