Forsters - True Picture

Firm profile
Forsters is a leading London law firm who will shortly be moving from Mayfair to Marylebone for 2024. Taking a joined-up approach we seek out solutions that embrace the unique needs of each individual or company. We believe our engaged, approachable manner combined with the delivery of concise, clear and commercially-led advice is what helps us develop long-term client relationships.

Main areas of work
Forsters delivers exceptional legal advice to clients principally drawn from the real estate and private wealth sectors. We also specialise in residential property, dispute resolution, corporate, construction, property litigation, planning, family and landed estates.

Training opportunities
Every year Forsters takes on 10 trainees. The training contract at Forsters is divided into six four-month seats.

Vacation scheme
Applications for our 2024 Vacation Scheme will be open between October 2023 and January 2024. Applications are welcomed from both law and non-law students. Undergraduate law students should apply at the earliest in their penultimate year of study and non-law students at the earliest in their final year of study. Each year we offer 14-20 places, 7-10 on each 2-week long scheme. We pay all students an allowance of £400 gross per week. We usually recruit approximately 50% of our trainees from our vac scheme.

Other benefits
Life insurance, private healthcare, subsidised gym membership, discount shopping portal, annual season ticket loan, cycle to work loan, dental insurance, long service award, employee introduction bonus, eye care.

Open days and first-year opportunities

We will be hosting several virtual events and open days throughout the year. We will host 2 open days in person, in October and December, and 1 open day virtually in April. People will be able to apply via our website. Applications are welcome from anyone from the first year of their degree onwards.

Diversity, inclusion and wellbeing
Forsters recognises and appreciates that no two people are the same. We are working hard to break down barriers and encourage and embrace people's differences so that Forsters is an environment where every individual can flourish and has equality of opportunity. As part of our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, we have partnered with a number of organisations to help us attract people from all sorts of backgrounds. e are now gold members with MyPlus consulting. MyPlus provides progressive employers and individuals with disabilities with the confidence, insight and support they need to realise new possibilities

These include:

My Plus - We are now gold members with MyPlus consulting. MyPlus provides progressive employers and individuals with disabilities with the confidence, insight and support they need to realise new possibilities

The Bright Network - The Bright Network is a network of over 400,000 graduate members from all backgrounds. They aim to connect top graduate talent with employers. Their membership is made up of 75% state educated members, 58% female members, 40% BAME members and 43% of members are the first generation to go to university. We advertise all our graduate positions and careers events through the Bright Network. We have also attended their Future Lawyers event.
Rare Recruitment - We have adopted Rare Recruitment’s Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) into our graduate application forms. We understand that not every candidate’s achievements will look the same on paper and we want to recruit the best people, from every background. The CRS allows us to understand a candidate’s achievements and experience in context, enabling us to look at a wider talent pool. The system awards social mobility flags to measure disadvantage and gives applicants a performance index to measure outperformance.

Recruitment Process:
It is important to us that we recruit the top graduate talent regardless of background. We have adapted our recruitment process to ensure all applications and candidates are reviewed based on merit and performance. Every year our graduate recruitment panel of partners undergo interview and unconscious bias training before our assessment days. We have also introduced a scoring system when we mark application forms and interviews to reduce bias in our recruitment process. The application itself and the first stage of the interview process, the assessment day, is run on a ‘CV blind’ basis.