Legal Work Experience in Sussex
Work Experience Placements
Every year we offer several two-week summer work experience placements at The Jonathan Lea Network. We also offer a more limited number of work experience placements every Christmas and Easter period.
This is an exciting opportunity for someone who has recently completed, or is due to complete, either a law degree, the GDL or LPC, or is currently undergoing the SQE route, to gain practical experience at a commercial law firm.
We are offering two-week placements over the course of spring 2025, summer 2025 and winter 2025, between these periods:
22nd April to 2nd May 2025;
2nd June to 5th September 2025;
and 8th to 19th December 2025.
The successful candidates will be reimbursed £200 per week for their expenses and will also have a chance of being offered a paralegal or training contract position with us to start in 2025/2026, or later. One of our three current trainee solicitors previously undertook a work experience placement with us, while we keep in touch with many of our previous work experience placement students who go on to join a range of different law firms and successfully develop a career in law.
At present we pay £28,500 per annum to first year trainee solicitors and £32,000 to second year trainee solicitors (plus bonus). Qualification salaries are performance related and start from £45,000. It is possible to increase this to a salary of at least £70k by the time you are 3 years PQE.
Those who join us usually start as a paralegal on a salary of between £20,000 and £25,000 (depending on prior experience) before being offered a two year training contract once their billing performance is good enough. This tends to be between six and 12 months.
We are particularly keen to receive applications from those who are interested in the new SQE qualification route. In such cases we are able to offer a job with us to fit around academic studies and may also offer sponsorship in respect of the fees.
The Jonathan Lea Network is a forward-thinking business focused law firm that since it started trading as an SRA regulated firm on 1st May 2019 has grown by more than 1000%. So as to accommodate more new joiners in November 2021 we moved into a much larger new office which is just a 5-minute walk from Haywards Heath train station.
We have a hybrid way of operating in that our employed junior and senior fee earners and admin staff are (usually) based in our central office, while they also often work alongside our self-employed consultant solicitors who operate on a remote and flexible basis.
Our clients include leading technology startups and owner managed companies across a range of industry sectors. Most are based in and around London, while our work is also frequently international in scope.
The experience you can expect to gain working with us will be varied and should include some of the following (being our main areas of specialism):
- Corporate finance, particularly SEIS/EIS angel and VC investment rounds;
- Mergers and acquisitions in respect of owner managed private companies (including MBOs);
- Commercial contracts and terms and conditions, particularly for tech startups and IT businesses generally, including those focused on intellectual property;
- Commercial property (leasehold and freehold) and some residential;
- EMI and unapproved share option schemes and other equity arrangements;
- Complex private company corporate restructuring; and
- Commercial litigation and dispute resolution.
Apply
To apply please email your CV and a covering letter, along with any other relevant information you feel would help your application and make you stand out (such as your LinkedIn profile or even a TikTok video), to alice.roseman@jonathanlea.net
The deadline to apply for our summer scheme is 30 April 2025, however early applications are advised and we consider applications for other times of the year throughout the year and there are no set deadlines.
Before making your application, we recommend students study Jonathan Lea’s advice on how best to apply for work placements as published on the University of Law website.
Life as a Trainee Solicitor at The Jonathan Lea Network