Russell-Cooke offers a two-year training contract providing trainees with practical experience across a wide range of legal practice. The programme is designed to expose trainees to substantially different types of work, including both contentious and non-contentious practice.
Trainees complete four seats during the training contract. Russell-Cooke is committed to ensuring that trainees complete at least one contentious and one non-contentious seat. There is no fixed rotation pathway because seat availability depends on the needs of individual departments.
Training Seats
Recent trainees have undertaken seats in areas including Family and Children, Property Litigation, Charity and Not for Profit, Trust and Estate Disputes, Private Client, Real Estate Planning and Construction, Corporate and Commercial, Personal Injury, Medical Negligence, Regulation and Public Law, and Dispute Resolution.
The current range of seat options includes:
Charity Law and Not for Profit
Corporate and Commercial Law
Dispute Resolution
Employment Law
Enfranchisement
Family Law
Immigration Law
Private Client
Property Litigation
Restructuring and Insolvency
Real Estate Planning and Construction
Regulation and Public Law
Trust and Estate Disputes
The breadth of the programme means that trainees can experience very different areas of legal practice during the four seats. For example, a trainee may spend one seat working on real estate transactions before moving to a department dealing with charity law or another contentious practice.
Supervision and Development
Each trainee has a dedicated supervisor in every seat. Trainees also have regular catch-ups with the graduate recruitment partner and receive a mid-seat and end-of-seat review with their supervisor.
Alongside departmental work, trainees participate in firm and department events. The trainee cohort also has dedicated events and its own social budget.
Russell-Cooke normally recruits between eight and twelve trainees each year, with the majority of the intake starting in September. The current trainee cohort comprises 18 trainees.
Training and Client Work
The training contract provides practical experience rather than limiting trainees to observation. Trainees undertake substantive legal work and experience different types of matters across their seats.
The breadth of the firm's practice provides opportunities to develop legal research, drafting, client communication and matter-management skills while working within different teams and areas of law. Russell-Cooke's current practice includes commercial, private client and not-for-profit work as well as contentious and public law matters.
Who Can Apply?
The official training contract page does not specify a minimum academic grade or detailed eligibility criteria on the vacancy page itself. Candidates should therefore check Russell-Cooke's graduate recruitment FAQs and application guidance for the requirements applicable to the 2029 intake before applying.
Application Process
Applications for the 2029 training contract open on 4 November 2026 and close on 3 February 2027. Applications are made through Russell-Cooke's trainee application portal.
Candidates should ensure that their application reflects their own experience, interests and reasons for pursuing a career at Russell-Cooke, alongside evidence of the skills and qualities relevant to legal practice.
- Locations
- London, England, United Kingdom