The proud US heritage at Vinson & Elkins means that trainees are not treated separately, but as junior members of the team from day one. Find out more about the international-quality work opportunities on offer at this leading firm.
Graduate Legal Recruitment
Exceptional Foundation. Empowering Career.
International Opportunities Exceptional Training Early Responsibility
Our Strategy for Your Success Is Simple We challenge you to develop your skills through substantive work, support you in building strong relationships with colleagues and clients, and reward you for your commitment to excellence.
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Welcome!
Welcoming Culture We have a culture of extremely high performers who have a distinctly down-to-earth way of getting things done, which I believe is rare in a top-tier firm. From the start of your experience, you will have opportunities to work on high-profile matters, from a variety of practice areas, in a friendly and inclusive environment where lawyers help you learn and succeed. What to Expect We actively seek prospective Trainees who exhibit both entrepreneurial and collegial behaviours. We are looking for candidates with evidence of academic excellence and an ambition to get their hands on challenging and meaningful work. Demonstrated work experience and extra-curricular activities are also important. Our Trainees are almost always selected from participants who complete a week-long summer Vacation Scheme with us, which offers genuine insight into the two-year Training Contract experience with V&E. From the client- led tasks, such as research projects, drafting documents, participating in internal strategy discussions, joining calls and meetings with clients and opposing counsel, as well as mentoring, support, and infrastructure the firm provides to ensure lawyers thrive, you will be confident as to whether V&E is right for you. If you are inquisitive and eager to learn, there is a genuine opportunity for you to be in the driving seat of your career. If what you have read so far resonates and you are excited about the prospect of becoming a Vinson & Elkins Trainee, with a good story to tell us as to why, I very much look forward to receiving your application.
From Andrew Nealon Partner Energy Transactions / Projects Training Principal and ETP Talent/Diversity Lead
As one of the first U.S. law firms in the UK, we have seen our London office grow significantly from roots in the early 1970s. The Vinson & Elkins (V&E) London office opened as an international outpost, serving U.S. clients operating in the energy industry. Today, the majority of our matters are generated from the London partnership, and our work is much broader. Often with cross-office collaboration, we handle an exciting spectrum of sophisticated transactions, projects, and disputes for clients around the globe in the most important financial, industrial, and digital industries. Lawyers in our London office advise on matters in a number of practice areas including Energy Transactions & Projects (ETP), Mergers & Acquisitions and Capital Markets (MACM), International Disputes and Arbitration, Finance, Tax and Employment. As a trainee with us, you will have the opportunity to be exposed to the full spectrum of work across our London practice areas. Three pillars define what makes training special at V&E: Exceptional Training, International Opportunities and Early Responsibility. Growth Mindset Entrepreneurial drive is a core component of how we advance in all practices, and how you will thrive at V&E. We are immensely proud of the expansion of our highly successful Arbitration practice in London, a smart complement to our market-leading energy nucleus. While we have concentrated our efforts to expand in London, it is not simply for growth’s sake – it is based on clear strategy and our desire to deliver a greater service to our clients.
Andrew Nealon
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The Application Process
Click here to apply online for V&E’s Open Day, Vacation Scheme and Training Contract.
Eligibility
Open Day 2023: Tailored for students who plan to apply for the Summer Vacation Scheme in 2024, which typically means we invite students in the first year of their undergraduate degree. We also require that students have at least AAB at A-Level (or equivalent). Vacation Scheme 2023: Eligible students should be ready to commence a Training Contract in September 2025, having completed all required studies. An application for a Vacation Scheme in 2023 creates an automatic application for a Training Contract commencing in 2025. Training Contract 2025: Preference is given to candidates who have carried out a vacation placement with us. In addition, students must achieve at least a 2:1 degree and hold at least AAB at A-Level (or equivalent). We are looking for Trainees with commercial awareness, rounded personalities, and the ability to think creatively. Sound judgment and a willingness to take initiative is essential for V&E Trainees.
Compensation & Benefits
V&E offers the following:
• Funding for the preparatory courses and examinations for the SQE • Maintenance grant of £12,500 for the SQE year • First-year Trainee salary: £50,000 (2022) • Second-year Trainee salary: £55,000 (2022) • Newly Qualified (NQ) Associate salary: £159,500 (2022) • Benefits: Medical insurance, dental insurance, travel insurance, life insurance, Simply Health cash plan (which includes wellness benefits), subsidised gym membership, access to private GPs, employee assistance programme, pension, cycle scheme, and an interest-free season ticket loan.
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Key Program Dates
2023 Open Day Spring 2023 (For students who are due to graduate in 2025)
2023 Open Day applications open: 1 November 2022 – 3 February 2023
2023 Vacation Scheme June – August 2023 (2-4 students for each one-week placement)
2023 Vacation Scheme applications open: 1 October 2022 – 13 January 2023
2025 Training Contract Commences September 2025 (Two-year engagement with 4-6 Trainee intake)
2025 Training Contract applications open: 16 January 2023 – 30 June 2023
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Three pillars define what
makes training special at V&E: Exceptional Training, International Opportunities and Early Responsibility
Read more about our London Lawyers and Capabilities.
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Exceptional Training
Rebecca Hilton Associate Complex Commercial Litigation
Miguel Colebrook Senior Associate M&A / Capital Markets
I started my training contract in 2020, completing seats in Complex Commercial Litigation, Energy Transactions & Projects and M&A/Capital Markets. The training contract at V&E has really allowed me to develop personally and professionally. The small trainee intake and non-rotational structure meant I was able to work closely with colleagues in small teams and follow matters through to my second year to get a full picture of each practice’s work. The benefit of working in small teams also meant that I could see the context of my work and how it fits into the wider case or deal. As my training contract progressed, this allowed me to identify upcoming challenges and offer to take responsibility for them. The majority of training is hands-on with more responsibility afforded each time you perform a task, for example, I would start with proofreading or footnoting a document and later I would contribute to the drafting. Teamed with real-time feedback, I have been able to continually develop within a seat rather than waiting for formal reviews, building my knowledge and learning from lawyers who are leading in their fields. The office culture and firm have allowed me to feel very comfortable from day one. I’m constantly being told by everyone that they have an open-door (or from remote working, open Zoom chat) policy, and that translates to reality. I’ve always felt confident talking to partners, counsel and associates about cases/deals and asking questions. Throughout my training contract, I’ve felt that people were open and willing to speak with me to help me learn and develop as I embark on my legal career.
The V&E approach to the practice of law, principally animated by the desire to produce outcomes par excellence for clients, is buttressed by three foundational pillars: flat structures, lean and efficient teams and dynamic development. V&E prides itself on having a firm culture characterised by functional but limited hierarchies, which translates to significant interactions between colleagues irrespective of seniority. The goal is to ensure trainees have frictionless access to, as well as opportunities to learn directly from, senior members of the firm. As a supervising mentor, I insist on group meetings (including trainees, juniors, and mid-levels) when delegating and/or assessing the progress of work to ensure all members have equal access to myself (as a senior associate). Similarly, trainees are regularly invited to attend meetings, negotiations, and sessions pertaining to high-level work streams with which they are not actively involved, the aim is to reinforce the principle of teamwork as well as to facilitate learning by passive participation. In addition to ensuring trainees have maximum exposure to senior colleagues, matters are typically staffed with lean teams. For trainees, the benefits are manifold: They power trainee development by affording early opportunities for greater responsibility, they punctuate the involvement of each team member so trainees feel more involved and connected to a matter and they motivate seniors (like myself) to place an emphasis on training to maximise the contributions of each team member. Finally, V&E’s preferred approach to mentoring is to adopt a dynamic, as opposed to a static, training method. We calibrate levels of responsibility and complexity of tasks to talent and effort (as opposed to homogenising training at the risk of stymying development). By adopting this approach we ensure all trainees acquire a core set of skills and provide a structure that allows trainees to accelerate their development.
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International Opportunities
Ciara Ros Senior Associate Complex Commercial Litigation
Louise Fischel-Bock Associate Energy Transactions / Projects
During my nine-year career at V&E, I have been lucky enough to work from a number of our offices - the international opportunities here are one of my favourite things about working at the firm. I collaborate across our global offices every day, as do most of our London attorneys, but as a trainee, I was offered the chance to spend six months in Houston. I spent three months in Finance and three months in Energy Transactions and Projects (ETP) and was able to develop relationships with other attorneys that I still work with today. Having this opportunity at an early stage in my career was fantastic for developing my network and my exposure to different work (and working styles). It also really gave me a taste for the size of V&E and even more of a taste of our “Texan” culture – something I am working to replicate in London. I will always love the sight of our attorneys wearing cowboy boots to the office. Though I have been in our London office since 2018, I qualified into our Dubai office and had the opportunity to spend three years there working in ETP, M&A/Capital Markets and Complex Commercial Litigation. It was amazing to be given such a broad spectrum of work, before ultimately specialising in arbitration, and to have another opportunity to work with different lawyers. V&E is incredibly encouraging of international opportunities and the welcoming atmosphere in every office I have visited makes travelling to, and working from, other offices a fantastic experience for our attorneys.
During my training contract, I had the opportunity spend one of my seats on secondment in the Houston office. This gave me a really great insight into the global size and influence of V&E outside of the London office. Most importantly, though, I met members of the Houston ETP team that I still work with today. During my time in Houston I assisted with the signing and closing of the project development for the construction of a new blue ammonia project in Texas. To this day, I continue to work on that project as our client navigates the construction process. That’s one of the great things about V&E — we work in small, specialised teams that, even if they are spread across different offices, work very closely together, giving you, even as a trainee, a great deal of responsibility and the opportunity to see transactions and projects through to the end. One of the things I enjoy most is that on any given day, I will be working on projects that span anywhere from Africa to Turkey to the U.S. One of my key tasks as a trainee, involved liaising with local counsel in the different jurisdictions that we worked – which certainly kept things interesting! As a trainee, I had the chance to travel to client meetings in Amsterdam, Rome and Turkey, because even as a trainee, you are treated as an integral part of the team and given opportunities to work directly with clients.
London
San Francisco
Washington New York
Los Angeles
Dallas
Tokyo
Richmond
Austin
Dubai
Houston
Riyadh
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Early Responsibility
Robin Wallich Associate Finance
in Africa. This gave me the chance to take the lead on various workstreams, including running the process with local counsel and negotiating ancillary documents with the lenders’ lawyers. Working directly with senior colleagues, as well as being given early responsibility made me feel like an integral part of the team and our deals which allowed me to take real ownership of my work. Although the high levels of responsibility can be challenging, colleagues are very supportive and provide all the guidance and support you need. The semi-rotational seats allowed me to gain more than just six months of experience in my practice by the time I qualified. Coupled with early responsibility, I learned new skills and concepts quickly, which in turn allowed me to take on greater levels of responsibility on matters. This makes the transition from trainee to NQ, which some can find daunting, fairly seamless, as by the end of your fourth seat you will be effectively operating at an NQ level already.
Early responsibility is a key feature of a training contract at V&E. From the beginning, I was encouraged to take on as much responsibility as possible. As I developed my skills and gained the trust of colleagues, they gave me more responsibility on matters, allowing me to take the lead on workstreams, and allowing me to gain substantive drafting experience as well as exposure to clients and the opportunity to lead calls with clients or opposing counsel. Teams at V&E are leanly staffed, meaning there are lots of opportunities to work directly with senior lawyers. In my first seat, I worked directly with a senior associate on the refinancing of an agricultural inputs group operating
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Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Louise Woods Partner, Complex Commercial Litigation Co-Chair of London Women’s Initiative and Head of International Disputes - Europe
Leading with Inclusion
At V&E, our inclusion commitment starts at the top with members of our leadership who oversee our firm-wide diversity and inclusion initiatives. I hold an office lead role for a number of the firm’s diversity initiatives to support participation and progress in London, as I believe strongly in the work we are doing to achieve equality — inclusive of diverse interests, backgrounds, perspectives, race, ethnicity, national origin, gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, and physical ability. We recognise that being a more diverse firm with a truly inclusive culture will help drive our long-term success, both in retaining our top talent and in serving our clients’ needs. Our participation in diversity-focused career fairs and recruiting programmes allows us to identify top notch legal talent. We have made progress in London with our entry-level Trainee recruitment over recent years, and we strive for our partnership to one day look like our incoming Trainee cohorts. We are committed to sustaining our focus on diversity and, in particular, the retention of our women and diverse lawyers, and to do so we work to ensure our initiatives permeate our structure, policies, and programmes. As a Trainee in London, you have the opportunity to be involved in our programming. Our initiatives include diversity- focused events, our schools outreach mentoring programme, and our book club, which is focused on thought-provoking texts designed to educate and promote frank and honest discussions with colleagues. The Women’s Initiative in London works to create and sustain a variety of programmes that support our women lawyers, nurture their development, and promote their advancement to all levels of leadership within the firm. The initiative benefits all of our lawyers, as the programming includes business development training, mentoring programmes, and family-friendly initiatives. Other V&E diversity initiatives include our LGBTQ+ Alliance and our New Parent Mentoring Programme, which have both seen a rise in members in our London office.
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Pro Bono
Lucy Jenkins Partner, Finance Pro Bono Office Lead Co-Chair of London Women’s Initiative and Talent / Diversity Lead
Pro Bono & the Community
During my Training Contract, I was able to establish a new outreach mentoring programme working with a local inner-city school. I have really enjoyed taking the lead on the project, delivering presentations about working in law and supporting students with their university applications and preparing for interviews. It has been a hugely rewarding initiative. ” – Afzaal Abidi, Associate, Energy Transactions & Projects
Our pro bono initiatives are a tangible way to connect with the human side of the practice of law and to apply our experience toward supporting our communities. At V&E, our lawyers devote significant time and resources to the legal needs of individuals and organisations that cannot afford representation. Our pro bono work is sourced by our lawyers interested in specific issues. From senior partners through Trainees, we donate our counsel, skills, and time to serving others. The long tradition of pro bono service at V&E has become a broad and diverse practice area with an average of more than 30,000 hours of pro bono legal service provided each year by our lawyers. Lawyers in the London office get involved in a wide variety of initiatives including projects for Trust Law, working with NGOs and charities on often cross- jurisdictional matters, and representing litigants in person in Court of Appeal proceedings, through the RCJ Advice Centre.
A few recent pro bono representations include:
• Advising a charitable foundation focused on the promotion of history, language, and culture in a force majeure dispute with a hospitality venue related to COVID-19; • Working with 10x10 Philanthropy, a live crowdfunding charity which matches young philanthropists and volunteers with grassroots charities, to formally establish its UK operations, including assisting with incorporation of a UK company limited by guarantee, registration with the Charity Commission, and registration for gift aid with HMRC; • Assisting on employment and contractual matters for World Medical Fund, a UK charity which brings healthcare and health education to children and the wider rural communities of Malawi; and • Providing counsel to Working Families, a UK charity which supports individuals on a variety of employment issues and more specifically, in 2020, on the impact of COVID-19 on employment rights.
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Alex Msimang Partner Energy Transactions / Projects and London Office Managing Partner
Joining the firm now as a trainee to qualify in 2025, to hopefully make partner around 2034 – means an opportunity to lead the office in 2040 and beyond. That’s our focus in our trainee recruitment, and how we mentor and develop our attorneys as they transition through the firm. We can’t predict the future, but we can begin shaping it for the firm and the London office, today. ”
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Graduate Recruitment Team
Andrew Nealon Partner Training Principal Energy Transactions / Projects London
Ciara Ros Senior Associate Complex Commercial Litigation London +44.20.7065.6082 cros@velaw.com
+44.20.7065.6025 anealon@velaw.com
Grace Gibson-Venner Associate Director of International Attorney Development and Recruitment London +44.20.7065.6009 ggibson-venner@velaw.com
James Pritchard Recruitment Coordinator London +44.20.7065.6059 jpritchard@velaw.com
All questions and correspondence relating to graduate recruitment should be directed to: graduaterecruitment@velaw.com.
Graduate Recruitment Website: https://www.velaw.com/careers/london-graduate-recruitment/
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