Penningtons Manches Cooper is a leading UK and international law firm which provides high quality legal advice tailored to both businesses and individuals. Today, we have 130 partners and over 880 people in total across our UK and international offices.

We are a full service firm with high ranking lawyers in a multitude of practice areas. Through a strong team ethic and an emphasis on collaboration, we are able to use our extensive technical knowledge and unparalleled market insight to solve complex legal and strategic issues.

Among our clients we count multi-national corporations, public companies, professional partnerships, banks and financial institutions as well as private individuals, owner managed businesses and start-ups.

The firm has enjoyed substantial growth in recent years. We have a continuing commitment to excellence and a drive for innovation alongside our expanding international footprint.

We believe that a varied workforce generates vitality for our firm. We focus on representing the diversity of our people and creating an inclusive culture that enables everyone to reach their career potential by being their true selves.

We offer vacation scheme placements in our Basingstoke, Birmingham, Cambridge, Guildford, London, Oxford and Reading offices. You will spend time working in one of the firm’s practice areas in either business services, dispute resolution, private individuals or real estate. 

Throughout the week you will get hands-on experience enabling you to develop an understanding of our work and culture. You can expect to be involved in real assignments, whether this be drafting documents, attending client and team meetings, conducting research and sometimes even attending court hearings or arbitrations.  You will be allocated a trainee buddy and senior mentor who will be on hand to support and guide you throughout your time with us.  

During your week at the firm, you can also expect to get involved with:  

• introductory sessions to our practice areas; 
• team building session with your fellow vacation scheme participants;  
• the opportunity to meet with our CEO to learn more about the firm’s vision and strategic objectives; 
• the chance to meet members of our PennFuture committee, our junior lawyer led networks that aim to bring together junior lawyers from each of our offices; and 
• networking and social opportunities with colleagues across the firm.  

A large proportion of our training contract positions are recruited through our vacation scheme, so if this is your end goal, applying for the scheme is a good route to take.

We run one spring and two summer vacation schemes each year. There are ten places available on each scheme across all of our locations. The dates of our 2024 vacation schemes are as follows: 

Spring scheme: Monday 8 April – Friday 12 April 2024 

Summer scheme one: Monday 10 June – Friday 14 June 2024 

Summer scheme two: Monday 24 June – Friday 28 June 2024 

What are we looking for?

The vacation scheme is open to candidates who are planning to take up a training contract in two years’ time.  We are looking for dedicated, diverse candidates with a strong academic record and commercial awareness.   

Eligibility criteria:    

• Penultimate year or final year law undergraduate, final year non-law undergraduate or post-graduates/career changers 
• No minimum A-level grade requirements   
• Have, or be on track for a 2:1 degree in any discipline  
• Dedicated to a career in law 
• Be a great team player 
• Have exceptional communication skills  

We understand that extenuating circumstances do happen during studies and therefore if you do not meet these criteria and feel that your grades do not reflect your abilities, please include the context of this within your application and this will be considered.

Our training contracts are designed to offer trainees a breath of experience and consist of four seats that are rotated every six months, with the aim of providing trainees with as much exposure as possible to our business and clients. During your training contract, we will work with you to ensure that your career aspirations and interests are met, all while learning from recognised experts, taking on real responsibility and interacting with great colleagues.

We offer training contracts in London, Basingstoke/Reading, Birmingham, Cambridge, Guildford and Oxford. You can find out more about the seats available in each location on our website. Please note that available seats will vary at each rotation.

What are we looking for?

We are looking for dedicated, diverse candidates with a strong academic record and commercial awareness.  

Eligibility criteria:

• Penultimate year or final year law undergraduate, final year non-law undergraduate or post-graduates/career changers
• No minimum A-level grade requirements
• Have, or be on track for a 2:1 degree in any discipline
• Dedicated to a career in law
• Be a great team player
• Have exceptional communication skills
• Have an entrepreneurial mindset and will help drive PMC forward in our vision for the future

We understand that extenuating circumstances can happen during studies and therefore if you do not meet these criteria and feel that your grades do not reflect your abilities, please include the context of this within your application and this will be considered.

Please note that undergraduate applicants must be in their penultimate or final year of a law degree or their final year of a non-law degree. 

Inclusion is integral to life at Penningtons Manches Cooper. We focus on creating an inspirational culture that enables everyone to reach their career potential by being their true selves. By recruiting and retaining the most talented and motivated people, regardless of identity, background or circumstances, we can deliver the best possible real world outcomes for our clients. We are wholly committed to fostering an environment where our people are valued, motivated and feel empowered to make the most of their working and personal lives.

EMpower programme

As part of our wider commitment to increasing the representation of Black and ethnic minority individuals in the legal sector, in spring 2022, we launched our new programme, EMpower. EMpower is open to all first year law students and penultimate year non-law students from a Black heritage or ethnic minority background. The programme provides a unique opportunity for students to gain invaluable application advice, meet our lawyers, work shadow, build key networking skills and better understand the culture at Penningtons Manches Cooper.

Applications for the Empower programme are now open until 3 January – apply here.

Race Fairness Commitment

The firm has joined the Race Fairness Commitment, a series of pioneering measures aimed at tackling inequality in the recruitment, progression and retention of talent from ethnic minorities in the UK. Launched by diversity graduate recruitment specialist Rare, it encourages the use of data-driven and contextual techniques to identify areas for improvement.

Under the commitment, we pledge to publish annual, aggregated data comparing outcomes for white and minority ethnic colleagues and candidates in six areas - interview, selection, retention, pay, promotion and belonging. By doing so we will hold ourselves to account publicly to address barriers to inclusion. The pledge reinforces the work we have already begun with Rare to enhance our recruitment processes. It is also accompanied by another new initiative we have implemented to create a positive impact – our decision to adopt the Halo Code.

Women in Law Pledge

As part of our continued commitment to gender equality in the legal profession, we have signed the Law Society’s Women in Law Pledge. The pledge, launched in partnership with the Bar Council of England and Wales and the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEx), was created to bring gender equality to the forefront of the conversation.

Penningtons Manches Cooper pledges to promote gender equality by; focusing on senior leadership accountability and specific targets for gender diversity and inclusion, continuing to drive and refine our gender action plan, removing any sex discrimination, bias or bullying to create a culture we’re proud of and ensuring pay, reward and recognition are tied in to our gender equality targets at senior leadership level.

The Women in Law pledge builds on the work we have been doing to create a more equal legal profession for all, and supports our gender pay gap action plan.

Mental health

We have taken an increasingly strategic approach to tackling mental health problems within the firm in recent years. This has paid dividends in the step change we have seen in attitudes towards mental health at all levels of our business and has helped shape our response during the covid-19 pandemic.

Since 2018, we have recruited and trained over 30 mental health first aiders and mental health champions internally. By rolling out carefully tailored training and accompanying toolkits, we have been able to help line managers deal with mental illness within their teams empathetically and constructively. We have also run a variety of stress, resilience, and other awareness sessions to improve understanding of the issues so many of us are facing.

Time to Change is a national campaign that was set up to challenge mental health stigma and discrimination. By signing its Employer Pledge, we have underlined the importance of creating a working environment in which people are comfortable enough to be open about their feelings.

Work experience

We are signatories of the PRIME commitment, which encourages meaningful work experience opportunities for students from low income backgrounds in law firms across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

To ensure we maintain a fresh approach, our programme is reviewed each year. Students interested in obtaining work experience at the firm can find out more on our trainee lawyer pages which include full details on how to apply.

Full fees for PGDL and LLM SQE1 and 2 plus a maintenance grant to help support future trainees through their studies.

• £8,000 for those studying LLM SQE1 and 2 or;
• £12,000 for those undertaking the PGDL and LLM SQE1 and 2.

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