All applications should be submitted through our application portal (unless you are an Australian law student applying for our 2025 Summer Internship Programme prior to 1 September or are applying to the US JD Summer Associates 12-week programme or the China Legal Consultants programme, then please e-mail your application following the instructions here) by the respective deadlines. Click ‘apply now’ for all available opportunities.

Yes, we review applications on a rolling basis. We recommend early submission within the application period as we offer places as we receive applications.

We give priority to penultimate-year law students who are on track for a 2:1 degree or equivalent. If your academics fall below our criteria and you have extenuating circumstances, please include these in the extenuating circumstances box within your application and they will be taken into consideration.

We look for many skills including determination, enthusiasm, time management, flexibility, attention to detail, an interest in business, willingness to work as a team, and a sense of humour. When writing your application, make sure you link your experiences to the types of skills we look for.

As some of our work involves the PRC, fluency in Mandarin is highly desirable, but not essential for every trainee. If you’re interested in pursuing a career in this region, we recommend you improve your spoken, reading and writing skills in Mandarin. Communicating with clients in spoken Mandarin and written Chinese will bring you many opportunities to gain from a variety of work experiences. We also offer Mandarin classes for our Hong Kong trainees.

Yes. We accept applications from candidates requiring a work visa and we will assist with your application during your training contract and qualification.

See our events and registration page for more information on our upcoming events.

We welcome applicants from penultimate, final year students or graduates. Our programme is designed for graduate lawyers to join us in 2 years’ time to start their Hong Kong training contracts with us. If you apply for our 2025 Summer Internship Programme, you will receive a 2027 Hong Kong Training Contract.

For students who complete their law degrees outside of Hong Kong, you will have to complete the PCLL conversion exams in Hong Kong and the PCLL course before starting your training contract with us. If you accept our offer, we will reimburse both sets of fees.

Every year we offer eight to ten two-year training contracts.

We typically offer training contracts to those who have spent time with us in the office as a summer intern.

We’ll consult with you before your training contract starts to find out which of our practice areas most interests you, while making sure you still benefit from well-rounded training. Corporate, Finance and Dispute Resolution seats are compulsory as they’re the foundation to a career, regardless of whether you choose to qualify in them. You can choose to complete an Intellectual Property and Information Technology, or an Antitrust, Competition and Trade practice seat. All trainees are required to complete a three-month seat in our Beijing or Shanghai office, and a six-month seat in our London office.

Upon qualification, you will be invited to submit your qualification preferences to our Graduate Recruitment team. There is no interview process and you are able to submit up to three preferences. When submitting your qualification preferences, you will identify what seats you have enjoyed during your training contract.

If you accept our offer of a training contract, Freshfields will reimburse you for your conversion exam and PCLL course tuition fees. We will also provide you with a maintenance grant during the year of your PCLL study.

Visit the Hong Kong Conversion Examination Board at here, or contact the PCLL course providers (for example, HKU, CityU or CUHK).

Our internship programme has various assessment areas:

• A research task
• An attention to detail assessment
• A pitch presentation, where you work in a team with other interns
• A Mandarin language assessment, and
• A one-hour interview with a partner, a counsel / senior associate and a member of the HR team.
• We will also collect feedback from those you have worked with during your internship.

At the end of the internship we consider all of these areas in determining whether we will offer you a training contract.

You may refer to our London-Asia Trainee Associate Programme FAQ.