We believe that it is vitally important that our trainees join a firm which 'feels right' for them. We therefore run our Vacation Scheme to provide them with an insight into the way Boodle Hatfield operates and what it would be like for them to work here.
What can I expect?
The Scheme will give you a taster of life at Boodle Hatfield. You will spend time working with partners, fee earners and trainees, which will allow you to gain an understanding of how a legal working environment operates and to see the different types of work that we undertake at Boodle Hatfield.
The scheme is designed to allow you to get the best out of your placement: you will experience work in two separate departments and sit alongside our fee-earners in the office. You may be involved in carrying out research for a client, you may also be taken to client meetings, be given a chance to meet counsel as well as create bundles. One vacation scheme student even co-authored an article during their vacation scheme in 2019.
Boodle Hatfield is proud to be a place that clients come to for trusted advice across a range of personal and professional matters when the time arises. To give you the first hand opportunity to see how broad and bespoke our services and in depth legal expertise are, you will work on five interactive case studies, one set by each department, during your vacation scheme.
We also want you to have the chance to really get to know us. We therefore organise some social activities during the two weeks with people in the firm so you can experience the social side of the firm. Typically this will include dinner and drinks with trainees, an activity such as crazy golf and a lunch with the partners and other trainees.
In 2020 we were really proud to host our first ever virtual vacation scheme, which came about as a result of the pandemic social distancing restrictions and our commitment to offer an exceptional learning experience despite the circumstances. We made sure that we delivered the same core elements of our traditional vacation scheme, such as introducing our students to the firm, the different departments and people at all levels across the firm. We also wanted to re-create the experiences they would have had in the office so we ran a social event, delivered and facilitated practical case studies and skills sessions. Our students even have the opportunity to network 1:1 with our Senior Partner whilst they were with us.
We were delighted to return to an in-person vacation scheme in 2022, we took the developments and some of the adaptations from the last few years and embedded them into subsequent vacation schemes which continues to be a great success. Departmental case studies and sessions designed to help our students understand law firms as commercial businesses are just some of the elements that were introduced and are now here to stay.
The aim of our vacation scheme has always been to give students a really clear picture of who we are as a firm, what we do, who our clients are and what it would be like to train and ultimately continue a career at Boodle Hatfield. We are also committed to give students meaningful experiences and develop skills that will help them start their career in law, whether that is at Boodle Hatfield or elsewhere.
What do you look for?
Applications are welcome from both law and non-law students. The earliest an application can be made for our Vacation Scheme is your penultimate year of your Law degree or final year of your degree for non-law students. We will give precedence to applicants who already have, or are expecting to attain an undergraduate degree no lower than class 2:1. We will also give precedence to those wishing to apply for a training contract to start in 2026 with Boodle Hatfield.
We do not have a minimum A-level (or equivalent) requirement but we do look for strong academics overall. In addition to this, we want to read applications from people who are genuinely interested in Boodle Hatfield and can tell us why we appeal to them.
Legal work experience is a great way to show you have a core understanding about what a career in law entails. We recognise that legal work experience is not always readily available, for candidates who have not been able to secure time inside a law firm already, tell us about your other work experience. Not all strong candidates have amassed a lot of legal work experience but they have been able to demonstrate through their application that they recognise what skills and qualities make a successful trainee and how they have developed those skills. That could be through non-legal work experience, but these can also be cultivated through hobbies, or by attending open days or other skills sessions and events.
Do not forget that attention to detail is a critical skill for a successful solicitor, your application form should demonstrate that you have this attribute!
What is the Application Process for the Vacation Scheme?
We do not recruit on a rolling basis. All applications are reviewed by the Graduate Recruitment team once the deadline has passed. If your application is shortlisted, we will then conduct a video interview with you at a mutually convenient time. We offer approximately 30 interviews each year.
Following your interview you will hear whether you have secured one of the six places on the vacation scheme.
Want to hear more?
The boxes below provide some insight from our 2023 vacation scheme students – Izzy, Toby, Jess and Jack – and detail what they got up to and what stood out to them.
