Law Careers
Practice Areas Explained: A Complete Guide to Specialisms in Commercial Law
A detailed guide to the main practice areas in UK commercial law, what work each involves day to day, which firms lead in each area, and how to decide where you want to qualify.
EO Careers Team
If you are exploring which area of law to pursue, our Law Careers hub covers qualification routes, firm types, and how to build a career in the legal profession.
Choosing a practice area is one of the most consequential decisions you will make as an aspiring solicitor. It shapes which firms are the right fit, what your day-to-day work looks like, the clients you will serve, the skills you will develop, and ultimately the kind of lawyer you become. Most students apply to training contracts without a clear understanding of what different practice areas actually involve. This guide fixes that.
It covers every significant practice area in UK commercial law: what the work involves at trainee and junior level, the skills each rewards, which firms are known for it, how it connects to other areas, and what you should be thinking about when deciding where you want to qualify.
How practice areas are organised at a law firm
Before covering individual areas, it helps to understand how firms are structured.
Large commercial law firms organise their lawyers into practice groups, sometimes called departments. Each practice group specialises in a defined area of legal work. Trainees rotate through four six-month seats during their two-year training contract, spending time in different practice groups before choosing a qualification seat at the end.
The major practice areas at most large commercial firms fall into three broad categories:
Transactional: Work driven by deals and transactions with defined start and end points. Corporate, finance, real estate, and tax are primarily transactional.
Advisory: Ongoing advice to clients on legal questions arising from their business operations. Employment, competition, and regulatory work are primarily advisory.
Contentious: Work involving disputes, whether in court, arbitration, or other resolution processes. Dispute resolution and litigation are contentious.
Many practice areas combine elements of all three. A finance lawyer might spend most of their time on transactional work but also advise on regulatory questions and occasionally support litigation arising from a deal that has gone wrong.
Corporate law
Corporate law is the engine room of most large commercial law firms. It covers the legal work involved when businesses buy, sell, merge, invest in, or restructure each other.
What the work actually involves
The core of corporate practice is mergers and acquisitions (M&A): advising companies and their shareholders on transactions where one business acquires another or combines with it. A typical M&A deal involves:
Due diligence: Reviewing the target company's legal documents (contracts, employment agreements, property leases, regulatory licences) to identify risks and issues before the deal closes.
Transaction structuring: Advising on how the deal should be legally structured (share sale vs asset sale, for example) and what the tax, regulatory, and commercial implications of each structure are.
Drafting and negotiating documents: The sale and purchase agreement (SPA) is the central transaction document. It is typically long (100 pages or more on complex deals), heavily negotiated, and drafted by the lawyers on both sides.
Conditions and completion: Managing the process of satisfying pre-conditions (regulatory approvals, shareholder votes) and coordinating completion of the transaction.
Beyond M&A, corporate teams handle private equity transactions (where investment funds acquire and later sell companies), joint ventures (where two or more parties combine resources for a specific purpose), corporate restructurings, and initial public offerings (IPOs, where a private company lists on a stock exchange).
What it is like as a trainee
Corporate seats are among the most demanding in a training contract. Deals drive the pace and the hours, which means periods of intense activity around transaction deadlines. As a trainee, you will spend significant time on due diligence (reviewing documents and preparing reports on the findings), drafting ancillary transaction documents, managing completion logistics, and handling the administrative aspects of a live deal.
The intellectual challenge in corporate comes from understanding how a transaction fits together commercially and legally, and why particular structures or provisions are chosen. Trainees who engage with the commercial rationale behind decisions, rather than just the task in front of them, get the most from corporate seats.
Skills corporate rewards
Attention to detail: Transaction documents are long and precise. Errors have real consequences.
Commercial awareness: Understanding what the parties are trying to achieve and why the legal structure serves (or hinders) that goal.
Project management: Coordinating multiple workstreams, deadlines, and parties simultaneously.
Resilience: Long hours during deal-intensive periods are the norm, not the exception.
Firms known for corporate work
Magic Circle firms (A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, Slaughter and May) handle the largest and most complex corporate transactions globally. US firms (Davis Polk, Kirkland and Ellis, Latham and Watkins, Skadden) are particularly dominant in private equity transactions. Silver Circle firms (Ashurst, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells) handle strong corporate practices across a broader range of deal sizes.
Finance law
Finance law covers the legal structures behind lending, borrowing, and investment. It is one of the largest practice areas at most major commercial firms and one of the areas most closely connected to the financial services industry.
What the work actually involves
Finance lawyers work on transactions where money is being lent or raised. The main sub-areas are:
Banking and loans: Advising banks and corporate borrowers on loan facilities. A syndicated loan (where a group of banks collectively lend to a large corporate borrower) involves a facilities agreement that is typically drafted by the lead bank's lawyers and negotiated by borrower-side counsel.
Capital markets: Advising on the issuance of debt securities (bonds) and equity securities (shares). A bond issuance involves a prospectus (a detailed disclosure document), a trust deed, and various ancillary documents.
Structured finance and securitisation: More complex financial structures where pools of assets (mortgages, credit card receivables) are packaged into securities and sold to investors.
Leveraged finance: The debt financing that sits behind private equity buyouts. Closely connected to corporate M&A.
Real estate finance: Lending secured against property assets.
What it is like as a trainee
Finance seats involve substantial document review and drafting work. Finance documents are long, technical, and heavily negotiated, and trainees spend significant time reviewing conditions precedent (the documents a borrower must produce before a loan can be drawn down), updating transaction management lists, and drafting simpler ancillary documents.
The technical nature of finance documentation can feel daunting initially. Most trainees find it becomes more manageable quickly once they understand the underlying structure of a transaction and the function of each document within it.
Skills finance rewards
Technical precision: Finance documents are detailed and the definitions matter. A small drafting error in a definition can have significant downstream consequences.
Numerical comfort: Not advanced mathematics, but comfort with financial concepts (interest rates, margin, covenants, leverage ratios) and the ability to check figures accurately.
Systematic thinking: Finance transactions involve many interdependent documents. Understanding how they fit together is a core skill.
Firms known for finance work
A&O Shearman has one of the strongest banking and finance practices in the world. Clifford Chance and Linklaters are also known for capital markets and structured finance. Freshfields has a strong leveraged finance capability connected to its corporate practice. US firms (Latham and Watkins, Simpson Thacher, White and Case) dominate leveraged finance on the largest private equity transactions.
Dispute resolution and litigation
Dispute resolution covers the legal work involved when parties cannot resolve a conflict themselves and need external resolution, whether through the courts, arbitration, or other mechanisms.
What the work actually involves
Commercial litigation involves disputes heard in the English courts (primarily the Business and Property Courts in London, which include the Commercial Court and the Chancery Division). Cases range from contract disputes and shareholder claims to fraud actions, professional negligence cases, and regulatory proceedings.
International arbitration is a separate and growing specialism. Many commercial contracts (particularly in construction, energy, shipping, and international trade) include arbitration clauses that require disputes to be resolved through private arbitration rather than national courts. London is one of the leading centres for international arbitration globally, and the work involves institutions including the LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration) and the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce).
What it is like as a trainee
Contentious seats are often described as among the most intellectually satisfying in a training contract. The work involves reading and analysing large volumes of documents (disclosure), researching legal arguments, drafting witness statements and pleadings, attending court hearings, and assisting with trial preparation.
The pace of contentious work is different from transactional work. Rather than being driven by deal deadlines, litigation is driven by court-ordered timetables and hearing dates. This can mean periods of intense activity around hearings and deadlines interspersed with longer stretches of research and document review.
Skills dispute resolution rewards
Analytical rigour: Identifying the strongest legal arguments and anticipating what the other side will argue.
Written advocacy: Drafting submissions, skeleton arguments, and written opinions that are clear, precise, and persuasive.
Resilience and composure: Contentious work involves direct opposition and, eventually, performance before a tribunal or court.
Strategic thinking: Litigation strategy (whether to settle, how to manage disclosure, which arguments to prioritise) requires judgment that goes beyond pure legal analysis.
Firms known for disputes work
Freshfields and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer are consistently ranked among the leading litigation and arbitration practices in London. Skadden and Quinn Emanuel (a disputes-only US firm) are known for the highest-stakes commercial litigation. Brick Court Chambers, Fountain Court Chambers, and Essex Court Chambers are the leading barristers' sets for commercial disputes.
Competition law
Competition law governs how businesses compete with each other and how markets function. It is one of the most intellectually demanding practice areas in commercial law because it combines legal analysis with economics.
What the work actually involves
Competition lawyers work across three main areas:
Merger control: When companies propose to merge or one company proposes to acquire another, regulators (the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, the European Commission for EU matters) review whether the transaction would harm competition. Competition lawyers advise on whether a transaction requires notification, prepare the filing, and manage the regulatory review process.
Cartel and abuse investigations: Regulators investigate companies suspected of price-fixing, market allocation, or abuse of a dominant market position. Competition lawyers represent clients under investigation, advise on dawn raids (unannounced regulatory searches), and manage the response to formal information requests.
Competition litigation: Private damages claims brought by parties who suffered loss as a result of a competition law infringement. This is a growing area following the establishment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
What it is like as a trainee
Competition seats are distinctive because the work involves economic analysis alongside legal argument. Trainees read economic reports, engage with market data, and work closely with economic consultants. The work is intellectually varied and involves significant research and writing.
Merger control work can be fast-paced and deadline-driven (regulatory deadlines are fixed and cannot be extended). Investigation work is slower-paced but involves deep analytical engagement with complex factual and legal questions.
Skills competition rewards
Economic literacy: Comfort with market analysis, economic concepts, and the logic of competition economics.
Rigorous analysis: Competition arguments are evidence-heavy and analytically demanding.
Clear writing: Competition filings and submissions need to present complex arguments accessibly.
Firms known for competition work
Freshfields has one of the leading competition practices in Europe. Linklaters, Clifford Chance, and A&O Shearman all have strong competition teams. Cleary Gottlieb is known for its competition work internationally. For barrister-led competition litigation, Brick Court Chambers and Monckton Chambers are the leading sets.
Employment law
Employment law covers the legal relationship between employers and employees. It has two main dimensions: contentious (litigation in employment tribunals and courts) and non-contentious (advisory and transactional work).
What the work actually involves
Non-contentious employment work includes:
Advising on redundancy processes and restructurings.
Drafting and negotiating senior executive contracts and settlement agreements.
Advising on TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations), which governs what happens to employees when a business or part of a business is transferred to a new owner. This arises in almost every M&A transaction.
Advising on bonus arrangements, long-term incentive plans, and equity compensation.
Advising on diversity, equity, and inclusion obligations.
Contentious employment work includes:
Representing employers in employment tribunal proceedings involving unfair dismissal, discrimination, and whistleblowing claims.
High Court litigation involving post-termination restrictions (non-compete clauses, garden leave provisions) and injunctions.
What it is like as a trainee
Employment seats provide some of the most direct client contact available in a training contract. The matters are often personal and fast-moving, and trainees regularly have significant involvement in client communications.
Trainees in employment seats spend time drafting settlement agreements, researching tribunal case law, assisting with tribunal proceedings, and advising on the employment aspects of corporate transactions. The work involves both detailed legal analysis and a more human dimension (understanding the dynamics of an employment relationship) that many trainees find engaging.
Skills employment rewards
People judgment: Understanding the human dynamics of employment situations alongside the legal framework.
Drafting precision: Employment documents (particularly settlement agreements and restrictive covenants) need to be both legally precise and practically workable.
Client communication: Employment matters often involve anxious clients (executives facing termination, companies managing a discrimination claim) who need clear, reassuring advice.
Firms known for employment work
Most large commercial firms have strong employment practices. Linklaters, Freshfields, and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer are consistently well-regarded. Specialist employment firms like Lewis Silkin and Mishcon de Reya are known for high-profile individual and collective employment matters.
Real estate law
Real estate is one of the largest practice areas by headcount at many UK commercial firms. It covers the legal work involved when property is bought, sold, developed, financed, or leased.
What the work actually involves
Commercial real estate lawyers work on:
Investment transactions: Advising funds and investors on the acquisition and disposal of commercial property (offices, retail centres, logistics parks, hotels).
Development: Advising developers on planning, construction contracts, and the legal structure of development projects.
Landlord and tenant: Advising on commercial leases, lease renewals, rent reviews, and dilapidations.
Real estate finance: The debt financing secured against property assets (closely connected to the finance practice area).
Planning law: A specialism within real estate covering the regulatory framework for development.
What it is like as a trainee
Real estate seats are often transaction-heavy with high document volumes. A large property fund acquisition might involve dozens of individual properties, each with its own title documents, leases, and certificates of title. Trainees develop strong project management and document management skills alongside the substantive legal knowledge.
Real estate work also tends to involve more direct client contact at a junior level than some other practice areas, because the volume of matters means that associates and trainees regularly run smaller transactions with supervision rather than being purely in a supporting role.
Skills real estate rewards
Document management: Coordinating large volumes of documents across complex transactions.
Commercial property knowledge: Understanding how property markets work and what drives investment decisions.
Attention to detail: Title investigation and lease review require sustained precision.
Firms known for real estate work
Hogan Lovells, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters have strong real estate investment practices. Eversheds Sutherland, CMS, and DLA Piper are known for high-volume real estate work across a range of sectors. Mishcon de Reya and Forsters are known for residential and private client real estate.
Tax law
Tax is one of the most technically demanding practice areas in commercial law and one of the least visible to students researching the profession. Almost every significant commercial transaction has a tax dimension, which means tax lawyers work across corporate, finance, real estate, and employment matters as well as on standalone tax advisory and disputes work.
What the work actually involves
Commercial tax lawyers advise on:
Transaction tax: Structuring transactions to manage the tax consequences for buyers, sellers, and investors. This involves corporate tax (how the acquisition is structured to minimise tax leakage), VAT (whether the transaction is subject to VAT and how to structure it to manage this), and stamp duty.
Corporate tax advisory: Advising companies on how to structure their business affairs, manage transfer pricing (how transactions between group companies are priced for tax purposes), and comply with tax regulations.
Tax disputes: Representing companies in disputes with HMRC over tax assessments and investigations.
Fund structuring: Advising private equity and real estate funds on how to structure their investment vehicles for tax efficiency.
What it is like as a trainee
Tax seats involve detailed technical analysis and significant writing. Tax opinions are precise, structured arguments about how the law applies to a specific set of facts, and producing them requires both command of the technical rules and the ability to apply them clearly to complex circumstances.
Tax is often described by lawyers who practise it as the most intellectually stimulating area of commercial law. It requires a particular aptitude for detailed technical reasoning, comfort with complexity, and the ability to hold multiple interacting rules in mind simultaneously.
Skills tax rewards
Technical precision: Tax rules are detailed and the distinctions matter enormously.
Analytical depth: Tax analysis often requires working through multiple interacting provisions to reach a conclusion.
Clear writing: A tax opinion that cannot be understood by the client is not useful, however technically correct it may be.
Firms known for tax work
Slaughter and May has a particularly strong tax practice. Linklaters, Freshfields, and A&O Shearman all have leading tax teams. Specialist tax counsel at the bar (particularly at Gray's Inn Tax Chambers and Pump Court Tax Chambers) handle the most complex tax litigation.
Intellectual property law
Intellectual property law protects rights in creative and innovative work. It covers patents (inventions), trademarks (brand identifiers), copyright (creative works), and designs. It is increasingly important as the economy becomes more dependent on technology, data, and creative content.
What the work actually involves
IP law divides broadly into contentious and non-contentious work.
Non-contentious IP includes:
Advising on IP ownership in transactions (making sure a company acquiring another actually acquires all the IP it needs).
Drafting and negotiating IP licensing agreements (where one party licences its IP to another for a fee).
Advising on brand strategy and trademark portfolio management.
Advising technology companies on data protection and software licensing.
Contentious IP includes:
Patent litigation (disputes about whether a patent is valid and whether a competitor has infringed it).
Trademark disputes (disputes about whether a brand is being copied or confused with another).
Copyright infringement claims.
IP litigation is a highly specialised area. In the UK, patent cases often involve both legal and technical experts, and the lawyers who practise it typically have a scientific or engineering background alongside their legal training.
Firms and chambers known for IP work
Bristows, Bird and Bird, and Marks and Clerk are the leading specialist IP firms in the UK. Hogan Lovells and Taylor Wessing have strong IP practices within broader full-service firms. For IP litigation at the bar, Three New Square and 8 New Square are the leading specialist sets.
Banking regulation and financial services law
Regulatory work in financial services is distinct from transactional banking or finance work. It covers the rules that govern how financial institutions operate, supervised by regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Bank of England.
What the work actually involves
Financial services regulatory lawyers advise banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and fintech firms on:
Regulatory authorisation: What permissions a firm needs to carry out regulated activities and how to obtain them.
Regulatory investigations: When the FCA or PRA investigates a firm for potential rule breaches.
Product and distribution advice: Whether a new financial product can be sold, to whom, and under what conditions.
Fintech and crypto regulation: How new financial technologies fit within the existing regulatory framework or require regulatory change.
This is a fast-moving area because the regulatory framework for financial services changes frequently and the emergence of new technologies constantly creates new regulatory questions.
Firms known for financial regulation work
Clifford Chance, Linklaters, and A&O Shearman have large financial regulation practices connected to their banking and capital markets work. Herbert Smith Freehills has a strong regulatory investigations practice. Specialist regulatory firms like Freshfields Regulatory and Eversheds Sutherland Regulatory also handle significant mandates.
Private client law
Private client law is the area most different in character from the corporate and commercial world that dominates City practice. Private client lawyers advise wealthy individuals and families on wealth management, estate planning, wills, trusts, and inheritance.
What the work actually involves
Private client solicitors handle:
Wills and succession planning: Drafting wills, advising on intestacy (what happens when someone dies without a will), and structuring estates to minimise inheritance tax.
Trusts: Creating and administering trusts for asset protection, tax planning, and succession purposes.
Tax planning: Advising on income tax, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax for high-net-worth individuals.
International private client: Advising clients with assets in multiple jurisdictions on cross-border succession and tax issues.
What distinguishes private client work
Private client is one of the few areas of law where the client relationship is genuinely personal rather than institutional. You are advising real people on decisions that affect their families, their legacies, and often deeply personal circumstances. The work requires strong interpersonal skills, sensitivity, and the ability to explain complex legal and tax concepts clearly to non-lawyers.
The pace of private client work is generally more measured than transactional practice, and the culture at specialist private client firms tends to be different in character from Magic Circle or US firm environments.
Firms known for private client work
Withers, Farrer and Co, Hunters, and Charles Russell Speechlys are among the leading private client firms in the UK. Boodle Hatfield and Wedlake Bell are also well regarded. Within larger full-service firms, Macfarlanes has a particularly strong private client practice alongside its corporate work.
How to think about choosing a practice area
Most training contract candidates do not need to commit to a practice area before they apply. Large firms offer seat rotations specifically to allow trainees to experience different areas before choosing where to qualify. But having a genuine, informed interest in one or two areas will strengthen your applications, because firms expect evidence of thought rather than vague enthusiasm for commercial law generally.
When thinking about which area might suit you, the most useful questions are:
Transactional or contentious? Do you prefer work with defined endpoints (a deal closes, a transaction completes) or work that involves sustained intellectual engagement with a developing dispute?
Technical depth or breadth? Tax and IP reward deep technical expertise in a narrow area. Corporate and disputes reward broader commercial and legal judgment across a wide range of matters.
Clients and relationships: Do you want to work primarily with institutions (banks, funds, corporations) or with individuals (private client)? Do you want short, intense client interactions (transactional) or longer-term relationships (advisory)?
The intersection matters: The most complex commercial work involves multiple practice areas simultaneously. An M&A transaction involves corporate, finance, tax, employment, real estate, and competition lawyers working in parallel. Understanding how areas connect makes you a more effective trainee and a more compelling applicant.
For a detailed look at how commercial awareness connects to all these practice areas, see our commercial awareness guide. For guidance on the training contract application process, see our how to get a training contract guide.
Want to develop the commercial understanding that underpins all of these areas?
Our Commercial Awareness Starter Pack covers the business and economic context behind the main practice areas, including how deals are structured, how firms make money, and what clients in each sector actually care about. It is the most direct way to build the commercial foundation that every practice area, and every law firm interview, requires.
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Law Careers
Practice Areas Explained: A Complete Guide to Specialisms in Commercial Law
A detailed guide to the main practice areas in UK commercial law, what work each involves day to day, which firms lead in each area, and how to decide where you want to qualify.
EO Careers Team
If you are exploring which area of law to pursue, our Law Careers hub covers qualification routes, firm types, and how to build a career in the legal profession.
Choosing a practice area is one of the most consequential decisions you will make as an aspiring solicitor. It shapes which firms are the right fit, what your day-to-day work looks like, the clients you will serve, the skills you will develop, and ultimately the kind of lawyer you become. Most students apply to training contracts without a clear understanding of what different practice areas actually involve. This guide fixes that.
It covers every significant practice area in UK commercial law: what the work involves at trainee and junior level, the skills each rewards, which firms are known for it, how it connects to other areas, and what you should be thinking about when deciding where you want to qualify.
How practice areas are organised at a law firm
Before covering individual areas, it helps to understand how firms are structured.
Large commercial law firms organise their lawyers into practice groups, sometimes called departments. Each practice group specialises in a defined area of legal work. Trainees rotate through four six-month seats during their two-year training contract, spending time in different practice groups before choosing a qualification seat at the end.
The major practice areas at most large commercial firms fall into three broad categories:
Transactional: Work driven by deals and transactions with defined start and end points. Corporate, finance, real estate, and tax are primarily transactional.
Advisory: Ongoing advice to clients on legal questions arising from their business operations. Employment, competition, and regulatory work are primarily advisory.
Contentious: Work involving disputes, whether in court, arbitration, or other resolution processes. Dispute resolution and litigation are contentious.
Many practice areas combine elements of all three. A finance lawyer might spend most of their time on transactional work but also advise on regulatory questions and occasionally support litigation arising from a deal that has gone wrong.
Corporate law
Corporate law is the engine room of most large commercial law firms. It covers the legal work involved when businesses buy, sell, merge, invest in, or restructure each other.
What the work actually involves
The core of corporate practice is mergers and acquisitions (M&A): advising companies and their shareholders on transactions where one business acquires another or combines with it. A typical M&A deal involves:
Due diligence: Reviewing the target company's legal documents (contracts, employment agreements, property leases, regulatory licences) to identify risks and issues before the deal closes.
Transaction structuring: Advising on how the deal should be legally structured (share sale vs asset sale, for example) and what the tax, regulatory, and commercial implications of each structure are.
Drafting and negotiating documents: The sale and purchase agreement (SPA) is the central transaction document. It is typically long (100 pages or more on complex deals), heavily negotiated, and drafted by the lawyers on both sides.
Conditions and completion: Managing the process of satisfying pre-conditions (regulatory approvals, shareholder votes) and coordinating completion of the transaction.
Beyond M&A, corporate teams handle private equity transactions (where investment funds acquire and later sell companies), joint ventures (where two or more parties combine resources for a specific purpose), corporate restructurings, and initial public offerings (IPOs, where a private company lists on a stock exchange).
What it is like as a trainee
Corporate seats are among the most demanding in a training contract. Deals drive the pace and the hours, which means periods of intense activity around transaction deadlines. As a trainee, you will spend significant time on due diligence (reviewing documents and preparing reports on the findings), drafting ancillary transaction documents, managing completion logistics, and handling the administrative aspects of a live deal.
The intellectual challenge in corporate comes from understanding how a transaction fits together commercially and legally, and why particular structures or provisions are chosen. Trainees who engage with the commercial rationale behind decisions, rather than just the task in front of them, get the most from corporate seats.
Skills corporate rewards
Attention to detail: Transaction documents are long and precise. Errors have real consequences.
Commercial awareness: Understanding what the parties are trying to achieve and why the legal structure serves (or hinders) that goal.
Project management: Coordinating multiple workstreams, deadlines, and parties simultaneously.
Resilience: Long hours during deal-intensive periods are the norm, not the exception.
Firms known for corporate work
Magic Circle firms (A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, Slaughter and May) handle the largest and most complex corporate transactions globally. US firms (Davis Polk, Kirkland and Ellis, Latham and Watkins, Skadden) are particularly dominant in private equity transactions. Silver Circle firms (Ashurst, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells) handle strong corporate practices across a broader range of deal sizes.
Finance law
Finance law covers the legal structures behind lending, borrowing, and investment. It is one of the largest practice areas at most major commercial firms and one of the areas most closely connected to the financial services industry.
What the work actually involves
Finance lawyers work on transactions where money is being lent or raised. The main sub-areas are:
Banking and loans: Advising banks and corporate borrowers on loan facilities. A syndicated loan (where a group of banks collectively lend to a large corporate borrower) involves a facilities agreement that is typically drafted by the lead bank's lawyers and negotiated by borrower-side counsel.
Capital markets: Advising on the issuance of debt securities (bonds) and equity securities (shares). A bond issuance involves a prospectus (a detailed disclosure document), a trust deed, and various ancillary documents.
Structured finance and securitisation: More complex financial structures where pools of assets (mortgages, credit card receivables) are packaged into securities and sold to investors.
Leveraged finance: The debt financing that sits behind private equity buyouts. Closely connected to corporate M&A.
Real estate finance: Lending secured against property assets.
What it is like as a trainee
Finance seats involve substantial document review and drafting work. Finance documents are long, technical, and heavily negotiated, and trainees spend significant time reviewing conditions precedent (the documents a borrower must produce before a loan can be drawn down), updating transaction management lists, and drafting simpler ancillary documents.
The technical nature of finance documentation can feel daunting initially. Most trainees find it becomes more manageable quickly once they understand the underlying structure of a transaction and the function of each document within it.
Skills finance rewards
Technical precision: Finance documents are detailed and the definitions matter. A small drafting error in a definition can have significant downstream consequences.
Numerical comfort: Not advanced mathematics, but comfort with financial concepts (interest rates, margin, covenants, leverage ratios) and the ability to check figures accurately.
Systematic thinking: Finance transactions involve many interdependent documents. Understanding how they fit together is a core skill.
Firms known for finance work
A&O Shearman has one of the strongest banking and finance practices in the world. Clifford Chance and Linklaters are also known for capital markets and structured finance. Freshfields has a strong leveraged finance capability connected to its corporate practice. US firms (Latham and Watkins, Simpson Thacher, White and Case) dominate leveraged finance on the largest private equity transactions.
Dispute resolution and litigation
Dispute resolution covers the legal work involved when parties cannot resolve a conflict themselves and need external resolution, whether through the courts, arbitration, or other mechanisms.
What the work actually involves
Commercial litigation involves disputes heard in the English courts (primarily the Business and Property Courts in London, which include the Commercial Court and the Chancery Division). Cases range from contract disputes and shareholder claims to fraud actions, professional negligence cases, and regulatory proceedings.
International arbitration is a separate and growing specialism. Many commercial contracts (particularly in construction, energy, shipping, and international trade) include arbitration clauses that require disputes to be resolved through private arbitration rather than national courts. London is one of the leading centres for international arbitration globally, and the work involves institutions including the LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration) and the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce).
What it is like as a trainee
Contentious seats are often described as among the most intellectually satisfying in a training contract. The work involves reading and analysing large volumes of documents (disclosure), researching legal arguments, drafting witness statements and pleadings, attending court hearings, and assisting with trial preparation.
The pace of contentious work is different from transactional work. Rather than being driven by deal deadlines, litigation is driven by court-ordered timetables and hearing dates. This can mean periods of intense activity around hearings and deadlines interspersed with longer stretches of research and document review.
Skills dispute resolution rewards
Analytical rigour: Identifying the strongest legal arguments and anticipating what the other side will argue.
Written advocacy: Drafting submissions, skeleton arguments, and written opinions that are clear, precise, and persuasive.
Resilience and composure: Contentious work involves direct opposition and, eventually, performance before a tribunal or court.
Strategic thinking: Litigation strategy (whether to settle, how to manage disclosure, which arguments to prioritise) requires judgment that goes beyond pure legal analysis.
Firms known for disputes work
Freshfields and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer are consistently ranked among the leading litigation and arbitration practices in London. Skadden and Quinn Emanuel (a disputes-only US firm) are known for the highest-stakes commercial litigation. Brick Court Chambers, Fountain Court Chambers, and Essex Court Chambers are the leading barristers' sets for commercial disputes.
Competition law
Competition law governs how businesses compete with each other and how markets function. It is one of the most intellectually demanding practice areas in commercial law because it combines legal analysis with economics.
What the work actually involves
Competition lawyers work across three main areas:
Merger control: When companies propose to merge or one company proposes to acquire another, regulators (the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, the European Commission for EU matters) review whether the transaction would harm competition. Competition lawyers advise on whether a transaction requires notification, prepare the filing, and manage the regulatory review process.
Cartel and abuse investigations: Regulators investigate companies suspected of price-fixing, market allocation, or abuse of a dominant market position. Competition lawyers represent clients under investigation, advise on dawn raids (unannounced regulatory searches), and manage the response to formal information requests.
Competition litigation: Private damages claims brought by parties who suffered loss as a result of a competition law infringement. This is a growing area following the establishment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
What it is like as a trainee
Competition seats are distinctive because the work involves economic analysis alongside legal argument. Trainees read economic reports, engage with market data, and work closely with economic consultants. The work is intellectually varied and involves significant research and writing.
Merger control work can be fast-paced and deadline-driven (regulatory deadlines are fixed and cannot be extended). Investigation work is slower-paced but involves deep analytical engagement with complex factual and legal questions.
Skills competition rewards
Economic literacy: Comfort with market analysis, economic concepts, and the logic of competition economics.
Rigorous analysis: Competition arguments are evidence-heavy and analytically demanding.
Clear writing: Competition filings and submissions need to present complex arguments accessibly.
Firms known for competition work
Freshfields has one of the leading competition practices in Europe. Linklaters, Clifford Chance, and A&O Shearman all have strong competition teams. Cleary Gottlieb is known for its competition work internationally. For barrister-led competition litigation, Brick Court Chambers and Monckton Chambers are the leading sets.
Employment law
Employment law covers the legal relationship between employers and employees. It has two main dimensions: contentious (litigation in employment tribunals and courts) and non-contentious (advisory and transactional work).
What the work actually involves
Non-contentious employment work includes:
Advising on redundancy processes and restructurings.
Drafting and negotiating senior executive contracts and settlement agreements.
Advising on TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations), which governs what happens to employees when a business or part of a business is transferred to a new owner. This arises in almost every M&A transaction.
Advising on bonus arrangements, long-term incentive plans, and equity compensation.
Advising on diversity, equity, and inclusion obligations.
Contentious employment work includes:
Representing employers in employment tribunal proceedings involving unfair dismissal, discrimination, and whistleblowing claims.
High Court litigation involving post-termination restrictions (non-compete clauses, garden leave provisions) and injunctions.
What it is like as a trainee
Employment seats provide some of the most direct client contact available in a training contract. The matters are often personal and fast-moving, and trainees regularly have significant involvement in client communications.
Trainees in employment seats spend time drafting settlement agreements, researching tribunal case law, assisting with tribunal proceedings, and advising on the employment aspects of corporate transactions. The work involves both detailed legal analysis and a more human dimension (understanding the dynamics of an employment relationship) that many trainees find engaging.
Skills employment rewards
People judgment: Understanding the human dynamics of employment situations alongside the legal framework.
Drafting precision: Employment documents (particularly settlement agreements and restrictive covenants) need to be both legally precise and practically workable.
Client communication: Employment matters often involve anxious clients (executives facing termination, companies managing a discrimination claim) who need clear, reassuring advice.
Firms known for employment work
Most large commercial firms have strong employment practices. Linklaters, Freshfields, and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer are consistently well-regarded. Specialist employment firms like Lewis Silkin and Mishcon de Reya are known for high-profile individual and collective employment matters.
Real estate law
Real estate is one of the largest practice areas by headcount at many UK commercial firms. It covers the legal work involved when property is bought, sold, developed, financed, or leased.
What the work actually involves
Commercial real estate lawyers work on:
Investment transactions: Advising funds and investors on the acquisition and disposal of commercial property (offices, retail centres, logistics parks, hotels).
Development: Advising developers on planning, construction contracts, and the legal structure of development projects.
Landlord and tenant: Advising on commercial leases, lease renewals, rent reviews, and dilapidations.
Real estate finance: The debt financing secured against property assets (closely connected to the finance practice area).
Planning law: A specialism within real estate covering the regulatory framework for development.
What it is like as a trainee
Real estate seats are often transaction-heavy with high document volumes. A large property fund acquisition might involve dozens of individual properties, each with its own title documents, leases, and certificates of title. Trainees develop strong project management and document management skills alongside the substantive legal knowledge.
Real estate work also tends to involve more direct client contact at a junior level than some other practice areas, because the volume of matters means that associates and trainees regularly run smaller transactions with supervision rather than being purely in a supporting role.
Skills real estate rewards
Document management: Coordinating large volumes of documents across complex transactions.
Commercial property knowledge: Understanding how property markets work and what drives investment decisions.
Attention to detail: Title investigation and lease review require sustained precision.
Firms known for real estate work
Hogan Lovells, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters have strong real estate investment practices. Eversheds Sutherland, CMS, and DLA Piper are known for high-volume real estate work across a range of sectors. Mishcon de Reya and Forsters are known for residential and private client real estate.
Tax law
Tax is one of the most technically demanding practice areas in commercial law and one of the least visible to students researching the profession. Almost every significant commercial transaction has a tax dimension, which means tax lawyers work across corporate, finance, real estate, and employment matters as well as on standalone tax advisory and disputes work.
What the work actually involves
Commercial tax lawyers advise on:
Transaction tax: Structuring transactions to manage the tax consequences for buyers, sellers, and investors. This involves corporate tax (how the acquisition is structured to minimise tax leakage), VAT (whether the transaction is subject to VAT and how to structure it to manage this), and stamp duty.
Corporate tax advisory: Advising companies on how to structure their business affairs, manage transfer pricing (how transactions between group companies are priced for tax purposes), and comply with tax regulations.
Tax disputes: Representing companies in disputes with HMRC over tax assessments and investigations.
Fund structuring: Advising private equity and real estate funds on how to structure their investment vehicles for tax efficiency.
What it is like as a trainee
Tax seats involve detailed technical analysis and significant writing. Tax opinions are precise, structured arguments about how the law applies to a specific set of facts, and producing them requires both command of the technical rules and the ability to apply them clearly to complex circumstances.
Tax is often described by lawyers who practise it as the most intellectually stimulating area of commercial law. It requires a particular aptitude for detailed technical reasoning, comfort with complexity, and the ability to hold multiple interacting rules in mind simultaneously.
Skills tax rewards
Technical precision: Tax rules are detailed and the distinctions matter enormously.
Analytical depth: Tax analysis often requires working through multiple interacting provisions to reach a conclusion.
Clear writing: A tax opinion that cannot be understood by the client is not useful, however technically correct it may be.
Firms known for tax work
Slaughter and May has a particularly strong tax practice. Linklaters, Freshfields, and A&O Shearman all have leading tax teams. Specialist tax counsel at the bar (particularly at Gray's Inn Tax Chambers and Pump Court Tax Chambers) handle the most complex tax litigation.
Intellectual property law
Intellectual property law protects rights in creative and innovative work. It covers patents (inventions), trademarks (brand identifiers), copyright (creative works), and designs. It is increasingly important as the economy becomes more dependent on technology, data, and creative content.
What the work actually involves
IP law divides broadly into contentious and non-contentious work.
Non-contentious IP includes:
Advising on IP ownership in transactions (making sure a company acquiring another actually acquires all the IP it needs).
Drafting and negotiating IP licensing agreements (where one party licences its IP to another for a fee).
Advising on brand strategy and trademark portfolio management.
Advising technology companies on data protection and software licensing.
Contentious IP includes:
Patent litigation (disputes about whether a patent is valid and whether a competitor has infringed it).
Trademark disputes (disputes about whether a brand is being copied or confused with another).
Copyright infringement claims.
IP litigation is a highly specialised area. In the UK, patent cases often involve both legal and technical experts, and the lawyers who practise it typically have a scientific or engineering background alongside their legal training.
Firms and chambers known for IP work
Bristows, Bird and Bird, and Marks and Clerk are the leading specialist IP firms in the UK. Hogan Lovells and Taylor Wessing have strong IP practices within broader full-service firms. For IP litigation at the bar, Three New Square and 8 New Square are the leading specialist sets.
Banking regulation and financial services law
Regulatory work in financial services is distinct from transactional banking or finance work. It covers the rules that govern how financial institutions operate, supervised by regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Bank of England.
What the work actually involves
Financial services regulatory lawyers advise banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and fintech firms on:
Regulatory authorisation: What permissions a firm needs to carry out regulated activities and how to obtain them.
Regulatory investigations: When the FCA or PRA investigates a firm for potential rule breaches.
Product and distribution advice: Whether a new financial product can be sold, to whom, and under what conditions.
Fintech and crypto regulation: How new financial technologies fit within the existing regulatory framework or require regulatory change.
This is a fast-moving area because the regulatory framework for financial services changes frequently and the emergence of new technologies constantly creates new regulatory questions.
Firms known for financial regulation work
Clifford Chance, Linklaters, and A&O Shearman have large financial regulation practices connected to their banking and capital markets work. Herbert Smith Freehills has a strong regulatory investigations practice. Specialist regulatory firms like Freshfields Regulatory and Eversheds Sutherland Regulatory also handle significant mandates.
Private client law
Private client law is the area most different in character from the corporate and commercial world that dominates City practice. Private client lawyers advise wealthy individuals and families on wealth management, estate planning, wills, trusts, and inheritance.
What the work actually involves
Private client solicitors handle:
Wills and succession planning: Drafting wills, advising on intestacy (what happens when someone dies without a will), and structuring estates to minimise inheritance tax.
Trusts: Creating and administering trusts for asset protection, tax planning, and succession purposes.
Tax planning: Advising on income tax, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax for high-net-worth individuals.
International private client: Advising clients with assets in multiple jurisdictions on cross-border succession and tax issues.
What distinguishes private client work
Private client is one of the few areas of law where the client relationship is genuinely personal rather than institutional. You are advising real people on decisions that affect their families, their legacies, and often deeply personal circumstances. The work requires strong interpersonal skills, sensitivity, and the ability to explain complex legal and tax concepts clearly to non-lawyers.
The pace of private client work is generally more measured than transactional practice, and the culture at specialist private client firms tends to be different in character from Magic Circle or US firm environments.
Firms known for private client work
Withers, Farrer and Co, Hunters, and Charles Russell Speechlys are among the leading private client firms in the UK. Boodle Hatfield and Wedlake Bell are also well regarded. Within larger full-service firms, Macfarlanes has a particularly strong private client practice alongside its corporate work.
How to think about choosing a practice area
Most training contract candidates do not need to commit to a practice area before they apply. Large firms offer seat rotations specifically to allow trainees to experience different areas before choosing where to qualify. But having a genuine, informed interest in one or two areas will strengthen your applications, because firms expect evidence of thought rather than vague enthusiasm for commercial law generally.
When thinking about which area might suit you, the most useful questions are:
Transactional or contentious? Do you prefer work with defined endpoints (a deal closes, a transaction completes) or work that involves sustained intellectual engagement with a developing dispute?
Technical depth or breadth? Tax and IP reward deep technical expertise in a narrow area. Corporate and disputes reward broader commercial and legal judgment across a wide range of matters.
Clients and relationships: Do you want to work primarily with institutions (banks, funds, corporations) or with individuals (private client)? Do you want short, intense client interactions (transactional) or longer-term relationships (advisory)?
The intersection matters: The most complex commercial work involves multiple practice areas simultaneously. An M&A transaction involves corporate, finance, tax, employment, real estate, and competition lawyers working in parallel. Understanding how areas connect makes you a more effective trainee and a more compelling applicant.
For a detailed look at how commercial awareness connects to all these practice areas, see our commercial awareness guide. For guidance on the training contract application process, see our how to get a training contract guide.
Want to develop the commercial understanding that underpins all of these areas?
Our Commercial Awareness Starter Pack covers the business and economic context behind the main practice areas, including how deals are structured, how firms make money, and what clients in each sector actually care about. It is the most direct way to build the commercial foundation that every practice area, and every law firm interview, requires.
Law Careers
Practice Areas Explained: A Complete Guide to Specialisms in Commercial Law
A detailed guide to the main practice areas in UK commercial law, what work each involves day to day, which firms lead in each area, and how to decide where you want to qualify.
EO Careers Team
If you are exploring which area of law to pursue, our Law Careers hub covers qualification routes, firm types, and how to build a career in the legal profession.
Choosing a practice area is one of the most consequential decisions you will make as an aspiring solicitor. It shapes which firms are the right fit, what your day-to-day work looks like, the clients you will serve, the skills you will develop, and ultimately the kind of lawyer you become. Most students apply to training contracts without a clear understanding of what different practice areas actually involve. This guide fixes that.
It covers every significant practice area in UK commercial law: what the work involves at trainee and junior level, the skills each rewards, which firms are known for it, how it connects to other areas, and what you should be thinking about when deciding where you want to qualify.
How practice areas are organised at a law firm
Before covering individual areas, it helps to understand how firms are structured.
Large commercial law firms organise their lawyers into practice groups, sometimes called departments. Each practice group specialises in a defined area of legal work. Trainees rotate through four six-month seats during their two-year training contract, spending time in different practice groups before choosing a qualification seat at the end.
The major practice areas at most large commercial firms fall into three broad categories:
Transactional: Work driven by deals and transactions with defined start and end points. Corporate, finance, real estate, and tax are primarily transactional.
Advisory: Ongoing advice to clients on legal questions arising from their business operations. Employment, competition, and regulatory work are primarily advisory.
Contentious: Work involving disputes, whether in court, arbitration, or other resolution processes. Dispute resolution and litigation are contentious.
Many practice areas combine elements of all three. A finance lawyer might spend most of their time on transactional work but also advise on regulatory questions and occasionally support litigation arising from a deal that has gone wrong.
Corporate law
Corporate law is the engine room of most large commercial law firms. It covers the legal work involved when businesses buy, sell, merge, invest in, or restructure each other.
What the work actually involves
The core of corporate practice is mergers and acquisitions (M&A): advising companies and their shareholders on transactions where one business acquires another or combines with it. A typical M&A deal involves:
Due diligence: Reviewing the target company's legal documents (contracts, employment agreements, property leases, regulatory licences) to identify risks and issues before the deal closes.
Transaction structuring: Advising on how the deal should be legally structured (share sale vs asset sale, for example) and what the tax, regulatory, and commercial implications of each structure are.
Drafting and negotiating documents: The sale and purchase agreement (SPA) is the central transaction document. It is typically long (100 pages or more on complex deals), heavily negotiated, and drafted by the lawyers on both sides.
Conditions and completion: Managing the process of satisfying pre-conditions (regulatory approvals, shareholder votes) and coordinating completion of the transaction.
Beyond M&A, corporate teams handle private equity transactions (where investment funds acquire and later sell companies), joint ventures (where two or more parties combine resources for a specific purpose), corporate restructurings, and initial public offerings (IPOs, where a private company lists on a stock exchange).
What it is like as a trainee
Corporate seats are among the most demanding in a training contract. Deals drive the pace and the hours, which means periods of intense activity around transaction deadlines. As a trainee, you will spend significant time on due diligence (reviewing documents and preparing reports on the findings), drafting ancillary transaction documents, managing completion logistics, and handling the administrative aspects of a live deal.
The intellectual challenge in corporate comes from understanding how a transaction fits together commercially and legally, and why particular structures or provisions are chosen. Trainees who engage with the commercial rationale behind decisions, rather than just the task in front of them, get the most from corporate seats.
Skills corporate rewards
Attention to detail: Transaction documents are long and precise. Errors have real consequences.
Commercial awareness: Understanding what the parties are trying to achieve and why the legal structure serves (or hinders) that goal.
Project management: Coordinating multiple workstreams, deadlines, and parties simultaneously.
Resilience: Long hours during deal-intensive periods are the norm, not the exception.
Firms known for corporate work
Magic Circle firms (A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, Slaughter and May) handle the largest and most complex corporate transactions globally. US firms (Davis Polk, Kirkland and Ellis, Latham and Watkins, Skadden) are particularly dominant in private equity transactions. Silver Circle firms (Ashurst, Herbert Smith Freehills, Hogan Lovells) handle strong corporate practices across a broader range of deal sizes.
Finance law
Finance law covers the legal structures behind lending, borrowing, and investment. It is one of the largest practice areas at most major commercial firms and one of the areas most closely connected to the financial services industry.
What the work actually involves
Finance lawyers work on transactions where money is being lent or raised. The main sub-areas are:
Banking and loans: Advising banks and corporate borrowers on loan facilities. A syndicated loan (where a group of banks collectively lend to a large corporate borrower) involves a facilities agreement that is typically drafted by the lead bank's lawyers and negotiated by borrower-side counsel.
Capital markets: Advising on the issuance of debt securities (bonds) and equity securities (shares). A bond issuance involves a prospectus (a detailed disclosure document), a trust deed, and various ancillary documents.
Structured finance and securitisation: More complex financial structures where pools of assets (mortgages, credit card receivables) are packaged into securities and sold to investors.
Leveraged finance: The debt financing that sits behind private equity buyouts. Closely connected to corporate M&A.
Real estate finance: Lending secured against property assets.
What it is like as a trainee
Finance seats involve substantial document review and drafting work. Finance documents are long, technical, and heavily negotiated, and trainees spend significant time reviewing conditions precedent (the documents a borrower must produce before a loan can be drawn down), updating transaction management lists, and drafting simpler ancillary documents.
The technical nature of finance documentation can feel daunting initially. Most trainees find it becomes more manageable quickly once they understand the underlying structure of a transaction and the function of each document within it.
Skills finance rewards
Technical precision: Finance documents are detailed and the definitions matter. A small drafting error in a definition can have significant downstream consequences.
Numerical comfort: Not advanced mathematics, but comfort with financial concepts (interest rates, margin, covenants, leverage ratios) and the ability to check figures accurately.
Systematic thinking: Finance transactions involve many interdependent documents. Understanding how they fit together is a core skill.
Firms known for finance work
A&O Shearman has one of the strongest banking and finance practices in the world. Clifford Chance and Linklaters are also known for capital markets and structured finance. Freshfields has a strong leveraged finance capability connected to its corporate practice. US firms (Latham and Watkins, Simpson Thacher, White and Case) dominate leveraged finance on the largest private equity transactions.
Dispute resolution and litigation
Dispute resolution covers the legal work involved when parties cannot resolve a conflict themselves and need external resolution, whether through the courts, arbitration, or other mechanisms.
What the work actually involves
Commercial litigation involves disputes heard in the English courts (primarily the Business and Property Courts in London, which include the Commercial Court and the Chancery Division). Cases range from contract disputes and shareholder claims to fraud actions, professional negligence cases, and regulatory proceedings.
International arbitration is a separate and growing specialism. Many commercial contracts (particularly in construction, energy, shipping, and international trade) include arbitration clauses that require disputes to be resolved through private arbitration rather than national courts. London is one of the leading centres for international arbitration globally, and the work involves institutions including the LCIA (London Court of International Arbitration) and the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce).
What it is like as a trainee
Contentious seats are often described as among the most intellectually satisfying in a training contract. The work involves reading and analysing large volumes of documents (disclosure), researching legal arguments, drafting witness statements and pleadings, attending court hearings, and assisting with trial preparation.
The pace of contentious work is different from transactional work. Rather than being driven by deal deadlines, litigation is driven by court-ordered timetables and hearing dates. This can mean periods of intense activity around hearings and deadlines interspersed with longer stretches of research and document review.
Skills dispute resolution rewards
Analytical rigour: Identifying the strongest legal arguments and anticipating what the other side will argue.
Written advocacy: Drafting submissions, skeleton arguments, and written opinions that are clear, precise, and persuasive.
Resilience and composure: Contentious work involves direct opposition and, eventually, performance before a tribunal or court.
Strategic thinking: Litigation strategy (whether to settle, how to manage disclosure, which arguments to prioritise) requires judgment that goes beyond pure legal analysis.
Firms known for disputes work
Freshfields and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer are consistently ranked among the leading litigation and arbitration practices in London. Skadden and Quinn Emanuel (a disputes-only US firm) are known for the highest-stakes commercial litigation. Brick Court Chambers, Fountain Court Chambers, and Essex Court Chambers are the leading barristers' sets for commercial disputes.
Competition law
Competition law governs how businesses compete with each other and how markets function. It is one of the most intellectually demanding practice areas in commercial law because it combines legal analysis with economics.
What the work actually involves
Competition lawyers work across three main areas:
Merger control: When companies propose to merge or one company proposes to acquire another, regulators (the Competition and Markets Authority in the UK, the European Commission for EU matters) review whether the transaction would harm competition. Competition lawyers advise on whether a transaction requires notification, prepare the filing, and manage the regulatory review process.
Cartel and abuse investigations: Regulators investigate companies suspected of price-fixing, market allocation, or abuse of a dominant market position. Competition lawyers represent clients under investigation, advise on dawn raids (unannounced regulatory searches), and manage the response to formal information requests.
Competition litigation: Private damages claims brought by parties who suffered loss as a result of a competition law infringement. This is a growing area following the establishment of the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
What it is like as a trainee
Competition seats are distinctive because the work involves economic analysis alongside legal argument. Trainees read economic reports, engage with market data, and work closely with economic consultants. The work is intellectually varied and involves significant research and writing.
Merger control work can be fast-paced and deadline-driven (regulatory deadlines are fixed and cannot be extended). Investigation work is slower-paced but involves deep analytical engagement with complex factual and legal questions.
Skills competition rewards
Economic literacy: Comfort with market analysis, economic concepts, and the logic of competition economics.
Rigorous analysis: Competition arguments are evidence-heavy and analytically demanding.
Clear writing: Competition filings and submissions need to present complex arguments accessibly.
Firms known for competition work
Freshfields has one of the leading competition practices in Europe. Linklaters, Clifford Chance, and A&O Shearman all have strong competition teams. Cleary Gottlieb is known for its competition work internationally. For barrister-led competition litigation, Brick Court Chambers and Monckton Chambers are the leading sets.
Employment law
Employment law covers the legal relationship between employers and employees. It has two main dimensions: contentious (litigation in employment tribunals and courts) and non-contentious (advisory and transactional work).
What the work actually involves
Non-contentious employment work includes:
Advising on redundancy processes and restructurings.
Drafting and negotiating senior executive contracts and settlement agreements.
Advising on TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations), which governs what happens to employees when a business or part of a business is transferred to a new owner. This arises in almost every M&A transaction.
Advising on bonus arrangements, long-term incentive plans, and equity compensation.
Advising on diversity, equity, and inclusion obligations.
Contentious employment work includes:
Representing employers in employment tribunal proceedings involving unfair dismissal, discrimination, and whistleblowing claims.
High Court litigation involving post-termination restrictions (non-compete clauses, garden leave provisions) and injunctions.
What it is like as a trainee
Employment seats provide some of the most direct client contact available in a training contract. The matters are often personal and fast-moving, and trainees regularly have significant involvement in client communications.
Trainees in employment seats spend time drafting settlement agreements, researching tribunal case law, assisting with tribunal proceedings, and advising on the employment aspects of corporate transactions. The work involves both detailed legal analysis and a more human dimension (understanding the dynamics of an employment relationship) that many trainees find engaging.
Skills employment rewards
People judgment: Understanding the human dynamics of employment situations alongside the legal framework.
Drafting precision: Employment documents (particularly settlement agreements and restrictive covenants) need to be both legally precise and practically workable.
Client communication: Employment matters often involve anxious clients (executives facing termination, companies managing a discrimination claim) who need clear, reassuring advice.
Firms known for employment work
Most large commercial firms have strong employment practices. Linklaters, Freshfields, and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer are consistently well-regarded. Specialist employment firms like Lewis Silkin and Mishcon de Reya are known for high-profile individual and collective employment matters.
Real estate law
Real estate is one of the largest practice areas by headcount at many UK commercial firms. It covers the legal work involved when property is bought, sold, developed, financed, or leased.
What the work actually involves
Commercial real estate lawyers work on:
Investment transactions: Advising funds and investors on the acquisition and disposal of commercial property (offices, retail centres, logistics parks, hotels).
Development: Advising developers on planning, construction contracts, and the legal structure of development projects.
Landlord and tenant: Advising on commercial leases, lease renewals, rent reviews, and dilapidations.
Real estate finance: The debt financing secured against property assets (closely connected to the finance practice area).
Planning law: A specialism within real estate covering the regulatory framework for development.
What it is like as a trainee
Real estate seats are often transaction-heavy with high document volumes. A large property fund acquisition might involve dozens of individual properties, each with its own title documents, leases, and certificates of title. Trainees develop strong project management and document management skills alongside the substantive legal knowledge.
Real estate work also tends to involve more direct client contact at a junior level than some other practice areas, because the volume of matters means that associates and trainees regularly run smaller transactions with supervision rather than being purely in a supporting role.
Skills real estate rewards
Document management: Coordinating large volumes of documents across complex transactions.
Commercial property knowledge: Understanding how property markets work and what drives investment decisions.
Attention to detail: Title investigation and lease review require sustained precision.
Firms known for real estate work
Hogan Lovells, Clifford Chance, and Linklaters have strong real estate investment practices. Eversheds Sutherland, CMS, and DLA Piper are known for high-volume real estate work across a range of sectors. Mishcon de Reya and Forsters are known for residential and private client real estate.
Tax law
Tax is one of the most technically demanding practice areas in commercial law and one of the least visible to students researching the profession. Almost every significant commercial transaction has a tax dimension, which means tax lawyers work across corporate, finance, real estate, and employment matters as well as on standalone tax advisory and disputes work.
What the work actually involves
Commercial tax lawyers advise on:
Transaction tax: Structuring transactions to manage the tax consequences for buyers, sellers, and investors. This involves corporate tax (how the acquisition is structured to minimise tax leakage), VAT (whether the transaction is subject to VAT and how to structure it to manage this), and stamp duty.
Corporate tax advisory: Advising companies on how to structure their business affairs, manage transfer pricing (how transactions between group companies are priced for tax purposes), and comply with tax regulations.
Tax disputes: Representing companies in disputes with HMRC over tax assessments and investigations.
Fund structuring: Advising private equity and real estate funds on how to structure their investment vehicles for tax efficiency.
What it is like as a trainee
Tax seats involve detailed technical analysis and significant writing. Tax opinions are precise, structured arguments about how the law applies to a specific set of facts, and producing them requires both command of the technical rules and the ability to apply them clearly to complex circumstances.
Tax is often described by lawyers who practise it as the most intellectually stimulating area of commercial law. It requires a particular aptitude for detailed technical reasoning, comfort with complexity, and the ability to hold multiple interacting rules in mind simultaneously.
Skills tax rewards
Technical precision: Tax rules are detailed and the distinctions matter enormously.
Analytical depth: Tax analysis often requires working through multiple interacting provisions to reach a conclusion.
Clear writing: A tax opinion that cannot be understood by the client is not useful, however technically correct it may be.
Firms known for tax work
Slaughter and May has a particularly strong tax practice. Linklaters, Freshfields, and A&O Shearman all have leading tax teams. Specialist tax counsel at the bar (particularly at Gray's Inn Tax Chambers and Pump Court Tax Chambers) handle the most complex tax litigation.
Intellectual property law
Intellectual property law protects rights in creative and innovative work. It covers patents (inventions), trademarks (brand identifiers), copyright (creative works), and designs. It is increasingly important as the economy becomes more dependent on technology, data, and creative content.
What the work actually involves
IP law divides broadly into contentious and non-contentious work.
Non-contentious IP includes:
Advising on IP ownership in transactions (making sure a company acquiring another actually acquires all the IP it needs).
Drafting and negotiating IP licensing agreements (where one party licences its IP to another for a fee).
Advising on brand strategy and trademark portfolio management.
Advising technology companies on data protection and software licensing.
Contentious IP includes:
Patent litigation (disputes about whether a patent is valid and whether a competitor has infringed it).
Trademark disputes (disputes about whether a brand is being copied or confused with another).
Copyright infringement claims.
IP litigation is a highly specialised area. In the UK, patent cases often involve both legal and technical experts, and the lawyers who practise it typically have a scientific or engineering background alongside their legal training.
Firms and chambers known for IP work
Bristows, Bird and Bird, and Marks and Clerk are the leading specialist IP firms in the UK. Hogan Lovells and Taylor Wessing have strong IP practices within broader full-service firms. For IP litigation at the bar, Three New Square and 8 New Square are the leading specialist sets.
Banking regulation and financial services law
Regulatory work in financial services is distinct from transactional banking or finance work. It covers the rules that govern how financial institutions operate, supervised by regulators including the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA), and the Bank of England.
What the work actually involves
Financial services regulatory lawyers advise banks, asset managers, insurance companies, and fintech firms on:
Regulatory authorisation: What permissions a firm needs to carry out regulated activities and how to obtain them.
Regulatory investigations: When the FCA or PRA investigates a firm for potential rule breaches.
Product and distribution advice: Whether a new financial product can be sold, to whom, and under what conditions.
Fintech and crypto regulation: How new financial technologies fit within the existing regulatory framework or require regulatory change.
This is a fast-moving area because the regulatory framework for financial services changes frequently and the emergence of new technologies constantly creates new regulatory questions.
Firms known for financial regulation work
Clifford Chance, Linklaters, and A&O Shearman have large financial regulation practices connected to their banking and capital markets work. Herbert Smith Freehills has a strong regulatory investigations practice. Specialist regulatory firms like Freshfields Regulatory and Eversheds Sutherland Regulatory also handle significant mandates.
Private client law
Private client law is the area most different in character from the corporate and commercial world that dominates City practice. Private client lawyers advise wealthy individuals and families on wealth management, estate planning, wills, trusts, and inheritance.
What the work actually involves
Private client solicitors handle:
Wills and succession planning: Drafting wills, advising on intestacy (what happens when someone dies without a will), and structuring estates to minimise inheritance tax.
Trusts: Creating and administering trusts for asset protection, tax planning, and succession purposes.
Tax planning: Advising on income tax, capital gains tax, and inheritance tax for high-net-worth individuals.
International private client: Advising clients with assets in multiple jurisdictions on cross-border succession and tax issues.
What distinguishes private client work
Private client is one of the few areas of law where the client relationship is genuinely personal rather than institutional. You are advising real people on decisions that affect their families, their legacies, and often deeply personal circumstances. The work requires strong interpersonal skills, sensitivity, and the ability to explain complex legal and tax concepts clearly to non-lawyers.
The pace of private client work is generally more measured than transactional practice, and the culture at specialist private client firms tends to be different in character from Magic Circle or US firm environments.
Firms known for private client work
Withers, Farrer and Co, Hunters, and Charles Russell Speechlys are among the leading private client firms in the UK. Boodle Hatfield and Wedlake Bell are also well regarded. Within larger full-service firms, Macfarlanes has a particularly strong private client practice alongside its corporate work.
How to think about choosing a practice area
Most training contract candidates do not need to commit to a practice area before they apply. Large firms offer seat rotations specifically to allow trainees to experience different areas before choosing where to qualify. But having a genuine, informed interest in one or two areas will strengthen your applications, because firms expect evidence of thought rather than vague enthusiasm for commercial law generally.
When thinking about which area might suit you, the most useful questions are:
Transactional or contentious? Do you prefer work with defined endpoints (a deal closes, a transaction completes) or work that involves sustained intellectual engagement with a developing dispute?
Technical depth or breadth? Tax and IP reward deep technical expertise in a narrow area. Corporate and disputes reward broader commercial and legal judgment across a wide range of matters.
Clients and relationships: Do you want to work primarily with institutions (banks, funds, corporations) or with individuals (private client)? Do you want short, intense client interactions (transactional) or longer-term relationships (advisory)?
The intersection matters: The most complex commercial work involves multiple practice areas simultaneously. An M&A transaction involves corporate, finance, tax, employment, real estate, and competition lawyers working in parallel. Understanding how areas connect makes you a more effective trainee and a more compelling applicant.
For a detailed look at how commercial awareness connects to all these practice areas, see our commercial awareness guide. For guidance on the training contract application process, see our how to get a training contract guide.
Want to develop the commercial understanding that underpins all of these areas?
Our Commercial Awareness Starter Pack covers the business and economic context behind the main practice areas, including how deals are structured, how firms make money, and what clients in each sector actually care about. It is the most direct way to build the commercial foundation that every practice area, and every law firm interview, requires.