Ashurst
Interesting selling points
- Strong presence across a broad range of industries, including mining, transport, and banking.
- Band 1 ranked for Banking & Finance: Borrowers: Mid-Market; Banking & Finance: Lenders: Mid-Market; Real Estate: £150 million and above; Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas; Financial Services: Contentious Regulatory (Corporates); Projects: Mainly Domestic; Telecommunications; Transport: Rail: Franchising; Transport: Rail: Projects & Infrastructure and Transport: Rail: Rolling Stock.
- Embraces technology and innovation, as demonstrated by its investment in its NewLaw division, Ashurst Advance, and in-house accelerator program, FinTech Legal Labs.
- Guaranteed seat in finance during the training contract.
- Holistic training experience, enhanced by the Ashurst Academy, which brings together the firm's offerings into four inter-disciplinary areas, delivered in formats ranging from global summits, to short on demand tutorials, live virtual workshops and high-potential 1:1 coaching (see the "Career development & training" tab here).
- Stand-alone pro bono practice, demonstrating the firm's dedication to providing voluntary legal advice.
- Pro bono focus on five main areas Citizenship & Displacement, Climate Change, Gender Rights & Diversity, Modern Slavery and Racial Justice. The firm is also well-known for its Modern Slavery Action Plan.
- Origin and concentration in Australia, plus 29 offices worldwide, brings unique geographic background to the firm’s practice.
We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.
Practice areas / services
Ashurst is a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:
- Antitrust, Regulation and Foreign Investment
- Banking and Finance
- Capital Markets
- Corporate and M&A
- Corporate Crime and Investigations
- Digital Economy
- Dispute Resolution
- Employment
- Financial Regulation
- FinTech
- Intellectual Property
- International Arbitration
- Investment Funds
- Planning, Environment and First Nations
- Projects & Energy Transition
- Real Estate
- Restructuring & Special Situations
- Tax
Ashurst also offers other services including:
- Risk Advisory
- Ashurst Advance
- Integrated Solutions
- Obligation Management Solution
Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Ashurst its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Banking & Finance: Borrowers: Mid-Market; Banking & Finance: Lenders: Mid-Market; Real Estate: £150 million and above; Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas; Financial Services: Contentious Regulatory (Corporates); Projects: Mainly Domestic; Telecommunications; Transport: Rail: Franchising; Transport: Rail: Projects & Infrastructure and Transport: Rail: Rolling Stock. See here for more information.
Key sectors / industries
Ashurst services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:
In addition, Ashurst services the following sectors: Defence, Government, Private Capital & Funds, Real Estate, Sports and Technology.
Work
Ashurst consistently works on high profile, cross border work. Some examples of its work include:
- JP Morgan: Ashurst advised JP Morgan as arranger and lender on a €200,000,000 sustainable loan facility to the Republic of Rwanda.
- Transport for London (TfL): The firm advised TfL on a new eight-year contract with KeolisAmey for the operation and maintenance of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR). KeolisAmey have for 10 years already successfully run this franchise.
- Red 5: Red 5 is an ASX-listed gold mining company and the firm helped advise it on its restructured hedge facility and new security package following its merger with Silver Lake Resources Limited.
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Headquarters: London, London Fruit and Wool Exchange.
Offices: Ashurst has 31 offices around the world, with a unique concentration in Australia. Its range of locations includes Beijing, Brisbane and New York.
Insights, internships and other opportunities
Ashurst offers an array of opportunities for students to experience the legal industry and put themselves forward for a future career. These range from non-selective virtual internships (delivered via The Forage) which can be completed by anyone at any time, to more substantive (and competitive) winter and summer vacation schemes. More established routes into the firm are offered both through the Ashurst training contract and through the Ashurst Solicitor Apprenticeship, designed to help school-leavers enter the legal industry through an established educational programme.
Training contract
Ashurst offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. In this time, trainees will be expected to take a seat in either the Global Loans or Global Markets practice areas, as well as a seat in one of the firm’s transactional departments. Trainees will be provided with an in-depth technical training course at the outset of each seat, plus regular training sessions across each rotation. While an initial plan for the four rotations is agreed at the outset of the training contract, this plan can be revisited and reviewed by trainees throughout the two years.
Lawyers also have access to the Ashurst Academy, which brings together the firm's offerings "into four inter-disciplinary areas, delivered in formats ranging from global summits, to short on demand tutorials, live virtual workshops and high-potential 1:1 coaching" (see the "Career development & training" tab here).
Secondments
Trainees at Ashurst can apply for an overseas or client secondment from their second seat onwards. Past locations for these secondments have included Melbourne, New York and Perth.
Technology and innovation
Ashurst is committed to utilising technology to provide clients with flexible and innovative legal services, with related initiatives including:
- Ashurst Advance: Ashurst Advance represents the firm’s ‘NewLaw’ division – applying legal-tech, process professionals and lower cost resourcing to client matters in order to provide cost-effective and efficient legal services.
- FinTech Legal Labs: as the firm’s in-house accelerator programme, FinTech Legal Labs encourages the development of innovative solutions for financial institutions within the firm and in tandem with Ashurst lawyers.
- Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe: in 2024, the firm won the "Innovation in Improving Client Experience" award at the FT Innovative Lawyers Awards Europe 2024. The award was given in recognition of the firm’s work developing and launching Ashurst Origin and XB Adviser, a digital legal advice product for cross-border financial institution licensing advice.
Corporate social responsibility
Ashurst considers ‘pro bono as a stand-alone legal practice’. As such, pro bono is important to the firm. It has five priority areas including: Citizenship & Displacement, Climate Change, Gender Rights & Diversity, Modern Slavery, and Racial Justice. Examples of its work in this area include:
- Green Tech Legal Collaborative (GLTC): Ashurst is a member of GLTC which operates as a pro bono legal incubator for green tech start-ups from Imperial College’s Enterprise Lab. The firm provides legal advice and support to incubated businesses.
- Modern Slavery: the founder of the firm, William Henry Ashurst, was involved in the abolition of slavery movement and in light of that in 2022, the firm launched its Modern Slavery Action Plan. This plan sees the firm committing to helping combat modern slavery including taking on pro bono work in this area.
- Black Equity Organisation (BEO): the firm is one of six law firms providing seed funding and legal advice on operational and governance issues to the BEO. The BEO is an organisation which aims to tackle six mandates and was founded by some of the UK’s most influential Black leaders from business, law, arts and social justice.
Diversity and inclusion
Ashurst’s diversity and inclusion initiatives centre around its Inclusion, Diversity and Belonging (IDB) Action Plan. This plan is made up of six strands, and examples of these strands and the work in those areas include:
- Disability and Wellbeing Network (DAWN): this is the firm’s disability and wellbeing group which championed the introduction of the firm’s Workplace Adjustments Passport programme. The programme encourages open and honest conversations about how supervisors and employees can work together to identify and implement solutions that make the workplace more accessible.
- LGBTI+ Network Spectrum: this is the firm’s group for its LGBTI+ community and allies. It has helped to introduce an LGBTI+ Inclusive Language Glossary which emphasises respectful and inclusive language and demystifies key terms. It has also implemented Gender Neutral Drafting principles in its client work.
- Multicultural Networks: the firm has a number of employee networks and affinity groups to create space for those from various faiths, races and ethnicities. These groups include All at Ashurst group, Ashurst Muslim Network, and Ashurst Black Network. In Australia, the firm also has a First Nations strategy.