Our business comprises the following main practice areas: competition; corporate M&A and ECM; dispute resolution; derivatives and structures products; employment; finance; financial services and markets; funds; incentives and remuneration; operational risk and environment; pensions; private equity and financial sponsors; real estate; regulatory investigations and tax; and technology and commercial transactions. It is not just law at Travers Smith. We treat our clients’ business as our business, their dispute as our dispute, their challenge as ours.

We act for publicly listed and private companies, private equity and financial sponsors, and other business enterprises involved in large and complex UK and cross-border matters, transactions and disputes.

Our clients know that, wherever in the world their ambitions lie, we will work as part of their team to get things done. And they know that we will do so in a straight-talking and open way.

Diversity and independence of thought are key to our success. We know each other well and we know that we get the best results when we act as a team – not just within our individual departments, but right across our firm where we welcome views from everyone. 

Our vacation schemes take place at three points in the year. One one-week scheme in the winter and two two-week schemes in the summer.

Vacation scheme students will be paid £750 for completing each week. 

The scheme will follow our internal programme, which includes a number of talks, workshops, and a negotiating exercise. There will also be department insights and close contact with trainees. The week is designed specifically for students to be given an authentic taste of a City lawyer's work. There are also working lunches and informal evening events. 

The exact dates of each scheme are: 11 December – 15 December 2023, 24 June – 5 July 2024, and 8 July – 19 July 2024. 

Applications will be opened on the below dates:

• winter vacation scheme: 4 September 2023 and will close on 22 October 2023; and
• summer vacation scheme: 22 October 2023 and will close on 14 January 2024. 

Interviews will only be allocated once all applications have been processed.

Please note our interview process will be held virtually and run by a senior member of our graduate recruitment panel. For more information on the panel please visit out recruitment team webpage.

The firm’s comprehensive training programme ensures that trainees experience a broad range of work. All trainees sit with partners and associates, which ensures a refreshing lack of hierarchy and unparalleled opportunities to learn by osmosis from some of the most senior people at the firm. It also means that trainees receive individual and extensive training from experienced lawyers and can look forward to client contact, and the responsibility that goes with it, from day one. 

During the two-year training contract, you will rotate through four different legal departments. Trainees spend six months in one of our corporate departments, with the rest of their training contract spread across the other departments. A large proportion of our trainees also spend one of these rotations in our dispute resolution or employment teams. For the other two rotations trainees are asked to indicate a department of interest, which includes the opportunity to spend six months in the firm’s Paris office.

Travers Smith is a collaborative firm – we treat each other with respect and encourage our people to be themselves. We are very proud of the close-knit, supportive and non-hierarchical culture this creates. 

Diversity and inclusion (D&I)

Our approach to diversity and creating an inclusive workplace goes beyond just ticking a box. We value everything that makes us unique and we recognise that celebrating our differences helps make the firm a special place to work. With a focus on allyship and role modelling, we are committed to creating a fully inclusive workplace where everyone can be their authentic selves. 

Supporting our people

We have six fully inclusive professional networks, each led by a partner to provide high level strategic input, connectivity and support for our people. These include: 

• REACH (Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage) 
• LGBTQ+
• Faith Resources 
• Gender Balance 
• Enable (which focuses on accessibility needs) 
• Social Mobility Group

A focus on role models 

Role models have an essential role in helping create an inclusive culture. They demonstrate the importance of authenticity and positive value of diversity in all its forms. To celebrate and promote role models across the firm, we have developed the following resources: 

Female Role Models

Telling Stories: Understanding Social Mobility

Telling Stories: LGBTQ+ Role Models

A focus on allyship  

Allies, or people who are proactive and understanding of the challenges affecting diverse groups of people, can be instrumental in driving positive cultural change. It is not the responsibility of people from minority groups to create a fairer society but rather that task sits on the shoulders of allies and people in positions of influence. Building upon this framework of engaging with the majority to help drive positive change for the minority and/or underrepresented, we have developed resources aimed at educating and empowering our people to be effective allies: What makes an effective ally?

Strategic partnerships

We have developed partnerships with other external networks and organisations aimed at promoting a culture of inclusion and mutual respect in industry and in the wider community, including; City Solicitors Horizons, Aspiring Solicitors, Rare Recruitment, Just Like Us, STRIVE, WCAN, BIUCAC. 

Intersectionality: celebrating difference 

By looking at our D&I initiatives through an intersectional lens, we are able to better examine the role people's multiple identities have in compounding inequality and discrimination, and to develop mechanisms to better promote inclusion. Some ways we have achieved this are: 

• D&I seminar programme: We programmed a series of seminars, events and podcasts involving speakers from as diverse backgrounds as possible to help provide an insight into the diverse experiences of people from minority and under-represented groups.
• D&I book club: We have recently launched a quarterly D&I-themed book club that is open to anyone across the firm. this book club will provide people with an opportunity to discuss the chosen text, as well as explore its associated themes. 

Corporate Social Responsibility 

From working with emerging artists to supporting refugees and asylum seekers, our award-winning CSR Programme is diverse, exciting and ever-expanding.

Working with local communities

We are committed to working with our local communities, developing meaningful ties with schools, universities and community groups and using our own influence and legal expertise to help give people better opportunities to access the legal profession. Highlights of our work include:

Raising aspirations 

Reading Partners: This scheme, which is aimed at improving literacy rates, involves people at the firm reading for an hour with a child aged 8-9 years old in Bangabandhu School in Bethnal Green. 

BEE Scheme: This scheme aims to improve financial literacy of pupils aged 10-11 years old in schools in Tower Hamlets. 

Legal Experts in Schools: This scheme involves people at the firm delivering 6 sessions to young people (aged 14-15) in St Olave's School in Elephant and Castle about legal matters which affect young people. The series culminates in a visit to the firm followed by a panel discussion to discuss City Careers. 

Digital Legal Experts in Schools: This series involves volunteers from the firm delivering sessions virtually to schools in social mobility "cold spots" in England.  

Economic Experts in Schools: This scheme involves volunteers from the firm delivering 3 sessions to young people (aged 14-15) from The Petchey Academy in Hackney to help boost economic literacy. 

Widening Access

Contextualised Recruitment System: this system, which we adopted in 2017, takes into account the circumstances and background of potential trainees and vacation scheme students. This enables us to identify high performing and driven candidates, and ensures applications are reviewed in light of their wider personal circumstances.

GROW mentoring: this scheme provides mentors to aspiring solicitors form disadvantaged/under-represented groups to help them access careers in law. TS currently offer circa 30 mentors. We also sponsor the annual GROW awards, which celebrate the achievements of remarkable students from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Articles: a development programme for 50 – 70 second year students from Black African, Black Caribbean and Mixed Race with Black African and Caribbean heritage.

AS Foundation: we contribute financially to the ASF, which distributes hardship grants to aspiring solicitors from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Paid work experience opportunities 

City Solicitors Horizons: this scheme is aimed at students which are first generation to attend university. Students receive mentoring support from people at the firm, and an opportunity to attend a week of work experience. 

TS THRIVE: this scheme provides a week of work experience to young people (aged 16-17) from lower socio-economic groups. 

Charitable Giving 

We create meaningful, lasting and substantive partnerships with all the charities with whom we work. We provide substantial financial support to a nominated major charity partner (on a two year basis). Our current major charity partner is the Little Village, a charity which supports families with babies and children under five living in poverty across London. Alongside our major charity partnership, the firm supports 100s of other smaller charities via the Travers Smith Foundation.

CSR Art Programme 

The Art Programme is at the heart of our Corporate Social Responsibility work and underlines our CSR commitment from the moment someone steps into our offices. Delivered in partnership with The University of Westminster and The Royal College of Art, with support from Serpentine Galleries, our Art Programme supports emerging artists with the transition from student life to professional practice.

Pro bono 

Our award-winning pro bono programme is designed to provide individuals, community groups, charities and social enterprises, both in the UK and abroad, with free legal advice and representation. The programme targets the most impactful partnerships and legal work in the following four sectors:

Climate, environment, and sustainability

Diversity, inclusion and social mobility

Vulnerable groups (refugees, survivors of domestic violence and survivors of human trafficking)

Rule of Law

Key pro bono clients include: 

• Refugees at Home
• The Chancery Lane Project
• JUSTICE
• The Green Finance Institute 
• National Centre for Domestic Violence
• The Howard League for Penal Reform
• City YMCA 
• WWF-UK

Last year we launched the Domestic Abuse Response Alliance (DARA), which was founded by Partner and Head of Pro Bono, Sam Cottman, and in July 2023, DARA took on its100th case. DARA is an alliance of leading law firms who provide pro bono representation to survivors of domestic abuse in need of protective injunctions. DARA ended its first year of operation with the addition of three new firms (increasing the number to 10), a pool of barristers, an expanded reach outside of London, as well as an excellent result for one extremely vulnerable client, securing 15 criminal convictions against her father after over two and a half years of work. For more information see: www.daraproject.org. DARA has won “Pro Bono Initiative of the Year” at The Lawyer Awards, "CSR Innovation" at the Law.com Innovation Awards, "Innovation in Responsible Business" at the FT Innovative Lawyer Awards Europe 2022 and the "ESG Initiative" Award at the Legal Business Awards 2022

PGDL and SQE paid in full and maintenance grant provided (PGDL – £13,500, SQE – £20,000).

• Competition
• Corporate M&A
• ECM
• Dispute resolution
• Derivatives & structures products
• Employment
• Finance
• Financial services & markets
• Funds
• Incentives & remuneration
• Operational risk & environment
• Pensions
• Private equity & financial sponsors
• Real estate
• Regulatory investigations & tax
• Technology & commercial transactions

• General Commercial
• Corporate & Commercial

• London
• Paris

• A4ID
• Brighter Futures Zambia
• Giving Time
• Legal Advice Centres
• Refugees at Home

• Aspiring Solicitors
• BEE Financial Literacy
• City Horizons
• City Parents
• Educating Matters
• Lawyers in Schools
• PRIME
• Rare Recruitment
• Reading Partners
• Stonewall
• The Women's Sport Trust