Training contracts

At Forsters, we ensure that every trainee gains a well-rounded experience, which is why you will likely spend time in both Commercial Real Estate (Core CRE) and Trusts, Tax and Estates (TTE), as well as a contentious seat. This approach is designed to provide you with a comprehensive understanding of our key practice areas and how they interact with other parts of the firm.

We know that each trainee has unique preferences, and we take the time to understand your drivers and areas of interest. While we do our best to accommodate individual requests, our seat rotations are ultimately driven by our business needs. Although we cannot promise a seat in a specific team, we do guarantee exposure to a range of areas and will support you in making the most of the opportunities available across the firm.

We ask each trainee to have two reviews during each seat:

1. Mid seat review (at the 2-month mark): This is an informal chat between you and your supervisor. It’s a great chance to reflect on what you’ve achieved so far, identify areas where you’d like more experience, and get valuable feedback to help guide your progress in the second half of your seat.
2. End of seat review (at the 4-month mark): This is a more formal meeting between you, your supervisor, and sometimes a partner. You’ll need to complete a form beforehand, using the Trainee Career Development Framework to guide you.

Both reviews play an important role in the Newly Qualified (NQ) qualification process.

Vacation schemes and training contract

• The earliest we can accept an application from non-law students is in their final year.
• The earliest we can accept an application from law students in their penultimate year.

Applicants from all universities are welcome. For graduates, we welcome applicants from all degree subjects and career changers, regardless of how long it’s been since you graduated. We typically bring our trainees on board through our vacation schemes to spend a week with us so we can get to know you better. However, if you’re unable to participate in a vacation scheme, you’re also welcome to apply directly for the training contract. We kindly ask that you choose between these options, as we can only accept one application.

Open days and trainee application Q&A with early careers

We encourage you to apply for an open day before submitting a vacation scheme application to come to the office and hear more about the work we do. All our open days offer the same content and opportunities, so please apply to just one per cycle. The eligibility requirements are the same as those for our vacation schemes and training contract.

First year insight day

This special opportunity is designed for students who are still studying and not yet eligible to apply for vacation schemes and training contracts. For those studying law, you must be in your first year of a 3-year degree, or first/second year of a 4-year degree. For applicants studying a non-law degree, you must not be in the final year. If you do not meet the above criteria, you should instead apply for the open days.

We look for candidates with strong intellectual ability, sound judgement and a genuine interest in a career at Forsters.

We value individuals who are collaborative, personable and motivated, and who demonstrate an understanding of what distinguishes our firm and the work we do.

Every application is reviewed by a member of our Graduate Recruitment Panel. We do not use automated filtering systems as part of our application process.

We attend a variety of careers events and fairs each year. We don’t target specific universities, as we want to be inclusive to all applicants. While our schedule may vary, we typically attend fairs with the University of Law and Legal Cheek.

Forsters is proud to partner exclusively with The University of Law, offering a bespoke SQE LLM programme (SQE1, SQE2 and SQE Plus) crafted specifically for our future trainees. Choose the University of Law location that suits you best; we’re flexible because it’s about your convenience and comfort as you prepare to join us.

If you’ve already completed your studies before securing a training contract with us, don’t worry if it was at a different institution – we recognise that everyone’s journey is unique.

We’re proud to sponsor our future trainees for both the PGDL and SQE, and we’ll support you with a maintenance grant of £9,000 (PGDL) and £12,000 (SQE) per year of study. If you’ve already completed these studies before receiving a training contract offer with us, we don’t sponsor the fees retrospectively.

Yes, we can support with travel expenses for those attending open days and assessment days. We are happy to reimburse for within mainland UK (train/bus/driving). If likely to exceed £150 please let us know in advance.

We are committed to attracting candidates from a broad range of backgrounds and experiences.

Our recruitment process includes:

• Blind first-round interviews
• REALrating contextual recruitment
• Membership of the Halo Code
• Disability Confident accreditation

We regularly review our processes to help ensure our approach remains fair, inclusive and accessible.