At Jones Day, we recruit approximately 20 trainees every year and operate a non-rotational training system that is unique among City firms.

Other City law firms operate a rotational or 'seat' system, in which the two years of the training contract are divided into periods of four or six months where you work exclusively for one partner or one practice at a time before moving on to another.

Training at Jones Day is completely different. Under our system, you do not 'belong' to one partner or practice. You can take work from any practice at any time and work with any of our lawyers, which means that you get the flexibility to gain experience in a wide range of practices and from a wide range of colleagues. You also get to discover with whom you work best.

We believe that our system is better because it offers a number of advantages. For example:

• You can be involved in deals and cases from beginning to end. With a seat system, you may have to move on to another deal or case before it completes, meaning that you won’t get to see all your hard work come to fruition.
  
• You get greater client contact because you can work for the same clients throughout your two years and get to know them over a much longer period.
  
• It removes the lottery of seat allocation.  With a seat system there may be some practices that you never get to work with because you are not assigned to them during your training. With our system, because you can work with any practice at any time, you are likely to be able to get some work from each practice that you want to experience.
  
• You do not have to do six months of intensive training in a practice that you have decided is not for you.
  
• You can assist with all aspects of a transaction and get a more rounded training. In a seat system, you will be working on one aspect of a deal from one practice: for example, you might be working on the financing of the purchase of a property. At Jones Day, you can work on the finance aspects and the purchase aspects of the transaction, so you can see how these two parts of the deal fit together.
  
• You can pick up different styles and techniques from lots of partners and associates and work out what is best for you.
  
• We believe that people work better in their own space: since you won't be sharing an office with an experienced lawyer, you can develop your own style of working.
  
• You benefit from a smoother learning curve with the Jones Day system because you can develop your skills over two years rather than going back to square one every six months when you move on to a new department.
  
• There is a seamless transition through to qualification because our trainees work in such a similar way to our qualified lawyers. In the seat system, there is often a major step up on qualification and newly qualified lawyers can find that the job has suddenly gotten much harder. At Jones Day, your first day as a qualified lawyer feels just like your last day as a trainee.

Before you decide to apply for a place at Jones Day, you need to consider whether our training system is right for you. We accept that it may not be to everyone's taste, but if you think that it could suit you, the opportunities are significant.

Visit our Trainee Profiles page to find out how our current trainees have found the experience.

For a taster of what it is like to train at Jones Day, why not apply for one of our Work Placements?