The training contract
With our training contract, you’ll always have a firm sense of where you’re heading. The training contracts spans across in-house private training and two years with the firm, including four seats and endless challenges.
Your full time training begins:
Private Classes: We offer an in-house Practical Learning Training program at our Johannesburg office. Our courses are designed to allow Candidate Attorneys the benefit of personal attention. The program’s lecturers are chosen because they are the best in their fields, and the training they provide will ensure that our Candidate Attorneys are suitably prepared for their board exams.
First Seat – six months: Now you join us for real in your first practice area – with a thorough induction first
Second Seat – six months: Time to move to a new seat – and you’ll get training at the start of each one
Third Seat – six months: A third new area? Or maybe a secondment to one of our regional offices? There’s a lot to discover
Fourth Seat – six months: Working in your final practice or secondment, you’ll plan for the future too
Retention and admission: The next stage of your development begins, as a newly qualified layer
Support and development: We won’t just throw you in the deep end and leave you to it. We’ll guide and encourage you in new achievements every day. Here’s how:
- Trainee buddy programme
- Mentorship programme
- Seat-specific practice area training
- Day-to-day associate support
- Learining and Development development team training.
Who can apply?
Whether you’re a penultimate-year law student, or a finalist or graduate of any discipline, you’ll need to have:
- at least a 65% overall average, and
- Participation with on-campus or off-campus curricula’s
Tips and Tricks: Some undergraduates apply to 30 or more firms and then find it hard to do each application justice. Our advice? Focus on researching those firms you really want to work for, and get your applications to them absolutely right. For us, it starts with a well written online CV and covering letter. This is your chance to tell your unique story and show you’ve thought through the reasons behind the choices you’re making. For instance, we’ll want to know why you’ve settled on a career in law, why commercial law in particular, and why you think Norton Rose Fulbright would be a good fit for you. It’s also where you can outline what you’ve learnt from the things you’ve done and explain how that might make you a more effective lawyer. Part-time work, sports, involvement in groups and societies, placements – they can all help you develop vital attributes like resilience, people skills, organisational flair, initiative and the ability to think on your feet.
Think broadly about your experiences and what you’ve gained from them. If your CV and covering letter impress us, we’ll then invite you for an interview with someone from of our graduate recruitment team. A probing conversation about your interests; this is where we’ll gauge your interest in commercial law, along with your understanding of the commercial landscape and the economic factors that might affect our work.
We’ll also ask you to describe situations you’ve been in where you demonstrated the skills we look for. So make sure you can quickly bring some relevant situations to mind, or be ready to elaborate on those you may have already touched on in your online CV. Don’t miss the opportunity to ask us questions too, whether they’re about our work, our culture, or the backgrounds of your interviewers. Think about what would help you decide whether we’d be the right firm for you; and what we can tell you that your online research perhaps can’t.
