Trainee Solicitors - Sullivan & Cromwell

Formal Training
We believe that the best training is hands-on experience and we also recognise the
importance of formal training.
Your training will start even before you join us. In the year prior to joining, you will
undertake a Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Professional Skills Course (PSC) that
not only fulfil the mandatory requirements of the Solicitors Regulation Authority, but
have been specifically designed to prepare our trainees, and those from other similar
firms, for their future careers.
When you join us, you will take part in an induction programme introducing you
to the way we work in London and use of our information technology, library and
research, legal assistant and other office resources. You will also attend our week-long
orientation programme in New York, learning more about the Firm and getting to
know your colleagues from elsewhere in our network.
Throughout your training contract, you will attend regular formal group training
sessions on the key building blocks of commercial legal practice. These will include
a training programme designed specifically for trainees and given by our partners
and associates, as well as external speakers and training providers. In addition, all of
our other in-house training sessions will be open to our trainees to attend. Some of
these sessions involve video link-ups with other offices, helping you to get a feel for the
international issues relevant to our practice.
Pro Bono
S&C is committed to the communities in which we practise. The Firm encourages
lawyers to work on pro bono as a way to enhance skills through work that might not
otherwise be available to them. Our trainees will also be encouraged to do so.
Recent pro bono work undertaken in the London office includes advice to a number
of charities and not-for-profit organisations in the UK, the US and overseas. In
addition, a growing number of lawyers in the London office participate in the Lawyers
in Schools programme, in which they lead discussions on topics such as citizenship,
youth justice, human rights, family law and government in secondary schools in some
of London’s most deprived boroughs.
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