Law graduates and students

Why Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance offers you the opportunity to join a global law firm with one of the most pre-eminent legal practices in the world. Our Open Days and Vacation Schemes give you those first insights into a dynamic career in law. Our Training Contract will transform you from a talented beginner to a professional lawyer. Join us and you will experience, first hand, the 'one firm, one team' approach that makes working at Clifford Chance so different.

Are you ready to become part of a world-class team?

As a Middle East trainee at Clifford Chance you will undertake seats in at least four of these practice areas. You will complete two seats in London and two in one of our Middle East offices: Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Riyadh. Seats choices will be within our core areas of Financial Markets, Corporate and Litigation and Dispute Resolution.

You will therefore gain a truly international legal experience working alongside leading sector professionals from across two continents. This will enable you to launch your career as an England & Wales qualified lawyer in the Middle East.

What's on offer?

As a trainee in the Middle East, you become a valued team member from day one. You will be close to the action with an active role in client relationships and business development early on. You will enjoy the challenge of working on a wide variety of international, market leading and landmark transactions, often collaborating with colleagues from other offices and practice areas.

You will spend one seat of your training contract in London, which will provide you with a sense of the phenomenal scale of our business and give you the opportunity to connect and collaborate with over a hundred of your peers alongside whom you will navigate your career. In all of your seats, you'll enjoy activities that develop and enhance your legal and business skills, as well as your commercial awareness. The role will be varied day-to-day including tasks such as drafting and proofing documents, attending client meets and you may even run some smaller transactions for our clients.

As a vacation scheme student in the Middle East you will get the opportunity to experience what a career at Clifford Chance involves. You’ll gain insights into our exciting, stimulating, and challenging work. You will be close to the action and will have the opportunity to work with experienced lawyers in two of practice areas – Corporate, Global Financial Markets, Litigation, Debt Capital Markets, Real Estate and, Projects & Construction. It really is a unique learning experience. Throughout the scheme, you will also receive the support of a supervising associate and trainee 'buddy' who will help guide you and will be someone who you can turn to at any stage.

What we are looking for in a future Trainee?

We're looking for graduates who are genuinely interested in the law and committed to a career in the Middle East upon qualification. Candidates with strong ties to the region and fluent Arabic drafting and speaking skills are preferred for our ME programmes.

Whilst you do not need to have prior legal experience or a law degree to apply to us, we expect our trainees to be problem-solvers with strong communication skills and commercial acumen.

Our training contract for 2025 is open to all law and non-law students, as well as masters, postgraduate or graduate students who are able to start with the firm in 2025. Earlier start dates will be subject to availability only.

You are only able to make one application to a Clifford Chance scheme/role (ME Training Contract 2025 OR Middle east Vacation Scheme OR IGNITE OR SPARK). Multiple applications will not be considered.

The competencies that we look for in our trainees include:

Client focus and marketing skills
Leadership, community and collaboration skills
Innovation and best delivery skills
Strategy and commercial insight skills
Relationship building and networking
Strong communication skills (oral and written)
Ability to identify legal vs business issues

The Training Contract

Applications for our 2025 Training Contract open on the 26th of August 2022 and close at midnight (GMT) on the 8th of December 2022. We do not recruit on a rolling basis and, we do not review applications until after the deadline has passed. We therefore encourage you to engage with our Global Virtual Internships and Virtual Events Hub before submitting your application. Details of all of these are available on our website.

Shortly after submitting your application, you will receive an email from us asking you to complete an online Watson Glaser critical reasoning assessment. This takes approximately 30 minutes and should be completed within 5 days of receiving our email with instructions.

The assessment days for Training Contracts will take place in January 2023.

Apply Now

Recruitment - London - Training contract1

The Vacation Scheme

Applications for our Middle East Winter Vacation Scheme open on the 6th of September 2022 and close at midnight (GMT) on the 16th of October 2022. Once we have screened the applications, those who have been successful will be sent an automated video link interview to complete by 26th October 2022. As the final round of the screening process, candidates who have been successful in the video interview will be invited to attend a virtual interview with two members of our legal team during the week commencing 7th November 2022.

The Vacation Scheme will take place in our Dubai and Abu Dhabi office between 5th December – 16th December 2022.

Apply Now

Watson Glaser practice test

Before you take the Watson Glaser test, it's a good idea to practise as much as you can so you are familiar with the format and the type of thinking involved.

You can click below to practise as many times as you need. Your practice attempts do not form part of the assessment and Clifford Chance will not see the results. As well as the practice test, there are lots of other online resources that you may wish to use. Some of them are free, but some require payment. Click here for additional resources.

Try a test