TRAINING CONTRACTS
JOB APPLICATIONS
The firm usually takes on two Trainee Solicitors in early September of each year.
Applications are by way of CV and covering letter (by post to Peter Heginbotham, Senior Partner or via email) are accepted up to the end of October two years prior to the year of commencement. (e.g. October 2009 for September 2011 commencement).
The interview process varies a little each year according to the number of shortlisted applicants and may involve two rounds of interviews before a panel of partners and assistant solicitors resulting in a final decision (which is usually made the following February/March).
The core of the Training Contract consists of seats in the Business, Commercial Property, Commercial Litigation departments in the firm's Manchester Office, which usually last 6 months each. Trainees also work (and may have a formal seat) in one or more of the firm's specialist legal Teams such as Employment, Personal Injury, Banking, Matrimonial, Licensing, Probate or Residential Conveyancing. Whilst the firm reserves the contractual right to place a trainee in a seat in the Glossop office, in recent years this has only happened at the trainee’s request.
Trainees will share a room with a partner or work in an adjoining office. The firm encourages client contact from the outset. There is an ongoing in-house and out of office legal training programme. A Training Contract with Davis Blank Furniss is highly regarded within the Manchester legal community.
We are an equal opportunities employer and offer a friendly working environment. Trainees are encouraged to be involved in the Trainee Solicitors Group and to be active participants in social and other events attended by their co-workers.
Contractual office hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m Monday to Friday with an hour for lunch (1 p.m - 2 p.m). Whilst working slightly longer hours than this would be normal for most trainees, the firm does not expect them to adopt a 'long-hours culture' and weekend or late night work for a trainee would be rare.
Salary is the Law Society minimum for the first year and is usually above minimum in the second, dependent on performance.
Our retention rate at the end of Training Contracts is approximately 60%. Approximately two thirds of the partners originally had Training Contracts with the firm (or with its constituent parts).
