If you are in your final year of undergraduate study, studying for a postgraduate degree or have already graduated, we aim to communicate the outcome of your training contract assessment day to you within a day. Otherwise, we will communicate our decision from 1st September of your final year of undergraduate study, as per SRA guidelines. However, in the case of vacation scheme applications we aim to let you know as quickly as possible whether we are making an offer - irrespective of your year of study.

Your training contract offer will be followed by a phone call from a partner to congratulate you and to answer any questions you may have. You will receive an offer pack, which includes an offer letter and the information you will require to make your decision.

We will also put you in touch with a current trainee, who will act as your 'buddy'. Buddies are available to answer any additional informal questions you may have, either on the telephone or in person - they are also someone with whom you can keep in touch during the period leading up to the start of your training contract with us.

We generally allow four weeks for you to consider your options; however, we won't rush you into making a decision. We advise you to stay in touch with our Graduate Recruitment team as they can help you with any questions you may have and can provide any additional information you may need to help you decide if a training contract with Clifford Chance is right for you.

When you accept an offer, the Graduate Development team will contact you to discuss the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) and will keep in touch with you until you join us on your training contract. We will keep you up-to-date on developments at the firm, and inform you of the many opportunities you will have to get to know us at lectures, case studies and presentations by partners, as well as at drinks evenings and lunches at our offices in Canary Wharf.

Start dates and deferment

We recruit two years in advance which means we are currently recruiting for candidates to start their training contracts in February 2014 and August 2014. The earliest intake available is detailed on our training contract application form.

Deferring your start date

If, after having accepted a training contract offer for February, you subsequently decide that it would be preferable to start in August, please contact graduate development to defer.

Often trainees decide to delay their start date as it gives them the opportunity to take a break before starting work, and to use the time to do something interesting and gain new experience.