When the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) replaced the old LPC route to qualification, law firms gained a rare permission: to rethink the training contract itself. Burges Salmon<\/a> has now become the latest firm to use that flexibility, piloting dedicated energy and built environment training routes for its 2029 trainee cohort. The scheme is designed to produce lawyers who understand not only the law, but also the political, technological and commercial forces that shape some of the UK\u2019s most complex industries.<\/p>\n Burges Salmon will offer two specialist training places in 2029, one in energy and one in the built environment, alongside its conventional training contract. The pilot is intentionally small. But its structure marks a clear departure from the one-size-fits-all approach that has dominated legal recruitment for decades.<\/p>\n Trainees on the specialist pathways will still complete the firm\u2019s six-seat programme, rotating through different practice areas rather than being locked into a single team. The difference is that they will work with supervisors who specialise in their chosen sector. The result is a route that attempts to combine the breadth of a traditional legal education with the commercial fluency of an industry specialist.<\/p>\n For applicants, this means the pathway is not a narrow apprenticeship. It is a full training contract with an additional layer of sector exposure built into its design. The firm\u2019s chief people officer, Alice Bretherton, says the aim is to give talented people \u201cthe opportunity to pursue a clear sector interest while still receiving the rounded legal training, varied experience and high level of support that underpin our existing programme.\u201d<\/p>\n Trainees join in 2029 as part of the firm\u2019s annual intake and complete the standard six-seat training contract over two years. Each seat is supervised by lawyers active in the trainee\u2019s chosen sector, and the rotations are selected to reinforce that sector focus. Trainees therefore gain exposure across transactional, regulatory and advisory work while developing the vocabulary and commercial awareness of the energy or built environment industry. The programme is a pilot, currently limited to two places.<\/p>\n The Burges Salmon announcement is part of a wider structural shift in elite legal training. Under<\/a> the old LPC regime, training contracts typically had to expose trainees to a broad range of compulsory practice areas, leaving little room to build industry-specific knowledge before qualification. The SQE changed that calculation. By relaxing the prescriptive rules around what trainees must cover, it gave firms the freedom to design training around sectors as well as around legal disciplines.<\/p>\n That freedom has been used with increasing confidence. BCLP<\/a> introduced sector-focused pathways in financial services and real estate in 2021. Milbank created a leveraged finance-focused training contract in 2025. In 2026<\/a>, Gowling WLG unveiled a real estate training contract and Simpson Thacher launched a private equity-focused programme for its London office. Each of these schemes rests on the same premise: identify the sectors where clients are concentrating their work, then hire and train lawyers specifically for that market.<\/p>\n A sector-focused training contract is a legal training programme built around a particular industry rather than only around legal practice areas. Trainees receive the same qualifying legal education as their peers, but their seats and supervisory relationships are chosen to deepen their knowledge of that sector. Burges Salmon\u2019s model keeps the traditional six-seat framework while directing supervision towards energy or the built environment. The approach became more common after the SQE relaxed the prescriptive practice-area requirements that previously constrained training contract design.<\/p>\n Burges Salmon\u2019s move is not an isolated recruitment experiment. It is part of the firm\u2019s 2026-31 strategy, a five-year plan designed to strengthen sector expertise and invest in the training and development of its lawyers. The firm also expects the sector routes to make it more attractive to clients and future talent at the same time.<\/p>\n Energy and built environment are two sectors where legal work is deeply entangled with government policy, technological change, climate obligations and commercial pressure. Clients in these markets increasingly expect lawyers to speak the language of the industry as well as the language of the law. Senior partner Ross Fairley spells out the logic:<\/p>\n \u201cOur clients operate in complex, fast-moving markets. They need lawyers who understand not only the law, but also the political, technological and commercial forces shaping their organisations. By introducing a number of sector-focused training contracts, we want to start building that understanding from day one.\u201d<\/p>\n The phrase \u201ca number of\u201d hints that the pilot may be the beginning. Two places in 2029 give the firm room to test demand, assess supervisor capacity and evaluate whether sector-focused trainees develop differently from their generalist peers. If the numbers work, the model could plausibly be extended to other sectors in future recruitment cycles.<\/p>\n Applications for the new pathways will open on 30 October alongside Burges Salmon\u2019s wider trainee recruitment campaign. The firm has not created a separate assessment process. Candidates for the sector-focused routes will be evaluated using the same selection framework as applicants for the traditional training contract.<\/p>\n For current law students and career changers, this raises an obvious question: how early do you need to know your sector? The answer is that you need to show commitment to a sector rather than to a particular legal task. You do not need technical expertise in energy regulation or planning law. You need to understand why those industries are strategically important, how law firms serve them, and why you want to build your career inside them.<\/p>\n The application window also comes with a useful starting point. The firm\u2019s vacation scheme and training contract applications for its Bristol and Edinburgh offices are open, giving prospective applicants a chance to see the firm\u2019s work before they apply. Candidates who are serious about the sector routes should treat the vacation scheme as an opportunity to test their own interest as much as to impress the firm.<\/p>\n Burges Salmon offers 30 training contracts annually, with vacation scheme and training contract applications open for its Bristol and Edinburgh offices. The two sector-specific routes will run alongside that established programme rather than replace it. Salary scales differ by location.<\/p>\nInside Burges Salmon\u2019s energy and built environment training routes<\/h2>\n
How does a sector-focused training contract work at Burges Salmon?<\/h3>\n
Why law firms are moving towards sector-specific training contracts<\/h2>\n
What is a sector-focused training contract?<\/h3>\n
A training route built for the 2026-31 strategy<\/h2>\n
Applications open on 30 October: what candidates need to know<\/h2>\n
Bristol, Edinburgh and the Burges Salmon training salary<\/h2>\n
| Office<\/th>\n | First year<\/th>\n | Second year<\/th>\n | On qualification<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol<\/td>\n | \u00a351,500<\/td>\n | \u00a353,500<\/td>\n | \u00a378,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Edinburgh<\/td>\n | \u00a344,250<\/td>\n | \u00a346,500<\/td>\n | \u00a374,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The pilot routes are not advertised with separate pay bands, meaning they are expected to follow the firm\u2019s existing trainee pay structure. For applicants, that removes one potential source of hesitation: choosing a sector-specific route will not mean accepting a lower starting salary or a different qualification outcome.<\/p>\n What the pilot says about the future of legal training<\/h2>\nThe significance of Burges Salmon\u2019s pilot extends beyond two jobs. Law firms have spent years talking about sector specialisation. Training contracts have been among the last elements of the model to catch up. By creating sector pathways, Burges Salmon is signalling that industry expertise is a skill to be developed through structured training, not just accumulated after qualification.<\/p>\n For clients, this should mean a new generation of solicitors who arrive in their teams with a working knowledge of the commercial landscape in which their business operates. For future lawyers, it signals that recruitment is becoming more transparent about what a firm is looking for. A candidate who knows early that their career belongs in energy or the built environment no longer has to hide that interest behind a generic training contract application.<\/p>\n There is, of course, a counterargument. A sector-specific training contract asks a young lawyer to make a career-defining choice before they have practised. Some will worry that early specialisation closes doors. The Burges Salmon model responds to that concern by preserving the six-seat structure and the broad qualification it produces. Sector-focused does not have to mean narrow.<\/p>\n The 2029 cohort will therefore be the first practical test of whether sector-focused training can coexist with the breadth the traditional route is known for. If the model works, it may become a permanent feature of Burges Salmon\u2019s recruitment, and competitors will be watching. For candidates who know exactly which industry they want to serve, the pilot represents a rare chance to start building their reputation before they even qualify.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) replaced the old LPC route to qualification, law firms gained a rare permission: to rethink the training contract itself. Burges Salmon has now become the latest firm to use that flexibility, piloting dedicated energy and built environment training routes for its 2029 trainee cohort. The scheme is designed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":100833,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cards.overcentral.com\/cards\/en\/100830.png","fifu_image_alt":"Burges Salmon pilots energy and built environment training routes","footnotes":""},"categories":[40657],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-legal"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cards.overcentral.com\/cards\/en\/100830.png","fifu_image_alt":"Burges Salmon pilots energy and built environment training routes","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100830"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100832,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100830\/revisions\/100832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/overcentral.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |