Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP) is launching sector-focused training contracts that zone in on one area only.
The firm will run a real estate training contract and a financial services training contract from 2023, with candidates able to apply from September.
Senior graduate recruitment and development manager Chloe Muir said: “We remain committed to offering tailored and different career paths for emerging talent and these new sector-specific opportunities will strengthen our talent attraction for aspiring lawyers who have a clear sector interest. Many trainees won’t know which practice they want to pursue on joining BCLP, but we also understand that for some future trainees, they already have a clear practice or sector in mind.”
The new training contracts will be structured like BCLP’s current generalist one: four seats of six months each. The real estate training contract will include a compulsory six months in the firm’s core real estate seat, with options for the other three stints including planning and zoning, commercial construction, tax, investment management, real estate disputes and real estate finance.
Meanwhile, the financial services training contract will require six months in the finance transactions seat, with optional seats including corporate transactions; energy, environment and infrastructure; financial services disputes & investigations; tax; technology, commercial and government affairs; and real estate finance.
International seats and client secondments will also be an option for both training contracts.
Separately, BCLP has also launched an innovation seat for its standard training contract, with the first being in core real estate in London beginning this September. The seat will be expanded across other departments in due course. A significant percentage of the trainee’s time in the department will be devoted to “a tailored innovation programme” including training on technology platforms, and creative and process-oriented skills such as design thinking, along with a practical project with a view to implementing the solution for use by the practice group beyond the end of the trainee’s seat.
Other firms to have launched similar initiatives include Linklaters in its tech start-up, Reed Smith with an innovation seat and DWF with a legal tech seat. Addleshaw Goddard also offers a six-month seat to trainees within its in-house innovation and legal technology team as part of the standard training contract’s rotation.
Non-traditional training contracts are also not a new phenomenon, though BCLP is unusual in focusing on specific industry sectors. Clifford Chance has launched a training contract specifically focused on law tech, while Ashurst runs a NewLaw training scheme that does not lead to qualification as a solicitor.
