Summer Placement Scheme 2025

Our award-winning summer placement scheme is the ideal introduction to Mills & Reeve. We recruit all of our trainees through our summer vacation scheme and candidates are strongly encouraged to apply to us for a place on this scheme.

You will enjoy two weeks' work experience at one of our offices in Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester or Norwich. A competitive allowance will be provided to help with the cost of accommodation, travel and other expenses.

During your time with us, you will work with a variety of lawyers, moving to different parts of our practice every two or three days. You will be placed in situations where you can do real work, such as undertaking legal research, preparing or checking draft documents, attending court, meeting clients or serving proceedings.

We will pair you with one of our trainees who will answer your questions and help you make the most of your experience. Presentations, lectures and social events will help you get to know our culture.

We are recruiting the following positions from our 2025 summer vacation scheme:

Training contracts to start in 2026 – 2 positions in Birmingham, 2 positions in Norwich and 1 position in Cambridge.

For 2026 training contracts, we will sponsor candidates to qualify via the SQE route and we will welcome applications from final-year law students or non-law graduates who have completed a PGDL course. 

Training contracts to start in 2027 - c.30 positions across Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester and Norwich.

For 2027 training contracts, we will sponsor candidates to qualify via the SQE route and we will welcome applications from penultimate-year/final-year law students, final-year non-law students and graduates (any discipline).  We will sponsor non-law candidates to undertake the PGDL before the SQE prep course.

We want people who are ready for early responsibility because that is what we will give you. You will be driven, have a positive attitude and an agile approach. You will enjoy untangling complicated issues and thrive on building relationships with clients and colleagues.

Although we do not have academic grade requirements, we look for candidates who have the key competencies to be excellent trainee solicitors and the potential to be our lawyers of the future. These competencies include:

Collaboration

Growth Mindset

Getting things done

Resilience

Client Focus

Business & Commercial Mindset

Analysis & Problem Solving