• The firm has built a reputation for supporting high profile clients such as Moderna, Slack and MyoKardia.
• Goodwin is highly regarded for its work across the technology and life sciences sectors. 
• The firm services a range of interesting, cutting edge industries, including not only private equity, real estate and financial services, but also cannabis, higher education, and women’s health and wellness.
• The firm works on matters involving not only large businesses, but also much earlier stage tech start-ups and venture capital firms, offering more variety than some other City firms. For example, it helped Grasp secure $4 million in seed finance. 
• Some of its offices are based in key tech hotspots, including Silicon Valley, Cambridge, San Francisco and Santa Monica, providing the firm with access to cutting edge technology clients and work. 
• Carries out some private client work through its Trusts & Estate Planning practice. 

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

Practice areas / services

Goodwin was founded during a chance encounter on the Boston streets. From those humble beginnings, it has since grown into a renowned US law firm with a broad range of practice areas, including: 

• Antitrust & Competition
• Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation 
• Banking
• Business & Commercial Litigation 
• Buyouts & Acquisitions
• Capital Markets  
• Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution
• Corporate Social Responsibility Law & Policy  
• Data, Privacy & Cybersecurity 
• Debt Finance 
• Derivatives 
• Digital Currency & Blockchain 
• Employment 
• Environmental 
• ERISA & Executive Compensation 
• ERISA Litigation 
• ESG & Impact 
• Financial Industry Litigation
• Financial Restructuring 
• Fintech  
• Global Trade 
• Government Investigations & Enforcement 
• Growth Equity 
• Healthcare Regulatory 
• Intellectual Property 
• Insurtech 
• Investment Management Litigation
• Late Stage Drug Development  
• Life Sciences Regulatory & Compliance 
• Litigation 
• Mergers & Acquisitions 
• New Company Formation 
• Private Investment Funds 
• Products Litigation and Counselling 
• Proptech 
• Propsci 
• Public Company Advisory 
• REITs & Real Estate M&A 
• Risk Management & Insurance
• Search Funds 
• Secondaries 
• Shareholder Activism & Takeover Defense 
• Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) 
• Tax 
• Tax-Exempt Organizations 
• Trade Secrets, Employee Mobility & Non-Competes
• Trusts & Estate Planning Advisory Services 
• Trusts & Estate Planning
• Venture Capital 
• White Collar Defense 

Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Goodwin its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Intellectual Property, Investment Funds: Real Estate, Life Sciences: Transactional and Private Equity: Venture Capital Investment. See here for more information 

Key sectors / industries

Goodwin Proctor services a range of industries, but its most notable are: 

• Life Sciences 
• Private Equity 
• Real Estate 
• Technology 
• Financial Services 

In addition, Goodwin Proctor services the following industries: Cannabis, Financial Restructuring, Healthcare, Higher Education, and Women’s Health & Wellness.  

Work

Some notable examples of Goodwin’s work includes: 

• Moderna: Goodwin helped Moderna to interact with governmental officials and supply chain partners to distribute its COVID-19 vaccine during the pandemic. 
• Slack: The firm advised Slack in its direct public listing of Class A common stock on the New York Stock Exchange. 
• OQC: The firm’s Technology team advised OQC in the UK’s largest-ever quantum Computing Series B round. 

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: Boston, 100 Northern Avenue. 

Offices: Goodwin has 16 offices across the world, including offices in Cambridge, London, Frankfurt, LA, New York, Paris, Hong Kong and Singapore. 

Insights, internships and other opportunities

The firm runs a spring and summer vacation scheme. All vac schemers are automatically considered for a training contract. The scheme gives vac schemers the opportunity to learn more about what training and working at Goodwin is like. Alongside the traditional vacation scheme, the firm has also been known to offer Open Afternoons to enable prospective trainees to get to know the firm a little better. 

For more general insights into the firm, the firm has a number of blogs which provide updates on its key sectors. It also has a number of newsletters including the Financial Services Weekly News Roundups, Securities Snapshot, Debt Download, and ERISA Litigation Quarterly. 

The firm also offers a (US based) science advisor program for qualified scientists looking for the opportunity to pursue an interesting and challenging career path that combines science, business and the law (see here for more information).

Training contract

Goodwin’s London office recruits 14 trainees per year, with the firm describing the training contract as consisting of three phases: transition, orientation and integration. Trainees have the opportunity to spend six months in four of the following practice areas: life sciences, private equity, private investment funds, real estate, technology, tax, finance and complex litigation, and dispute resolution. 

Throughout the training contract, trainees receive support and advice from a trainee buddy, as well as an associate supervisor and a partner supervisor. 

Candidates can apply for a vacation scheme first, or directly for a training contract. The application is made up of an online application form, an interview and a written assessment. 

Secondments

There are no international or client secondment opportunities at this firm.

The firm’s pro bono work enables its lawyers to leverage their interests, passions and expertise to help others around them that could not otherwise afford legal assistance. Examples of such pro bono work include: 

• Compass Working Capital: The firm works with this non-profit organisation, which provides incentive based savings and financial coaching programmes that empower low-income families to access opportunities, build assets and achieve their financial aspirations. 
• Joyful Heart Foundation: The firm assists this foundation with its mission to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse, and to shed light into the darkness surrounding those issues. 
• Internet Archive (IA): The IA was founded to build an “Internet Library” with the purpose of offering free permanent access for researchers, historians, scholars, artists and the general public to collections in digital format. The firm has assisted the organisation with a wide range of issues. 

Diversity and inclusion

The firm has a mission to become the “most diverse, equitable, and inclusive firm” in the industry. Examples of how it is trying to achieve this include: 

• 2025 Goals: By 2025, the firm aims to have a 50/50 gender split for Senior Associates and Partners, with 35% coming from a racially diverse background and 10% being LGBTQ+. This sits alongside its overall leadership diversity goal being 40% coming from a diverse background by 2025. 
• Exploring the Art of Inclusion: This is an initiative set up by the firm to highlight opportunities to dismantle barriers to inclusion and further advancement throughout the talent lifecycle, as well as how everyone can collectively make a concrete difference in the journey toward belonging for all. 
• Affinity Groups: There are four affinity groups: BOLD@Goodwin, promoting Black professionals within Goodwin; CRED@Goodwin, which fosters a deeper sense of community and engagement for lawyers of colour, particularly female lawyers of colour; Pride@Goodwin, for LGBTQ+ lawyers; and Women@Goodwin. 
• HBCU Scholarship program: Goodwin has also partnered with Meta on the HBCU Scholarship program for high-achieving law students from historically excluded backgrounds who have an interest in corporate law.