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Addleshaw Goddard

Unique selling points

  • Strong focus on real estate law, advising on major property deals across multiple regions in the United Kingdom for a range of industry actors.
  • Has a broader range of practice areas than some other City firms, including teams focused on education, local government, immigration, private capital, and professional practices.
  • Services a wide range of sectors, including Financial Services, Real Estate, Retail and Consumer, and Transport.
  • Awarded Band 1 rankings by Chambers and Partners for its Consumer Finance, Partnership, Public Procurement, Retail, Social Housing: Finance, Transport: Rail: Projects & infrastructure and Transport: Rail: Rolling Stock.
  • Client focussed innovation provided by the Client Development Centre enables collaboration between lawyers, clients, and other professionals to co-create innovative legal solutions.
  • A strong regional presence gives the firm a significant stronghold in the UK market, with offices in major cities including London, Manchester, Leeds, and Edinburgh.
  • Notable clients include JD Sports, Nationwide Building Society, BT, Applied Nutrition and Phoenix. 

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

Practice areas / services

Addleshaw Goddard a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:

  • Commercial Services
  • Competition & Regulation
  • Construction & Engineering
  • Corporate 
  • M&A
  • Global Investigations
  • Dispute Resolution
  • Education & Local Government
  • Employment & Immigration
  • Finance
  • Financial Regulation
  • Infrastructure Projects & Energy
  • Intellectual Property
  • Investment Management
  • Pensions
  • Private Capital
  • Private Equity
  • Professional Practices
  • Real Estate
  • Restructuring
  • Tax & Structuring
  • Transformation 

Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Addleshaw Goddard its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Consumer Finance, Partnership, Public Procurement, Retail, Social Housing: Finance, Transport: Rail: Projects & infrastructure and Transport: Rail: Rolling Stock. See here for more information 

Key sectors / industries

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

In addition, Addleshaw Goddard services the following industries: advanced manufacturing; energy and utilities; and healthcare. 

Work

Addleshaw Goddard consistently works on high profile, cross-border work. Some examples of its work include: 

  • JD Sports: The firm advised JD Sports on its acquisition of Hibbett, a US-based athletic fashion retailer with more than 1,000 stores. 
  • Nationwide Building Society: Addleshaw Goddard advised Nationwide Building Society on certain key aspects of its recommended all-cash acquisition of Virgin Money UK PLC.
  • BT: The firm advised BT on its sale of the BT Tower to MCR Hotels for £275m.

Older examples

  • National Timber Group: The firm represented the UK’s leading timber distribution and processing business in relation to the refinancing of a bespoke funding package designed to facilitate further growth for the company. 
  • Limerston Capital: Addleshaw Goddard worked with Limerston Capital on its acquisition and funding of Scottish-based holiday park operator Largo Leisure.
  • Fountain Hydro Power Corp: The firm advised on a hydropower plant’s prepayment and exit from its finance arrangements with existing lenders. 

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: London, Milton Gate, 60 Chiswell Street

Offices: Addleshaw Goddard has 19 offices across the globe. Locations include Dublin, Singapore, Dubai and Munich. 

Insights, internships and other opportunities

Addleshaw Goddard offers several opportunities for students to gain direct experience of working life at the firm. For students just starting to explore a career in law, the First Year Open Days offer the chance to meet the firm’s layers and receive practical advice on how to make later applications stand out. The firm also runs work placement schemes during the Easter and summer, enabling attendees to get hands-on experience by working on real cases. These schemes are held in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, London and Manchester, and are open to non-law and law students, who are asked to apply two years prior to when they will be ready to commence a training contract.

Training contract

Addleshaw Goddard offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. The firm offers seats in its Corporate and Commercial, Litigation, Finance and Projects, and Real Estate divisions. During this time, trainees can expect training tailored to their individual needs and are encouraged to become fully engaged in life at the firm by joining committees and making their voices heard. Training will be provided through a mix of hands-on work, and supervision by both an experienced solicitor specific to your practice area, and a trainee buddy that provides mentorship throughout the training contract.

Secondments

Addleshaw Goddard offers international secondments, with trainees potentially being able to spend six months in either the firm’s Hong Kong, Dubai, Oman or Qatar offices. Trainees can also opt for a client secondment, during which they get to learn about the FTSE 100 companies the firm regularly works with. 

Technology and innovation

Addleshaw Goddard is passionate about working with clients to “re-design and re-invent” legal services in response to a changing world. Some related initiatives include: 

  • Legal Technology Team: Addleshaw Goddard coordinates innovation across the firm through its Innovation and Legal Technology Team, working directly with partners across practice areas.
  • Kira: The firm makes use of Kira, a leading legal-tech AI system, to quickly search and manage large volumes of data and information. 
  • HighQ: Addleshaw Goddard utilises this flexible set of tools (including dashboard reporting and document automation) to enable the firm to deliver work more efficiently and ensure the safe and simple sharing of information. 
Corporate social responsibility

Addleshaw Goddard hopes to “make a lasting impact on the people and organisations” the firm works with through a number of  pro bono initiatives. Some examples of the projects carried out by the firm include:

  • Manchester Business Law Café: Since 2016, Addleshaw Goddard has run the Manchester Business Law Café with Manchester Metropolitan University. The firm runs three sessions per academic year with six and seven clients at each. 
  • The Chancery Lane Project: The firm supports the Chancery Lane Project which is a focused and collaborative effort from lawyers to develop new contracts and model laws to help fight climate change. 
  • Manchester Arena Inquest: A team of lawyers from the firm volunteered to act pro bono on behalf of three bereaved families in the inquest into the Manchester Arena attack.

Diversity and inclusion

Addleshaw Goddard prides itself on being “a diverse group of original thinkers, decision makers and negotiators who deliver results”. To maintain an environment in which you’ll find people from “every walk of life”, the firm runs several initiatives including:

  • How to Flourish Programme: This is the firm’s long-standing initiative which supports female progression to senior positions. It has been running for over ten years and has so far helped hundreds of Addleshaw Goddard colleagues and clients.
  • Diversity & Inclusion Networks: Addleshaw Goddard has a number of diversity & inclusion networks which have over 400 members and have helped promote inclusive behaviours across the business.
  • Inclusion Advocates: The firm has appointed within each Group and Business Services Directorate Inclusion Advocates to help with sustained engagement with diversity and inclusion across the business.