
Qualifying at Aarons
Why choose Aarons for a Training Contract?
If you’re looking for a career where you can develop and fulfil your potential, where you can have a great quality of life in and out of work and where you will find challenges and rewards in equal measure, then this is the place for you to do your training contract. We want our people to develop their careers with us and believe in continuous personal and career development. Because we believe in continuous personal and career development, we remain committed to our people spending some time in the offices in the post covid world, achieving a balance between time spent in person with colleagues, which we believe is vital to the development of more junior fee earners in particular, and time spent working from home.
During the course of your training contract, you will receive a high level of responsibility in the legal work that you are involved in. You will work with lawyers who are independently recognised and ranked as leaders in their field. You will receive support from the training partners, as well as day-to-day support from your team leader. You will also have access to a range of in-house training and practical day-to-day learning.
We also offer
- Competitive salaries
- Bonus opportunities
- 26 days holiday increasing with long service
- Health cash plan
- Life assurance
- Flexible working environment
- Career progression
We have approximately 150 people across our two main offices in Chester and Shrewsbury. Our fee earners are divided into 7 internal teams; Dispute Resolution and Insolvency; Corporate and Commercial; Employment; Real Estate; Planning, Environmental, Energy and Regulatory (known as PEER); Wills, Trusts and Tax; and Family, however in practice work often requires ‘working groups which are pulled together from multiple teams, as matters frequently require specialist knowledge from different disciplines
We are an LLP with over 30 members. All the owners of the business work within it.
We take a prudent approach to financial management which means we’re debt free and have money in the bank. It also means we can take advantage of strategic opportunities when they present themselves. Our Shrewsbury office is a good example. We recognised that the Shrewsbury market had similarities to the Chester market. We acquired a small, employment-led practice consisting of a partner, a trainee and a secretary and within 5years we’ve grown it into an office of 30 people, which continues to grow. We’ve done this through excellent recruitment of people with links to the area and an unfailing focus on embedding ourselves within the business community locally.
We also have a satellite office at Manchester Airport City to support the growth of our international work, and we work closely with bodies such as the Chambers of Commerce and the LEP in other geographical areas close by, including North Wales and the Wirral.
Chester
5-7 Grosvenor Court, Forgate Street, Chester CH1 1HG
Shrewsbury
Lakeside House, Oxon Business Park, Shrewsbury SY3 5HJ
Manchester
Offices 204 and 205, Manchester Business Park Aviator Way, 3000 Aviator Way, Manchester M22 5TG
In our core practice areas we have a number of sector specialisms where we offer out-of-the-ordinary expertise to a national client base. Our PEER team advises on significant renewable energy projects; we have extensive expertise in the logistics sector including being the honorary legal advisers to the UK Warehousing Association; we work for clients in the food and education sectors and have UK-renowned expertise in mines, minerals and waste management.
We are a member of the Integrated Advisory Group, known as IAG International, which is an international group of lawyers and accountants. We meet three times a year and this network not only provides us with opportunities to act for overseas clients of other members who have legal requirements in England and Wales but also enables us to refer our clients who need assistance in other jurisdictions to people we know and trust.
Our people hold various board positions for clients and other organisations, including the company secretary role at Chester Zoo, the Chair of Theatr Clwyd and membership of the Board of the British Hydropower Association.
Our work is challenging but rewarding. We set high standards and by achieving them we deliver on our clients’ objectives.
Our Culture
Our standard fee earner billing target is 1,000 hours billed and paid, though our bonus scheme starts to pay out at 80% of the target, with the higher rewards being for those who exceed 100% of target. Compared to most of the firms you’ll be dealing with on the other side of matters, this isn’t a big target and by setting a realistic target that doesn’t require you to regularly work late and at weekends, you can enjoy the time when you’re not at work as well as the time that you are there.
We want our people to develop their careers with us. The case studies in the section below show how people have done this. It’s this focus on development that we think is the biggest advantage to being at Aarons. People are able to develop and progress in a way that isn’t possible at larger firms where you are at risk of being regarded as a unit of production. Because we believe in continuous personal and career development we remain committed to our people spending some time in the offices in the post covid world, achieving a balance between time spent in person with colleagues, which we believe is vital to the development of more junior fee earners in particular, and time spent working from home.
Our commitment to development is also reflected in our Personal Development Plan process which involves continuous supervision and feedback from together with two more formal reviews each year where career ambitions and development plans to achieve the are discussed.We believe that spending time together outside of work is also important. We have an extremely active social committee that organises our annual summer and Christmas parties. We have Friday drinks once a month too, paid for by the firm, and other events through the year to show our appreciation for our people. The Social Committee isn’t managed by the firm’s general management. It has its own budget and the committee, which consists of people from across the firm and is typically chaired by trainee solicitors, decides how to spend it.
Once a year we close the office for an afternoon and take everyone off site for an annual general meeting where we spend a couple of hours provide updates on performance and other key firm wide issues but mainly the day is about spending time with colleagues and enjoying ourselves.
And we’ve done some pretty unusual things together too, such as our own rowing Regatta on the River Dee where teams of colleagues took an 8 week learn to row course, then competed against each other for the chance to win the much coveted ‘Aarons Teapot Trophy’.
We’re a strong supporter of the Arts in our core areas with links to Storyhouse, Theatr Clywd and Shropshire Festivals among others. Arts organisations bring significant benefits to the communities they operate in and through sponsorship and other support we can be part of that support to our local communities. We also believe in supporting charities and causes that matter to our communities and our environment, and are active in taking part in charity fundraising activities (individually and collectively) as well as signing up to environmentally supportive activity, for example taking responsibility for our energy usage and committing to Chester Zoo’s sustainable Palm Oil project.
Frequently Asked Questions about Training Contracts
Training Contract Recruitment Process
