Students and graduates

Providing you have an affiliation to the region, we welcome applications even if you have applied to another office.

Unfortunately, due to the high volume of applications we receive we are unable to offer individual feedback on application forms. If you have been unsuccessful then try showing your form to a careers adviser, tutor or friend – a fresh pair of eyes may be able to pick up something you’ve missed.

You will be invited to complete our assessment day virtually, which will include a HR scenario based interview where we will assess your skills, knowledge and motivation for a legal career at Allen & Overy in the Middle East. You will be asked a series of questions based on scenarios, which you may encounter as a trainee.

You will also complete a case study assessment with one or two partners where you’ll have a short time to work through the case study materials and prepare a brief presentation, which will be followed by a discussion with your interviewer. This exercise is aimed at assessing your interest in business, your commercial awareness and ability to digest information and present your findings.

Unfortunately we only offer Training Contracts to candidates who have completed our Vacation Programme.

Our Vacation Programme are for those in their penultimate year of study, final year or those who have already graduated. First year students and students in their second year of a four year degree must wait until they are in their penultimate year.

We aim to recruit 2 or 3 trainees a year in our Middle East offices but this may vary from year to year.

Like many law firms, we generally recruit a few years in advance. However, when we can we will be flexible when it comes to your start date, so this can be discussed based on your earliest availability to start.

HR will provide information on each of our departments and meet with you one-on-one to discuss your preferences and create your seat plan. The departments you sit in must satisfy the requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority for you to qualify as an England & Wales solicitor and you must complete a seat in our Dubai, Abu Dhabi and London offices.

All Middle East trainees are required to complete a seat in our London office during their Training Contract and this is usually undertaken during your final 6 months.

It is vital that A&O’s lawyers give commercial, business-focussed advice as well as being experts in law and the new course will provide the foundations of legal practice through the LPC element, and the business element will develop your business awareness and equip you for a career in commercial law. On full completion of the course, you will receive a masters qualification: an MA (LPC with Business).

The LPC course itself will be bespoke course and is being developed by A&O fee earners and our Training team in conjunction with BPP. The course will feature materials based on real examples of the transactions we do and will ensure you are familiar with our precedents before you join us. The modules you will take focus on our core practice areas (Banking, Corporate and International Capital Markets) to ensure your time at Law School provides the best possible preparation for your Training Contract with us.

As the Allen & Overy LPC is tailored to the work we do, we have specified the electives that our trainees must take as these will provide the best foundation for your career with us. These electives are acquisition, debt finance, public companies and equity finance.

When you accept our offer of a Training Contract we will provide financial support for your law school studies. For all those on the A&O LPC, you will receive a maintenance grant of £10,000 and we will pay your course fees.

If you accept your Training Contract after commencing the LPC we will pro rata your maintenance award, but your course fees will be refunded in full. If you accept your Training Contract after commencing the two year LLB we will pro rata your maintenance award and refund up to £5,000 of your course fees.

If you have qualified as a lawyer outside of England and Wales and are looking to become a quasi-trainee with us, you may not need to do the LPC in order to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales. You may be able to re-qualify under the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme (QLTS). As a quasi-trainee, you would complete a period of training rather than a Training Contract. Your training period would be exactly the same as trainees who have completed the LPC.

Although the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) does not impose any formal experience requirements in order to re-qualify, we ask all QLTS Trainees to complete a minimum of 18 months’ training, as we believe this is the minimum length of time required to gain a sufficient overview of the firm and experience in a number of practice areas before qualifying.

We will pay for all necessary QLTS examinations and training. For further information about the QLTS process please visit the SRA website: www.sra.org.uk