Work experience

Our four-day work experience programme offers first-hand insight into the world of commercial law, and will see you spending time in a variety of different teams, as well as attending a number of skills workshops.

During our scheme, you will spend your first two days attending various workshops including, but not limited to: 

• Overview of the Various Routes Into Law 
• Application and CV Top Tips
• Speed Networking
• Interview Skills

You will then spend your next two days shadowing a member of our team at Lewis Silkin.  Ahead of you joining us, you will be given the opportunity to let us know which teams you would like to shadow. 

With the exception of the “Routes into Law” session, the workshops will focus on transferrable skills, making the scheme beneficial for students who are interested in both our legal and business services teams. 

Our work experience scheme is aimed at sixth-form students (Year 12 and Year 13). All candidates must have the right to work in the UK. 

We will be looking for candidates who express enthusiasm and interest in the legal sector, whether this is towards a future career as a lawyer, or a career supporting a legal practice. 

We are making every effort to make our work experience as inclusive as possible.  

Due to the nature of the programme, the scheme is not suitable for candidates over 18.

We will be running three four-day placements throughout the year in our London office. We have plans to extend the offering to our regional offices in the future.

The dates of the placements are arranged to align with common half-term dates. Please see the dates below for our 2026 programme:

• 25 – 28 May 2026
• 17 – 20 August 2026
• 26 – 29 October 2026

When applying, there will be a separate application form for each programme which will only be open within a certain timeframe. Details are outlined in the next section. Due to fairness reasons, we encourage applicants to only make one application for the programme that best suits them.

We’ll next be opening applications for our second work experience programme of 2026 (17 – 20 August) on Monday 6 July. 

You’ll be required to complete a short application form, explaining your interest in a career in law (or a relevant business teams function), via our online recruitment system following the link above. 

In your application, you will be asked to let us know why you are hoping to gain work experience at our firm. You will be given up to 250 words to do this.

In this word count we’re ideally looking for further information in the following areas that apply to you:

• Your career ambitions
• What being a solicitor means to you/what working in a law firm means to you
• Are there any specific areas of Law or Business Services that you are interested in?
• Why are you interested in Lewis Silkin?
• What will you bring to Lewis Silkin?
• What do you hope to get out of the scheme?

For our other work experience placements, the application windows are:

• August placement (17 – 20 August) – applications open on Monday 6 July and close at 23:59 on Friday 17 July
• October placement (26 – 29 October) – applications open on Monday 7 September and close at 23:59 on Friday 18 September.