Bristol Training Contract - Projects and Construction 2026

The Firm

Clyde & Co is a global law firm providing a complete service to clients in its core sectors of insurance, transport, energy, infrastructure and trade & commodities.

We're growing and transforming our business and accelerating our clients' success. The prospects for taking on new challenges and pursuing your potential have never been brighter.

Our distinctive strength is our people. Sharp thinking, motivated and grounded, we believe the best ideas and solutions are co-created. We share our time and opportunities to contribute in positive, impactful ways. Collaboration and teamwork are at the heart of our culture where everyone can thrive.

Here you're empowered with autonomy to work your way. To embrace every opportunity to accelerate your career doing interesting, stimulating work. To learn and broaden your outlook with global teams and clients. Supported by thoughtful, inspiring colleagues and mentors.

Our business is fast paced and demanding. The expectations and standards are high. You'll be fully invested in growing yourself, your colleagues and our firm. Working together towards a shared goal - to consistently deliver exceptional outcomes and bring out the best in each other.

Our Values

Our values are the principles that guide the decisions we make, unite us in our endeavours and strengthen our delivery, for our clients and our firm. We:

• Work as one We are a globally connected team of talented people who act with a firm-first mentality to achieve success
• Excel with clients We aim high and challenge ourselves to deliver unique excellence for our clients, keeping them at the centre of everything we do
• Celebrate difference We help each other to be at our best and believe our differences result in greater achievement
• Act boldly We seek new opportunities, take action and learn as we go, recognising that curiosity drives our development and contributes to growth

Join us in Bristol

Clyde & Co opened its Bristol office in 2018, to provide dedicated support to clients operating in the insurance and infrastructure sectors in the South West of the UK.

Our projects & construction team also operates as part of Clyde & Co's global group, which comprises of over 150 infrastructure lawyers across six continents. We provide contentious legal advice to clients operating in the South West, which has become an important region for the infrastructure sector with several major projects underway.

Our office's deep sector knowledge and regional location make us a clear choice for clients looking for a combination of quality and value for money.

What is Projects & Construction?

The construction industry is one of the UK's major industries, contributing to 7% of the UK's GDP and accounting for around 3 million jobs. It can include the building of houses, renewable energy projects, roads, tunnels, hospitals, and sporting stadiums (to name a few). The work that we do supports the legal framework that keeps the wheels of this fundamental industry moving.

Projects and Construction at Clyde & Co is a large global team of 200 lawyers, working with a wide variety of clients.

No one project is the same and we work on a massive range of projects, from the operation of African power plants to the construction of west country housing developments and ground-breaking offshore windfarms. Projects can be small scale, medium scale or on a grand scale, such as the £23bn Hinckley Point C project in Somerset.

The Projects and Construction group is a friendly welcoming team and would support you throughout your career as a Projects & Construction lawyer.

What does the job involve?

As a construction lawyer, you work primarily in the field of contract law. This can be negotiating and drafting construction contracts at the outset of a project, advising clients on managing the contracts throughout a project, and dealing with disputes that may arise at any point.

As a Projects & Construction lawyer, you would have the opportunity to work on a wide variety of different contentious and non-contentious matters. You could be leading a High Court disputes case one day or drafting the contracts for a major new deal the next day. Every day is different, and you can shape your career around what interests you.

You will work closely with qualified solicitors in the team and would be supported in your development from day one. Our team has a long history of developing trainees right through to the top, with two of our recent partners having been trained at Clyde & Co themselves.

About the programme:

We're proud to be partnering with the University of Law to delivery an exceptional and innovative LLM course incorporating SQE1, SQE2, as well as an SQE Plus programme that has been developed by our lawyers in collaboration with the University, and is bespoke to Clyde & Co. Not only you will be thoroughly prepared for all academic aspects of the SQE, the world-class teaching and exclusive resources will equip you with the fundamental skills and technical savvy essential to succeed as a lawyer at Clyde & Co.

Throughout your studies you will receive comprehensive and personalised support from your dedicated academic tutor, as well as a Trainee Buddy and a Mentor from the firm. We also have a year's programme of social events and engagement days for our Future Trainees, so you can get to know us and each other before your Training Contract begins. Once you have completed the 11 months study, you will join us to undertake your qualifying work experience (QWE) via a two-year training contract.

What we are looking for

We are looking for those who are interested in projects and construction law and committed to a career as a solicitor at Clyde & Co in Bristol as well as the following:

• Achieved an AAB at A-Level or equivalent (mitigating circumstances will be considered)
• By August 2025, have achieved a 2:1 in your undergraduate degree (if a non-law or non-qualifying degree, you will also need to have completed the PGDL by August 2025)
• By August 2026 you will need to have completed your SQE. If you have not already completed this, Clyde & Co will enrol you onto the relevant courses starting September 2025. Therefore, law students will need to be in their final year, or have graduated, and non-law students will currently need to be completing their PGDL, ready to start the SQE next September

What we offer

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package as a newly qualified solicitor. You will also be entitled to a range of rewards and benefits:

• Private medical
• Pension scheme
• Group income protection
• Maternity and paternity pay
• Holiday purchase
• Season ticket loan
• Cycle to work scheme
• Gym subsidy

We'll make sure you have plenty of support throughout your programme - alongside having support from your dedicated supervisor, University of Law skills coach and tutor, you will also have regular one to one session with the early careers team and will be allocated a mentor from one of our newly qualified lawyers, enabling you to get peer-to-peer support and guidance. You can also look forward to a tailored induction programme and on-going internal training designed to ensure you have the skills, knowledge, and commercial acumen you need to become a well-rounded solicitor.

Recruitment Process

• Complete an online application
• Digital simulation - consisting of situational assessment & video interview
• In-person assessment centre
• Offers and feedback

Reasonable Adjustments

Let us know if you need us to make adjustments or changes to the interview process to help you best demonstrate your suitability for the role. We will do our best to accommodate your request. If you wish to discuss anything regarding the interview process, please contact Early Careers (EarlyCareers@clydeco.com).

You can find out more about the interview process and examples of adjustments we can put in place via this link A guide to reasonable adjustments, support and accessibility for our assessment process.

 

Strengths Based Assessment

During our process we are assessing candidates based on the strengths that will deliver success in a role. This is great for the individual, doing work they love, and great for the employer, having team members who love what they do.

For more information, hints and tips please view our careers website.

We recommend attending our Bristol Insight Day before submitting an application, so that you understand the next steps and Digital Assessment. We do not recruit on a rolling basis.