Interesting selling points

• Uniquely flexible training contract, with the option to change seats every 3 months (as opposed to the usual 6 month rotations offered by many other firms).
• Ability to do two 3-month client or pro bono secondments (many firms offer only 6 month secondments and/or do not offer pro bono secondments). 
• Worked on some of the most interesting and highest profile matters over the last few years, including the London 2012 Olympics, the sale of Formula 1, and AB InBev’s £78.4bn acquisition of SABMiller (which was the biggest ever takeover of a London-listed company and one of the most complex acquisitions in history).
• Band 1 across a uniquely broad range of practice areas (not only corporate, but also disputes, banking and restructuring).
• Investment in technology, including Freshfields Lab, Freshfields Hub, and Kira.
• Commitment to diversity, inclusion, pro bono and corporate social responsibility, for example its decision to seek Mansfield Rule certification in the US, its launch of reverse mentoring initiatives, and the contribution of 83,000 pro bono hours in 2020-2021 by its people.

We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.

Practice areas / services

Freshfields is a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:

• Antitrust, Competition & Trade
• Construction and Engineering
• Corporate Advisory
• Corporate and M&A
• Data Regulation and Cyber
• Disputes, Litigation and Arbitration
• Financing and Capital Markets
• Global Investigations
• Intellectual Property
• Investment Fund Services
• People and Reward
• Real Estate
• Regulatory
• Restructuring and Insolvency
• Sustainability
• Tax

Chambers and Partners, leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Freshfields their highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Banking & Finance: Big-Ticket Borrowers; Banking Litigation; Capital Markets: Equity; Commercial and Corporate Litigation; Corporate/M&A: High-end Capability; Financial Crime: Corporates; Litigation; Private Equity: Buyouts; Product Liability: Defendants; Public Procurement; Restructuring/Insolvency; and Tax. See here for more information.

Key sectors / industries

Freshfields services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:

• Financial Services
• Technology
• Energy and Natural Resources
• Government and Public Sector

In addition, Freshfields services the following industries: automotive; chemicals; family offices and closely held companies; infrastructure and transport; insurance; manufacturing; life sciences; professional and business services; real estate; retail and consumer goods; and sports.

Work

Freshfields has consistently advised on some of the most high profiles transactions and cases over the past few decades. Some notable examples of recent work include:

• London Olympics: as official legal services provider of the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, over 200 lawyers from Freshfields advised the Olympic organising committee on the project, from bid to final execution.
• JD Sports: successfully challenged the UK Competition and Markets Authority’s decision to block JD Sports’ acquisition of Footasylum in a landmark UK antitrust case.
• Volkswagen: advised Volkswagen on the civil and regulatory issues stemming from emissions from diesel engines (sometimes referred to as the ‘Dieselgate’ scandal) in a process that straddled multiple jurisdictions.

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: London, 100 Bishopsgate (Freshfields recently moved into the newly completed 40 storey tower just outside Liverpool Street Station).

Offices: Freshfields has 30 offices around the world, in jurisdictions including in Paris, Tokyo and New York, as well as its newly opened office in Silicon Valley.

Insights, internships and other opportunities

Freshfields offers a variety of opportunities for students wishing to understand more about the firm and the work of a lawyer. These include workshops, in which the firm offers an inside look into Freshfields; vacation schemes, in which candidates get the opportunity to spend two to three weeks in a Freshfields office; and the training contract itself, open to all prospective applicants regardless of background.

Training contract

Freshfields offers a unique eight-seat training contract, with each seat spanning three months (but the option to extend certain seats to six months). Trainees as part of this program must take at least one seat in dispute resolution and two seats in global transactions, with further options including antitrust, real estate, and technology. On the scheme, trainees will be able to access mentoring and coaching from their assigned ‘trainee intake partner,’ alongside their main and secondary supervisor on each seat.

The firm also offers a ‘London-Asia’ training contract, which enables successful applicants (who must be native in an Asian language and fluent in English) to split their training between London and Hong Kong.

Secondments

Trainees can apply for a secondment during the final six months of their training contract. Secondments are available in certain international offices (previously including Paris, Silicon Valley, and Berlin), at various clients (previously including Goldman Sachs, BP and AstraZeneca), or at pro bono partners (previously including Save the Children, RCJ Advice, and ILGA Europe). 

Corporate social responsibility

Providing free of charge advice for charities is a major part of Freshfields’ working culture, with lawyers contributing 80,000 hours of pro-bono work in 2020. This work has included:

• Establishing an emergency corona clinic in a refugee camp near Bangladeshi’s Cox’s Bazar, alongside Save the Children International.
• Helping to win a landmark decision against Jamaican anti-LGBTQ+ laws, working with the Human Dignity Trust.
• Supporting the swift processing of visa applications from Afghans and Iraqis facing reprisal for helping US forces, in partnership with the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Diversity and inclusion

In accordance with the firm’s values - ‘belong, engage, excel’ - Freshfields promotes a variety of initiatives designed to foster and support diversity and inclusion. To give a few examples:

• New senior partner Georgia Dawson has set a series of ambitious diversity targets, including a commitment to ensure that 40% of the partnership is made up of female partners by 2026.
• The implementation of a ‘reverse mentoring scheme’, which involves pairing senior staff with junior lawyers from diverse backgrounds in order to ensure leaders understand those lawyers’ perspectives, insights and experiences.
• The Freshfields Stephen Lawrence Scholarship Scheme, which was launched to address the disproportionate under-representation in large commercial law firms and other City institutions of black men from less socially mobile backgrounds.
• A number of inter-firm networks, including: the Black Affinity Network (BAN), the Champions network for LGBTQ+ staff and allies, and Freshfields Enabled for disabled colleagues and champions.

·A number of inter-firm networks, including: the Black Affinity Network (BAN), the Champions network for LGBTQ+ staff and allies, and Freshfields Enabled for disabled colleagues and champions.