The Magic Circle, Allen & Overy (now A&O Shearman), Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Linklaters, and Slaughter and May, are the five most prestigious law firms in the UK. Together they receive tens of thousands of applications for a few hundred training contract places each year. The CV you submit is the first filter, and it needs to demonstrate exactly the right combination of academic strength, commercial awareness, and genuine legal motivation.

This guide breaks down what each firm is actually looking for, and what gets CVs rejected before anyone reads the cover letter.

The Critical Difference: CVs vs Application Forms

Important: Clifford Chance does not read a standalone CV for its training contract applications. You apply through an online form, and if you upload a CV it only pre-populates some fields rather than being read on its own. Clifford Chance also runs its interviews CV-blind. The other four firms do read your CV as part of the application, so for most Magic Circle applications it is still your first filter. Always check the specific firm's process before you apply, because it genuinely varies.

Where your CV is read, its job is to get you to interview or assessment centre, so clarity, structure, and immediate impact matter more than exhaustive detail. Where it is not read, as at Clifford Chance, the same substance has to come through in your application answers instead.

Most Magic Circle firms also screen with a critical thinking test and a situational judgement test. Practise both, free, with our original questions.
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Academic Requirements: The Non-Negotiable Floor

Firm Minimum Degree How they treat A-levels
A&O Shearman 2:1 Guide of AAB (136 UCAS points) or equivalent; results considered in context
Clifford Chance 2:1 No fixed A-level cut-off; uses contextual recruitment and CV-blind interviews
Freshfields 2:1 No minimum A-level requirement; does not assess GCSEs; grades read against your school's average
Linklaters 2:1 No UCAS points requirement; uses contextual recruitment
Slaughter and May 2:1 No fixed public A-level cut-off; your full academic record is assessed in the round

The most important thing to understand here is that the Magic Circle has moved a long way from rigid grade cut-offs. Four of the five now use some form of contextual recruitment, which means your grades are read against the circumstances you achieved them in, not just as raw numbers. Freshfields states plainly that it has no minimum A-level requirement and does not assess GCSEs at all.

If you went to a non-selective school, or your grades were affected by genuine circumstances, this works in your favour, and it is exactly what the contextual and extenuating-circumstances sections of an application exist for. Use them. What stays constant across all five firms is the 2:1 degree expectation. A 2:2 is generally a screen-out, though firms will weigh a 2:2 alongside serious, clearly explained mitigating circumstances such as illness or bereavement. Never leave a low grade unexplained.

The Education Section: What to Include

For law applicants, the education section should sit at the top of the CV. List each institution in reverse chronological order with the following information:

If you studied abroad as part of your degree, include it. International exposure is valued across all five firms, particularly at Linklaters.

Work Experience: The Vacation Scheme Hierarchy

All five firms, Slaughter and May included, run vacation schemes or structured work experience programmes. At Slaughter and May a vacation scheme is not a prerequisite for a training contract, but it is still one of the strongest routes in, and many of their trainees complete one first. For Magic Circle applications generally, work experience follows a clear hierarchy of prestige:

For each role, include 2–4 bullet points focused on what you did and what you learned. Magic Circle recruiters are looking for evidence of commercial awareness: do you understand that law firms are businesses, that clients are commercially motivated, and that legal advice exists in an economic context?

The commercial awareness test: Each bullet point about legal work experience should, where possible, reference a commercial dimension. Not just "drafted client correspondence" but "drafted client correspondence advising on implications of the proposed acquisition for the target's existing debt covenants."

Curious how your CV actually scores against this standard? Find out free, in under a minute.
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Extra-Curriculars: Quality Over Volume

Magic Circle firms are looking for one specific thing in your extra-curriculars section: evidence that you can perform under pressure, work in a team, and lead. They are not impressed by long lists of memberships.

Activities that carry weight:

Activities that add little: generic society memberships without a role, interests listed as "reading" or "travel" without specificity, anything that looks like padding.

The Length and Format Question

Magic Circle CV conventions differ slightly from consulting:

The Firm-Specific Dimension

Each Magic Circle firm has a distinct identity, and your CV should subtly reflect awareness of this. When tailoring for specific applications:

Most Common Magic Circle CV Mistakes