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Bright Futures Programme

Our two Bright Futures programmes aim to support groups currently under-represented in the legal sector by giving them an opportunity to gain insight into life at an international law firm.

Bright Futures Programmes

Our two Bright Futures programmes aim to support groups currently under-represented in the legal sector by giving them an opportunity to gain insight into life at an international law firm. On this five day programme you’ll get insight into how we help our clients achieve their commercial goals, work with experienced lawyers and have the opportunity to progress onto our summer vacation scheme. And we’ll pay you a salary for the week, plus travel and accommodation expenses.

Bright Futures is our pipeline programme for the London vacation scheme. Participants will be considered for a place on our 2026 vacation scheme and assessed via an assessment centre on day 5 of the programme.

We are now closed for applications but please join our talent community to be the first to hear about when our roles go live in Autumn 2025.

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Programme Structure

Our Bright Futures programme is a hybrid five days long programme, so you’ll need to be able to commit to that amount of time. This will include both time in the office and time working from home. The programme will be taking place from Monday 7th April 2025 - Friday 11th April 2025.

Here’s a summary of what you can expect to encounter during your time on our bright futures programmes:

Pre-programme support

In the weeks leading up to the Bright Futures programme, we will run a series of virtual sessions to help prepare you for the week and get to know the firm

Day one:

On the first day you’ll learn about the firm from a partner, gain tips from previous Bright Futures alumni and participate in development sessions to prepare you for the in-office days. The Access programme and Black Talent programme will have some additional sessions.

Day two:

You’ll experience the culture here the same as you would if you were a first year trainee. You’ll join networking sessions and hear from our D&I (Diversity & Inclusion) team. There will also be a group project and a social event to introduce you to other people on the programme.

Day three:

On day three, you’ll take a dive deep into your strengths with a learning and development professional to understand how to maximise your best qualities.

Day four:

For the first half of day four, you’ll get to see the lawyers in action. You’ll shadow a trainee so you can see first-hand their workload. And you’ll meet their wider team to learn about that practice group. In the afternoon, you will receive preparation sessions from the early careers team with full details of the assessments you will be part of the following day.

Day five:

The assessment centre. This will consist of various tasks such as a written task, group exercise and a role-play exercise. By the end of day four, you’ll be prepared and best equipped to ace the assessment centre, so please don’t worry about this stage too much. We want to set you up for success with the aim that you secure an offer for our vacation scheme the following year.

Mentoring for futue vacation scheme students

If you are successful at obtaining a place on our Vacation Scheme the following year, you will receive on-going support to prepare you. You will be assigned a mentor from our fee-earner population, and will be invited to various virtual and in-person sessions with the Early Careers team.

Let's take it step by step

Our strengths-based recruitment process is based on fairness and equity. It’s designed to help us identify what motivates you to work at a city law firm, over your learnt experiences, and helps you show us the most authentic version of yourself. Here’s how it works:

Applications open

For all programmes, you’ll need to make your application online via our online application system. At this stage you’ll just need to complete your basic personal information. No lengthy written tasks for you to complete here.

Digital simulation

Following your online application, you will be invited to complete our digital simulation. It’s an assessment you can complete in your own time and space. It contains a variety of questions with responses being a mix between written and video. They’re designed to present you with some of the challenges you can expect to face at Clyde & Co. Some questions will try to understand your motivations behind your application. It’s about as realistic as it gets. For more advice and tips on how to approach this stage, visit the learning hub.

Virtual interview

This is the final stage of the process. Here we are assessing candidates based on the strengths that will deliver success in a role.

Offer

Our favourite part – the offer. We’ll call you to let you know if you’ve been successful, if you’re not, we’ll offer you some feedback for your development.

Eligibility

This programme is for first-year law and penultimate-year non-law students.
Please note: law students on a four-year course should apply in their second year.

Candidates must have attended a state / non-fee-paying school AND meet at least one of the following criteria:

  • You were eligible for free school meals (you do not have to have received them).
  • Your household income was lower than roughly £21,000 when you were about aged 14.
  • You grew up in a household where no parent/guardian had attended university or higher education (you are still eligible if your parents/guardians went to university as a mature student, and if a sibling went to university).
  • The occupation of your highest-paid parent or guardian when you were about aged 14 was:
    technical and craft occupations (e.g motor mechanic, plumber, printer, electrician, gardener, train driver) or
    routine, semi-routine manual and service occupations (e.g. postal worker, machine operative, security guard, caretaker, farm worker, catering assistant, sales assistant, HGV driver, cleaner, porter, waiter/waitress) or unemployed.
  • You spent time in local authority care.
  • You are or have been a carer.
  • You had refugee or asylum seeker status as a child.
  • You have experienced homelessness.
  • You consider yourself to be from a lower socio-economic background.

Please note we will be using Rare’s contextual recruitment system, built with fairness and equality. We also take into account any mitigating circumstances.

 

Candidates must be of black heritage background (this includes mixed black heritage).

If you are eligible for Access and Black Talent, please apply for our Black Talent programme. We can only consider ONE application.

You do NOT need to have previous law experience, but you should be on track for a 2:1 degree, be commercially minded and able to tell us why you think you would be a good fit for Clyde & Co.

Please note we will be using Rare’s contextual recruitment system, built with fairness and equality. We also take into account any mitigating circumstances.

 

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