Walker Morris

Walker Morris is an independent single-office firm based entirely in Leeds, founded in 1981. It works nationally but is not part of a network and has no London office.

Its strongest work is real estate, commercial dispute resolution, corporate and banking, and construction and infrastructure, acting for national developers, investors and lenders.

For a one-office firm its graduate recruitment is large: 52 vacation scheme places. Pay is £34,000 in the first year and £37,000 in the second, with newly qualified solicitors on £67,000, which is low next to London figures against living costs a long way below London's.

The seat structure has a feature no other firm here offers. Trainees move seats every four months rather than every six, which over two years means six seats rather than four. Trainees choose their second-year seats. And the final seat is the one they qualify into.

At most firms, qualification is a separate process at the end of the training contract: applying for newly qualified roles, often in competition with your own cohort, often while finishing the last seat. Here the last seat is the answer. A trainee arrives at it having chosen it, and stays.

That removes an uncertain stage from the end of the training contract, and for some people it is the single best reason to choose this firm.

Funding is full SQE course and examination fees plus a £7,000 maintenance grant, and full PGDL course fees plus another £7,000 grant for non-law graduates, which is £14,000 in total for someone taking both.