Curious about joining our team? Find quick answers to common career questions here.
All our current vacancies are listed on our vacancies page—simply upload your CV to apply. If you don’t see a suitable role, we welcome speculative applications. Whether you’re a lawyer, business professional, or just starting your career, feel free to submit your CV for general consideration. We’ll contact you when a relevant position opens, and keep your details on file as per our retention policy.
A cover letter is not required, but it can be helpful if you’d like to elaborate on specific points from your CV.
We appreciate all applications, but we may not be able to respond to each one personally. If we see a potential fit, we’ll typically be in touch within a week.
During the interview, you’ll meet key team members, learn more about the role, and get a feel for our culture and values. It’s also your chance to showcase your experience and ask any questions you may have.
Our interview process typically includes both virtual and in-person stages. This gives you the convenience of a virtual interview while allowing you to visit our office and meet the team. The format may vary depending on the situation, but we aim to offer a comprehensive, engaging experience.
To prepare, think about how your skills and experience align with the role. Be ready for technical and competency-based questions related to the job description. Familiarise yourself with S&B through our website, and come with any questions about the role or firm.
If you need any adjustments, please reach out to resourcing@www.stevens-bolton.com. One of our team members will call to discuss your requirements. We’re committed to providing an environment where you can perform your best.
We embrace an agile working model, offering flexibility that benefits everyone. Our Guildford office serves as the hub of our business—where we collaborate, socialise, and work together. We encourage face-to-face interaction for its professional, social, and well-being benefits. As part of this model, we ask everyone to work from the office at least two days a week, with some choosing to do so more often.
For trainees, we believe regular office presence helps with support and development, so we expect trainees to be in the office more frequently.
We provide the necessary IT and equipment to ensure seamless home working.
We’re proud of our friendly culture, built on shared values. The best way to understand our culture is to speak with us or anyone who’s worked here.
We recruit around 10 trainees annually, with most coming from our Vacation Schemes.
Applications for our 2026 Vacation Schemes will be open from 1 December 2025 to 31 January 2026.
We welcome applications from both law and non-law graduates who have (or expect to achieve) a 2:1 degree or higher, and at least 128 UCAS points in one sitting, with at least one grade A at A Level (unless there are exceptional circumstances).
We invite applicants to our Vacation Schemes who can start a Training Contract within two years. Therefore, you should apply a maximum of two years before your desired Training Contract start date.
Applications for both Training Contracts and Vacation Schemes are made through our online system. Please click here to apply.
Interviews take place between February and March each year, hosted via Zoom by various partners.
We run two week-long Vacation Schemes each year in the Spring, usually around Easter, offering 15 places on each scheme.
You will sit in a legal team and have the opportunity to undertake work for your career progression. We run introductory sessions with lawyers from across the business so you can learn about all parts of the firm, and we also provide you with project work to carry out during the week. We interview all participants for a Training Contract during the week.
Yes, we provide £250 to everyone who attends one of our Vacation Schemes to support them with travel and/or accommodation costs. This is paid after attending a Vacation Scheme.
We offer four six-month seats as part of your training contract, in both contentious and non-contentious areas of law. We are a full-service firm and we aim to recruit trainees who have an open mind about the seats that they undertake, whether that be advising corporate clients or private individuals, or doing advisory, disputes, or transactional work.
We want to give our trainees the opportunity to try out a range of different areas of the law so that they can develop a broad skill set and make an informed choice about the type of lawyer they want to be. Most trainees undertake a corporate seat, a contentious seat and one property related seat, with Corporate and Real Estate being two of our larger practice groups.
You will be given high levels of responsibility. We encourage everyone to get involved and become part of each team they work in. We are committed to providing excellent quality work and training.
As you begin your legal careers, we believe that coming into the office as frequently as possible will enable you to benefit from higher levels of support and team exposure, as well as learning and development initiatives. We therefore expect the majority of your time to be spent in the office, but we operate an agile working approach.
Work-life balance is important, but being a lawyer is not a standard 9–5 job. It is therefore difficult to define ‘typical’. Generally, you should expect some times when you are busier than others and so your working hours may be longer, and other times when deal/client activity is quieter. It is all a balance led by the work we are doing for and the needs of our clients.
Yes, we frequently have secondments available with various clients across some of our core practice areas, on either a full- or part-time basis.
We offer a buddy scheme where future trainees are matched with a current trainee who they can contact with any queries. Throughout the year, there are occasional opportunities for future trainees to meet up with their buddies, as well as social events.
First year trainees = £40,000, second year trainees = £42,000, and NQs = £65,000
Yes, we pay the PGDL and SQE fees for both courses (first sitting) and offer a £7,000 maintenance grant for each year of study. We expect our future trainees to study at the University of Law.
We do not pay any course fees or maintenance grants retrospectively, so we will only pay course fees and maintenance grants if you have accepted a training contract offer with us and have yet to complete the PGDL and/or SQE courses.
Generally, not: we would prefer our trainees to benefit from the full two years’ training to gain the broad experience and exposure required to prepare them for qualification as rounded and experienced lawyers.
Essential qualities include strong communication skills, drive and ambition, intelligence, attention to detail, business interest, and a genuine enthusiasm to be a lawyer and to work at Stevens & Bolton.
We also look for individuals who want to work hard and learn from every opportunity, and who have a flexible, open-minded approach to their work and the seats they undertake (whether transactional or advisory work, or working for a multinational company or an individual). Our culture is friendly, collaborative and ambitious – we look for trainees who share these qualities.
We have recently implemented the REALrating tool, upReach’s contextual recruitment system for employers, which enables us to identify the best people for the job, improve workplace diversity, and champion social mobility. This tool helps to level the playing field for those with a less advantageous route to law: by accounting for the context in which students achieved their grades, we can identify candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds who have overachieved despite their circumstances and who demonstrate the qualities needed to succeed in law, but who might otherwise be missed or overlooked in the recruitment process. This means we can recruit the very best people from a diverse range of backgrounds and experiences.
You will be asked in your application if you would like to opt-in to REALrating – please note that it will not harm your chances to opt-in, but it may enhance your application.
Within the application form, there is also an opportunity to disclose any mitigating circumstances that may be useful for us, so please share anything you feel is important.
Yes, we attend various law-fairs throughout the year. Please follow us on social media to stay up to date on where to meet us.
Please contact our Trainee team on: Ask.LandD@www.stevens-bolton.com