How our trainee solicitor survey works – The Legal 500 Future Lawyers

We sent online surveys to trainee solicitors at law firms of all shapes, sizes and specialisms across the UK. As ever, we received a fantastic response and ended up with over 2000 completed surveys from more than 100 law firms, which provided us with a particularly robust sample to analyse. The data from the surveys was processed and analysed by the editor of this publication.

We asked current trainees to rate their firm with a score from 0 to 100 (100 being the best possible score) in 14 different categories:

Click the links below to see the winners from each category.

When assessing the responses, we analysed the data against market norms and performed recommended statistical tests to ensure the analysis was valid, representative and robust. We used our professional judgement to exclude what we perceived to be outlying or unrepresentative elements in the data.

We then gave each firm a score out of one hundred for each category, based on the average score from the total trainees’ responses. These scores are shown alongside ‘The Legal 500 Future Lawyers Verdict’, where we piece together trainee responses to compile an overview of the feedback offered.

We also asked the trainees for more detailed information about their experiences and their firm under the headings:

1. 1. Why did you choose this firm over any others?
  2. Best thing about the firm?
  3. Worst thing about the firm?
  4. Best moments of your training?
  5. Worst moment of your training?

A representative sample of the trainees’ answers is found on each of the featured firm profiles.

All participating firms were asked to provide an introductory paragraph, as well as details of recent deals and a sample list of some of the clients they work with. Where this information was not provided by the firm, we have written this section ourselves, based on research undertaken by The Legal 500.