Go to Dashboard

Clyde & Co

Unique selling points

  • Chambers and Partners have awarded the firm Band 1 rankings for its Aviation, Insurance: Contentious Claims & Reinsurance, Personal Injury: Mainly Defendant, Professional Discipline and Travel: International Personal Injury (Defendant) departments.
  • The firm services a number of key sectors including aviation and aerospace, energy, marine and trade, and insurance.
  • Has a broader range of practice areas than some other City firms, including a dedicated environmental law team, as well as teams focused on cyber risk and immigration.
  • Carries out some private client work, including advising on claims brought by (or being defended by) private individuals, and defending individuals in the context of police law.
  • Consistent growth over the last few decades indicates a vital and evolving practice, with three mergers since 2011 doubling the firm’s total headcount.
  • Engages in various pro bono efforts including the Schools Consent Project, Not Beyond Redemption, and Amicus.
  • Innovative approach to legal practice indicated by establishing the Clyde Code programme for smart contract implementation, leveraging machine learning through neural vision technologies, and introducing a technology platform for handling casualty claims.

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

Practice areas / services

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

  • Climate Change Risk Practice
  • Commercial
  • Commercial Disputes
  • Corporate
  • Cyber Risk
  • Data Protection and Privacy
  • Employment, Pensions and Immigration
  • Environmental Law
  • Finance
  • Global Recoveries
  • Insolvency and Reorganisation
  • Intellectual Property
  • International Arbitration
  • Projects and Construction
  • Real Estate
  • Regulatory and Investigations
  • Tax
  • Technology, Outsourcing and Data

Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Clyde & Co its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Aviation, Insurance: Contentious Claims & Reinsurance, Personal Injury: Mainly Defendant, Professional Discipline and Travel: International Personal Injury (Defendant). See here for more information

Key sectors / industries

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

In addition, Clyde & Co services the following industries: Corporate & Advisory, Dispute Resolution, Projects & Construction and Regulatory & Investigations. 

Work

Clyde & Co consistently works on high profile, cross border work. Some examples of its work include: 

  • LEON: The firm advised the majority shareholders of LEON Restaurants on the sale of the LEON Group to EG Group. 
  • Big Bus Tours: Clyde & Co advised Big Bus Tours, the world’s largest operator of open-top bus sightseeing, on their acquisition of leading experience operator, Tour Dubai. 
  • Pivotal: The firm advised Pivotal, a leading cash services company with an expanding ATM estate, on the cash specific elements of its acquisition of Security Plus Limited.

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: London, St Botolph Building

Offices: The firm has almost 70 offices across 6 continents, including offices in Cape Town, Chicago, Hong Kong and Perth. 

Insights, internships and other opportunities

Clyde & Co offers several opportunities for students to gain direct experience of working life at the firm. Insight Days enable attendees to discover the firm’s working culture, as well as network with lawyers and trainees and participate in interactive workshops. University students keen on establishing connections with the firm can apply to become a Campus Ambassador, which involves promoting the firm to other students through workshops, presentations and social media posts. 

For individuals from lower socioeconomic status groups, Clyde & Co’s Bright Futures Programme offers the opportunity to gain an insight into the firm’s core sectors and access mentoring over a 9-month period. The firm also runs winter, spring, and summer vacation schemes, with the winter scheme open to those in their final year of undergraduate study and graduates, and the spring and summer schemes open to those in their penultimate year of undergraduate study onwards.

Training contract

Clyde & Co offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. At the very start of the programme, trainees are offered one-to-one meetings with the early careers team to discuss goals and expectations. The firm also runs a mentor programme, with each trainee paired up with a newly qualified lawyer to provide peer-to-peer support. 

Secondments

Clyde & Co offers its trainees the opportunity to apply for an international secondment, with trainees previously working at the firm’s offices in Abu Dhabi, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Dar es Salaam. Client secondments are also available, with placements usually taking place with one of Clyde & Co’s clients in the insurance sector.

Technology and innovation

Clyde & Co is committed to utilising technology to provide clients with flexible and innovative legal services, with related initiatives including:

  • Clyde Code: establishing a dedicated team, Clyde Code, to help clients benefit from smart contract and distributed ledger technologies. Clyde Code help clients with each step of the process involved in utilising smart contracts - from advice on regulatory issues to software engineering and coding - bridging the gap between the legal and technical aspects of smart contract implementation.
  • Neural Vision Technologies: partnering with artificial intelligence company Neural Vision Technologies, to develop an enhanced Data Lab that utilises machine learning to perform extensive and efficient analysis of large document collections.
  • Casualty Claims Innovation: As part of the firm’s new technology platform for handling casualty claims, Clyde & Co has put in place a number of products including ‘MOJ Claims Manager’ (an automated process for handling specific claims) and the ‘Costs Assessor’ (an AI tool that automatically processes and verifies solicitors’ costs letters).
Corporate social responsibility

Clyde & Co run pro bono programmes in each of its offices in the hope of enabling people in the community to “access justice regardless of background or wealth”.Some of the work carried out by the firm includes:

  • Not Beyond Redemption: The firm works with Not Beyond Redemption to help female prisoners in the UK secure visitation and other family law rights in respect of their children both during and after their prison sentences. 
  • Schools Consent Project: Clyde & Co sends lawyers into schools to teach 11–18-year-olds about consent through the Schools Consent Project in order to normalise conversations about consent. 
  • Amicus: The firm supports the charity’s US defence attorneys with research and other casework. Clyde & Co also offers a trainee pro bono seat with the charity. 

Diversity and inclusion

Clyde & Co strives to recruit a workforce that is “representative of the communities and cultures” in which the firm works. As such, the firm has established a number of diversity and inclusion initiatives. Examples include:

  • Inclusion Networks: The firm has a number of inclusion networks aimed at improving culture and holding impactful awareness-raising events across the year. These networks are either firm-wide or local/regional groups. 
  • Reverse Mentoring: Clyde & Co runs a reverse mentoring scheme which offers colleagues the opportunity to learn from each other’s lived experiences. 
  • Legal Insight for Future Talent (LIFT): This programme is aimed at helping those from underrepresented groups to gain experience at the firm. It aims to provide insights and development opportunities to those who have traditionally faced challenges in joining the legal industry.