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Careers
We’re constantly looking for talented individuals to join our rapidly expanding team.
We take great pride in taking on and working with colleagues with enthusiasm, entrepreneurial flair, self-motivation, technical excellence, empathy, energy and a genuine passion for their work. If this sounds like you then we’d love to hear from you. Please email our partner in charge of training and recruitment, Mark Hodac at applications@wablegal.com
Our people are our greatest asset and we invest in them accordingly. We expect our team to work tirelessly on our clients’ behalf and to be innovative in the way we carry out our legal assignments. For more information, see Qualified Lawyer Recruitment below.
Training Contracts at White & Black
We have regular trainee intakes at White & Black and will usually have been two and four trainees with us at any time. For details of some of our current trainees, see below.
Vacancies
We're currently accepting applications for training contracts to commence in September 2013 and September 2014. We encourage applications from candidates who have achieved at least ABB grades at A level and a 2:1 degree or higher at university (or are expected to). Technical excellence is a pre-requisite, and legal industry experience is a bonus (but not essential). Entrepreneurial flair is desirable and candidates must demonstrate self-motivation, empathy, drive and energy. Law and non-law backgrounds will be considered.
We offer seats in (a) commercial, IT and IP (b) corporate and venture capital and (c) litigation and dispute resolution.
To apply, please send a completed copy of our application form together with a covering letter and your CV by email to applications@wablegal.com or by post to the following address:
Applications
White & Black Legal LLP
Chalford Park
Oxford Road
Old Chalford
OX7 5QR
The closing date for applications is 31 July 2012.
Emma Belcher, Sophie Arrowsmith and Hannah Sensecall are trainees at White & Black. To learn more about them, click on their photos above.
Trainee Life at White & Black
Why White & Black?
"White & Black offers us all the things we were looking for in a firm. The firm offers excellent training in a niche corporate practice, as well as preparing us for post-qualification practice by giving us genuine client exposure and real responsibility. The firm has offered us training contracts which are heavily biased to the sectors in which we would like to qualify and seemed the obvious choice of firm for us. Since joining, we have found it to be dynamic and friendly. Moreover, the size of the firm means that we will spend our two years working closely with lawyers whose reputations are established in the corporate legal world."
Our training contracts cover seats in Commercial, Corporate and Commercial Litigation, and whilst we spend six months in a particular seat, more urgent work can be given to us at any time, from any department, depending on the current work underway in the firm. This has been fantastic in providing us with the opportunity to become involved in some of the biggest transactions White & Black has handled and has fine-tuned our organisational skills. There is a “can-do” attitude and everyone pitches in to see that the work is done and to a high standard.
The open plan offices produce a great environment to work in and certainly encourage more communication between individuals than would be the case where there is the traditional segregation of partners and departments. The firm has a non-hierarchical atmosphere facilitating an open-door policy- in terms of attitude and in the literal sense!
Trainee Life
"We didn’t want our training contracts to result in us knowing nothing more than the functions of a photocopier. As a trainee at White & Black, we are given a constant and diverse array of work.
Although we both do some company secretarial work and company incorporations, it is all tied in to bigger transactions which has enabled us to build a solid foundation in company law. Whilst much of the work is specialised in technology and venture capital law, we have enjoyed a wide variety of work. We have now worked on venture capital investment agreements, handled litigation in the software field alongside one of the partners, been involved in share and asset sales and undertaken initial mark-ups of commercial contracts, some with blue-chip counterparties. Perhaps most importantly, we have had direct contact with key clients which many firms of this calibre do not offer.
We have been given genuine responsibilities right from the start of our training contracts, and although pushed to achieve, we never feel out of our depths as there is always someone to support us and to ensure we are on the right track."
Social
"White & Black is not a traditional, stuffy firm. Although there are obvious responsibilities in the firm, our opinions are sought, valued and actually listened to. There is a roll your sleeves up mentality and everybody just gets on with the job whatever it is. We often find some down time to visit the local pub for a drink after work on a Friday and the “WAB team” nights out are great fun and a welcome opportunity to spend time with each other outside the office."
For information on a training contract at White & Black, please email applications@wablegal.com
Qualified Lawyer Recruitment
Our team consists of a group of highly skilled and experienced technology lawyers including litigators, transactional lawyers and contract law specialists. Our people possess the intellectual capacity and rigour to assess and dissect complex problems and the commercial flair and creativity to resolve them.
John Crabtree, OBE is now leading White & Black’s high performance initiative as we seek to develop our lawyers to their maximum potential. John is Chairman of White & Black and was senior partner at Wragge & Co for 12 years, during which time he won the Legal Business ‘Lawyer of the Year’ award. He is also Chair of the board of trustees of Sense, the national charity for deaf and blind people. He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2007.
At White & Black we offer our employees a challenging, rewarding and modern environment to work in. We operate a very “flat” structure where all opinions are welcome. Our staff are our greatest investment, and developing and supporting them to become truly exceptional is one of our core values.
Our brand embodies the way we operate. We believe in providing legal advice in plain English; with a minimum of fuss and stuffiness. We are a dynamic and forward-looking law firm, built around the requirements of our clients.
Staff Welfare & Training
White & Black is committed to ensuring that all of our partners and employees receive comprehensive training in both legal and non-legal areas (whether through external training providers or our regular internal training sessions). Every week, the whole firm (including non-fee earning staff) attend ‘soft skills’ training sessions delivered in-house by members of the team (on a rotational basis).
We operate a cycle to work scheme and are keen to promote a healthy lifestyle by offering our partners and employees local gym membership. We operate a number of initiatives to encourage diversity and enhance staff welfare.
Work Experience
We have links with one of the local secondary schools and regularly invite work experience students to join us. If you are interested in undertaking a work experience placement with us, please email applications@wablegal.com, attaching a copy of your CV if you have one.
We also act as subject advisors to Oxford Brookes University on the content and structure of the Legal Practice Course and give an annual lecture to LPC students on ‘Life in the Law’.
