The Legal Cheek View
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London law firm Forsters was originally formed when a unit of ten partners broke away from one of the UK’s oldest law firms, Frere Cholmeley Bischoff, after it decided to merge with Eversheds. Nowadays, its lawyers operate out of its sleek new Marylebone office, handling a variety of high-end private client, property, construction, and corporate work. Following announcements of its entry into the solicitor apprenticeship market, Forsters will hire its first four school-leavers to join the firm in September 2025.
Apprentice newbies will be spending the first two years of the programme in their first ‘seat’, meaning that they’ll be gaining a huge amount of knowledge and confidence working in their first practice area. This also allows school-leavers to settle in and become acquainted with legal work. In this time, apprentices will also complete a 6 month seat with the firm’s compliance team, providing an insight into the non-legal, business underbelly of the firm. Moving on to their third and fourth years they will embark on annuals rotation across some of the firm’s key practice areas. Likely seats for apprentices include construction, commercial real estate, property litigation, and residential property.
During the final two years of their six-year stint, apprentices join graduates on the Forsters training contract. They will rotate six times across the firm’s different practice areas in these final years, providing the opportunity to explore the areas of law on offer at the firm. The final seat for both trainees and apprentices will be their selected qualifying seat (i.e. the area of law that budding lawyers want to specialise in), enabling Forsters’ soon-to-be solicitors to gain a head start building connections and experience in this practice area before qualifying.
When it comes to their legal education, apprentices will also pursue a part-time law degree with BPP Law School alongside their legal work. Their LLB studies will consist of one day per week over the first four years, while devoting the other four days to legal work. In years five and six, seasoned apprentices will undertake the Solicitors Qualifying Exams (SQE) and, upon completion of the programme, emerge as fully qualified solicitors.
The social scene at Forsters is vibrant, we’re told, with a variety of firm socials and clubs that apprentices can participate in. There’s an in-house football team, netball team, rounders team and running group for sporty team members. Apprentices can also join the Forsters diversity and inclusion and charity networks, which organise events throughout the calendar year. In addition to a weekly choir and reading club for bookworms, the firm also runs a lunch club that helps feed those in need at a local church on Thursdays. Apprentices can also participate in regular firm-wide and team gatherings and are likely to become involved with the firm’s internal junior lawyers’ social group, which typically meets at the local pub.
Please note Forsters’ Legal Cheek View will be updated once the firm recruits its first solicitor apprentices.
This is the Forsters profile for those considering solicitor apprenticeships. Students looking to apply for training contracts should check out Legal Cheek‘s main Forsters profile.