The Legal Cheek View
International giant CMS boasts over 80 offices in 44 countries worldwide, offering an opportunity for adventurous apprentice hopefuls to train at a firm with an impressive global reach. CMS lawyers practice in one of eight specialist sectors: energy & climate change; financial institutions; infrastructure; life sciences & healthcare; real estate; media & communications; consumer products, and hotel & leisure. And, with the potential for a whopping eight different seat rotations throughout the apprenticeship, recruits can expect an interesting and varied training programme. Apprenticeships in 2024 are offered in CMS’s Sheffield office at Furnival Gate and in its smart London HQ which is just a stone’s throw from London Bridge.
Coming into the apprenticeship route following a short stint at uni, one third year CMS recruit recounts her route into the firm. “I originally went to uni to read law, but due to the pandemic all of the teaching was online, so I didn’t get much value out of the experience.” Opting, instead, to take a gap year and reconsider her options, she applied for the solicitor apprenticeship at CMS. “I was already certain when I was at school that I wanted a career in law, so I saw the apprenticeship scheme as a way to take the first steps towards that.”
Despite it being “quite scary” to walk into an international law firm as a teen, the CMS induction programme made another apprentice we spoke to feel “so much more at ease.” From their first day, rookies are in safe hands. The two-week initial induction programme takes newbies through the practice areas, the social clubs and charitable initiatives at the firm, as well as skills-based workshops such as client communication. One recruit notes how, “the induction programme is a really positive and useful experience. It sets you up so that you’re going into your first legal seat with some practical skills already and you feel like everyone in your cohort are at the same level”.
Diving into the details, the CMS offering boasts a bumper eight seat rotations. Recruits rotate annually around different practice areas for the first four years before moving onto a ‘training contract’-style rotation for the final two. During their “TC” years at CMS, seasoned apprentices rotate seats every six months whilst completing the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). With so many seat rotations, hopeful solicitors can look forward to a holistic experience of the many aforementioned practice groups at the firm. Also, for those with an already budding interest in one particular area of law, we are told that the firm tend “to accommodate this as far as possible”, giving rookies an enviable opportunity to direct the course of their career at this international behemoth.
In terms of the workload, rookies need not fear being thrown in at the deep end. “The level of responsibility you’re given really varies depending on where you are in the programme,” one insider reveals. “In your first year, they start you off very slow and steady – but by the end of the year you tend to be treated more like a trainee.” Whilst apprentices are guided with firm hands to start with, “there’s quite a big change of pace in the second six months,” we are told, with responsibilities ratcheting up in the later years of the apprenticeship. But, fired up with free coffee from the London office’s ground floor barista bar, apprentices will have no trouble getting their heads down.
At CMS, you are “pushed to achieve your potential,” a spy tells us – but there is no denying the benefits of this in terms of training. By the fifth and sixth years of the programme, one insider reveals, you can even expect some newly qualified or associate level work. One rookie sums up the mood: “I think in terms of development it’s great, because you’re not overwhelmed at any point, but you’re also given the opportunity to pick up work which is of a higher level.” And, whilst you may need to work hard, you also get to play hard too. Despite hours ramping up significantly for apprentices at similar firms in later years, apprentices at CMS can expect to work very standard 9-5.30 hours, even during the training contract rotations. “If anything,” one insider reveals, “the fifth- and sixth-year apprentices are even more likely to finish at 5.30 than the more junior apprentices, given the additional pressures of the SQE.”
Although working full-time four days a week and studying towards a degree in tandem can have its challenges, “I think it’s relatively manageable,” one apprentice explains. “There are points around exams where it’s more difficult because it can be hard to balance additional revision around working and studying.” But with support from the firm, who appear very conscious of their apprentice’s time, and a healthy dose of revision tips and support from apprentices in the years above, it’s “nothing too overwhelming”.
One rookie, having spent time sitting in corporate, insurance and real-estate, says “it’s been great to have a real mix of transactional and contentious seats”. Corporate and real estate are two of the biggest teams at CMS, so, she says “it’s been amazing to have a whole year in both of those, especially when you compare it with the trainees who only spend six-months in each practice area”. When asked her favourite seat, she admits that “it is has to be insurance because you do more ‘typical’ legal work – the work you would imagine that lawyers do – like attending and preparing for court hearings”. Impressive stuff for a third-year apprentice!
And, the social life at CMS is not too shabby either. When they’re not grabbing lunch together or nipping down to the Thames for some fresh air, apprentices have monthly dedicated socials to bond, most recently heading to Puttshack for a few games of mini golf. “It becomes like your uni cohort,” one recruit shares. “It’s such a good atmosphere, and a lot of us are close friends.” Apparently, there are also loads of clubs and societies at CMS for keen hobbyists. “There’s sports clubs you can join, as well as a chess club and a reading club on top of your usual volunteering and pro bono.” One lucky apprentice even jetted off to Spain for the internal CMS netball tour. “I got to meet loads of people across the firm and now I’ve ended up in a department with four of them, which is an amazing coincidence,” she says. In fact, there’s no need to get uni FOMO on the apprenticeship because, “there’s so many social opportunities at CMS that it’s really up to you how much you want to get involved”.
Overall, citing the huge number of social activities and seat rotation opportunities, one interviewee tells us, “I think the whole programme at CMS is just amazing, and I can’t fault it.”