Applying for a Training Contract with BWB

We have now reviewed our recruitment process and this website contains up-to-date information; please do not rely on any information published in guides in the past.

On 18 March 2013, we will open the main recruitment process for Training Contracts in 2015. This is for those who have not applied for a vacation placement. Applications will only be accepted online via this website.

The  application process consists of the following stages:

Stage 1 – Initial Online Screening

The first part of the application process will involve you completing a form which will provide us with information about you. Once we have this information from you, you will be presented with the Stage 1 screening which will involve you completing some questions with multiple choice answers. If you are successful at this stage, you will be automatically led to stage 2.

Please note you have only one chance to complete stage 1. If you are not successful at this stage this will mean the recruitment process has come to an end, unless there are exceptional circumstances on the grounds of disability. If this is, or may be, the case, you should email Graduate Recruitment at training@bwbllp.com to explain your situation.

Stage 2 – Covering Letter and CV

If you succeed through the initial screening at stage 1, you will be invited to cut and paste a covering letter and CV into two boxes. You should have your letter and CV ready before you commence the application process as you will be unable to make any amendments later.

Stage 3 – Application Submitted

When you click “submit” you should receive an e-mail confirming that your application has been submitted with a link to complete our verbal reasoning test.

Stage 4 – Online Verbal Reasoning Test

The next stage will involve you undertaking an online verbal reasoning test. When you receive the link to complete our on-line verbal reasoning test, please read the information carefully on the deadline for completing the test and the time limit for the test. The deadline for completing the verbal reasoning test is 17 June 2013.

Stage 5 – Detailed Consideration of your Application

If you do sufficiently well in the verbal reasoning test, your application letter and CV will be assessed against a set of criteria which has been developed over a number of years. Broadly we will focus on three main areas:

Your academic performance.Your legal and non-legal experience, interpreted in the widest possible way, particularly for your non-legal experience.How your letter and CV shows relevance to BWB, our ethos, our client base and our future direction.

We are looking for candidates who have displayed a path of continual improvement in their academic and other experience. We recognise that lower academic performance early in a candidate's career does not always mean that they will not perform very well at a later stage.

Stage 6 – Selection for a Half Day Assessment

We will assess applications as they arise and candidates will be informed whether we wish you to proceed to the next stage of our recruitment process. That process will be a half day information and assessment session, which will take place at BWB’s offices in London on 3 July 2013. Approximately 18 candidates will be invited to this session. Successful applicants will be invited to the assessment by 25 June 2013. If you have not been selected, you will be informed by e-mail that your application has been unsuccessful.

If you are unable to attend, any further progress with your application will not be possible and you will have forfeited the opportunity to be considered this year.

Stage 7 – The Half Day Information and Assessment

The half day assessment will be an opportunity for you to meet and be briefed by our Senior Partner, Stephen Lloyd, our management team, the Training Principle, Paul Seath, our current trainees, partners and junior fee earners. You will be provided with a tour of the building guided by one of our current trainees. We aim to provide a mixture of formal and informal opportunities for you to meet as many of our partners and staff as possible.

The day will end with informal drinks where we hope you will have a chance to relax and provide you with the opportunity to meet a range of other partners and solicitors who will be able to attend this event.

We will invite approximately 18 applicants to the half day assessment. We would expect roughly 5 of the candidates who attend the assessment to be invited to a final interview which will take place at the beginning of July 2013. This is not a precise number and if there are exceptional candidates then we will invite more and vice versa. The interview will be with a senior partner and a solicitor.

We are aware that with the number of applications we receive there will be many disappointed candidates than successful ones. However, we hope that your opportunity to get to know BWB’s partners and staff will mean that you will always think of us as a firm that could play a part in your legal career in the future..

Stage 8 - Final Interviews

The candidates who are selected from the main recruitment process will be joined by those who have come through the vacation placement programme route. The 15 candidates will then be subject to a final interview with our Senior Partner plus one solicitor after which we anticipate making offers to 4 – 5 candidates for trainee places in 2015. There are occasions when during the same recruitment round we fill places that have become vacant in earlier years and will offer those to individuals who are eligible.

Typically, we take up references as part of the offer process

The Future

We aim to keep in contact with our future trainees and if you are one, you will be invited to a number of BWB wide and trainee only events in the period leading to your training contract commencing.

BWB did not change any of its recruitment numbers nor did it defer trainees during the credit crunch. We have not changed our policy of seeking to recruit all of our trainees into solicitor posts at BWB. We regard our trainees as a vital source of recruitment into BWB and its partnership pool.