Training contract at King & Wood Mallesons

Our Training Contract

We recruit 30 trainees per year, 15 in March and 15 in September. The smaller intake allows trainees to receive early responsibility and the opportunity to be involved in industry-leading transactions.

Read the Legal Cheek KWM profile here.

Structure of the training contract

Over the course of two years, you will complete four six-month 'seats'. This ensures there is sufficient time for you to develop your skills and expertise in particular area and to experience different stages of transactions. Two of these would be in the corporate focused areas: Finance, Energy & Infrastructure, Equity Capital Markets and Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity, Private Funds and Venture Capital, The remaining seats would be in one of our contentious areas and one would be non-contentious areas. There are also secondment opportunities for our trainees both to our clients and also our international offices. Trainees meet regularly with the graduate recruitment team throughout their training contract to select their preferences in seats, which the team endeavours to accommodate. Upon qualification, we aim to retain as many of our trainees as the business will allow. Many of our partners, including our two graduate recruitment partners, trained at the firm. Throughout your two years, a full training programme is delivered via a number of channels. These include our Professional Skills Course, the opportunity to study for a Masters in Law and Business, know-how meetings run by individual departments and, where appropriate, bespoke training designed to address individual needs.

Training and Support

Trainees are integral to our culture because they represent our future. Accordingly, we recruit to retain, making sure that training and development are market leading and part of the fabric of the ongoing employment experience. We invest a huge amount in our future trainees, running a programme of events throughout the LPC year, including presentations and social events so trainees can feel part of the firm before they walk through the door.

All our trainees attend BPP at Holborn for the LPC, meaning they can get to know each other before they join. In addition, each future trainee is allocated a mentor whilst they study the LPC. These mentors are associates at the firm who are up to three years qualified, and can be a great source of support. Trainees are given an intensive twelve-day induction when they start their contract. Once they're in a seat, they also attend various training sessions that are related specifically to that department. As well as legal training, we also focus on business skills such as presentation skills and networking. Each trainee has a supervising associate and partner, giving formal feedback every three months. This feedback is extremely useful as we give responsibility early, both in terms of quality of work and opportunities to build relationships with clients and fellow employees at all levels of the firm.

Twenty trainees every year are given the opportunity to take part in our own bespoke Masters in Law & Business programme. The objective of this programme is to fast track our trainees' commercial understanding, especially in relation to business analysis, strategy, finance and growth. Taking this course means that trainees can get ahead of the competition in terms of their ability to anticipate, establish and relate to their client's commercial environments and business goals.