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Shoosmiths

Interesting selling points

  • Shoosmiths is a growing UK-based law firm, that attracts clients such as Toyota, PwC, the Housing Growth Partnership, AK Retail and the Co-Operative Bank.
  • Chambers and Partners has awarded the firm Band 1 rankings for its Clinical Negligence: Mainly Claimant, Information Technology, Personal Injury: Mainly Claimant, Restructuring/Insolvency and Health & Safety departments. 
  • Carries out a broad range of private client work, including work relating to conveyancing, medical negligence, serious injury, special educational needs and court of protection (see here), as well as work for organisations, indicating there is more variety on offer for trainees than at many other City firms. 
  • Works with earlier stage businesses as well as large corporates and professional services firms, suggesting lawyers have the opportunity to gain exposure to businesses at various stages in their life cycles.
  • The firm offers training contracts in all its UK offices, making it a high-profile regional employer. 
  • The firm has developed many of its own legal tech solutions, including Cia (a contract reviewing tool used by businesses like Next and Lease) and Lease Infinity (a tool which develops a portfolio for real estate clients). 
  • To assist with its diversity and inclusion efforts, the firm has formed a Shadow Board to oversee the work of the firm’s board, ensuring that diversity and inclusion is a key component of the firm’s work. 

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

Practice areas / services

Shoosmiths is a full-service commercial law firm which operates in the following practice areas: 

  • Banking & Finance 
  • Charity Law 
  • Commercial 
  • Conveyancing (Swiitch)
  • Corporate 
  • Court of Protection 
  • Corporate Restructuring & Advisory 
  • Dispute Resolution & Litigation 
  • Employment & Immigration 
  • Intellectual Property 
  • Medical Negligence 
  • Pensions
  • Personal injury 
  • Privacy & Data 
  • Real Estate 
  • Regulation, Business Crime & Compliance 
  • Residential landlord matters 
  • Retail and Consumer 
  • Serious injury 
  • Special education needs – EHC plans 
  • Tax 

Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Shoosmiths its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Clinical Negligence: Mainly Claimant, Information Technology, Personal Injury: Mainly Claimant, Restructuring/Insolvency and Health & Safety. See here for more information

Key sectors / industries

Shoosmiths works with a range of clients, with its most notable clients operating in the following sectors: 

Work

Shoosmiths works with a range of notable clients, including: 

  • Toyota: The firm advised Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK on two major agreements relating to the construction of a state-of-the-art anaerobic digester plant at the YMUK engine manufacturing facility in Deeside, North Wales (UK). 
  • Hampshire Sport & Leisure Holdings: Shoosmiths advised on the phased acquisition of Hampshire Sport & Leisure Holdings by GMR Global Pte Ltd, marking the first foreign ownership in English Cricket. 
  • Housing Growth Partnership (HGP): The firm acted for Housing Growth Partnership, the Lloyds-backed equity investor on its latest joint venture with the leading build-to-rent (BTR) developer and operator, PLATFORM_. 

Older examples

  • AK Retail: the firm advised AK Retail on the acquisition of clothing brand Evans from Australian retailer City Chic in an £8m deal. The acquisition saw AK Retail acquire the brand, intellectual property and customer base of Evans. 
  • Wilko Administrators: Shoosmiths’ corporate restructuring and advisory team was appointed by the administrators of Wilko to assist with the administration of Wilko. 
  • The Co-operative Bank: the firm was appointed to the Co-operative Bank’s legal panel on a full-term basis, which will see the firm assist with real estate, tax, employment, corporate and commercial matters, as well as funding and regulation. The panel is set to run until December 2025. 
  • PwC: the firm advised PwC on the sale of the brand, website and intellectual property of Cath Kidston to Next. 

Offices / global footprint / expansion

Headquarters: London, 1 Bow Churchyard. 

Offices: The firm has 14 offices, including offices in Belfast, Birmingham, Brussels, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Nottingham, Sheffield, Solent, and the Thames Valley. 

Insights, internships and other opportunities

The firm offers a number of insight evenings throughout the year, which provide an opportunity to get to know the firm. In particular, these give an insight into the firm’s practice areas and clients, its training contract and the skills needed to become a successful solicitor. These events are offered across the firm’s offices, plus there are virtual events. 

Shoosmiths also offers more substantive placement schemes, most of which are in the summer. These schemes lasts for a week and involve opportunities to learn more about the firm, plus a business development project which helps to develop and showcase innovative thinking. It is important to note that you cannot apply for a placement without also applying for a training contract, so applicants need to apply for the “Combined Summer Placement and Training Contract” opportunity. 

Training contract

Shoosmiths has two intakes of trainees annually, in September and March. The September intake is larger (with 26 trainees), compared to ~8 trainees in March. The Shoosmiths training contract is made up of four six-month seats. Whilst the training does not have any compulsory seats, trainees must sit within three distinct areas of law, including at least one non-contentious and one contentious area. The firm also offers formal training resources such as on demand e-learning modules and monthly team-wide live training sessions. 

Secondments

Trainees have the opportunity to apply for a client secondment, but there are no international secondment opportunities. 

Technology and innovation

Given that Shoosmiths is passionate about delivering a “great client experience”, technology and innovation has become a key part of the business. Examples of the firm’s technology and innovation initiatives include: 

  • Partnership with MyCustomerLens: the firm has partnered with MyCustomerLens, a client listening platform that enables clients to submit their feedback in a centralised place. The firm can then access this feedback in a single repository. It enables the firm to collect data from the feedback and improve its services accordingly. 
  • Cia: this is the firm’s own AI tool, which is a contract review service. It reviews contracts, pinpointing the key risks and deviations from market norms and automatically generating corrective drafting. The tool has even been used by the legal teams at Next. 
  • Lease Infinity: This is a real estate portfolio management tool created by the firm for clients, which supports with aspects of deals such as administration, accounting, deeds storage and real time reporting. 
  • Hexagon: Shoosmiths offers this tool to help clients identify and fix key operational issues in light of market best practice. The tool uses tech and process optimisation to help a client access a business focused legal function that delivers optimal value based on real time data. 

Corporate social responsibility

Shoosmiths is committed to “delivering a positive contribution to society” and this is embodied in the firm’s corporate social responsibility commitments, including: 

  • Street League: the firm has supported Street League since 2021. The charity uses the power of sport to support young people into employment. 
  • SHOUTback: this is the firm’s corporate responsibility blog, which celebrates the activities undertaken across the firm and is also used to raise the profile of many of the organisations with which the firm works. 
  • Trainee Pro Bono Challenge: the challenge occurs every year and asks first year trainees, under appropriate supervision, to provide legal advice to organisations and individuals in the UK who cannot afford legal advice, with a focus on helping to address global sustainable development goals. 

Diversity and inclusion

The firm sees diversity and inclusion as integral to delivering the best results for its clients, hence its “clear commitment” to diversity and inclusion. This commitment is demonstrated by the firm’s investment in initiatives such as: 

  • High Performing Women Programme: this programme has facilitated reciprocal mentoring pairings where a more junior colleague will take the role of mentor and be paired with a senior leader as their mentee. 
  • Inclusive Leadership Workshops: these workshops equip partners and senior managers with the skills needed to lead diverse teams (all members of the firm also receive unconscious bias training). 
  • Shadow Board: this mirrors the current structure of Shoosmiths’ senior management board, with the aim of bringing in diverse perspectives from around the firm to create a feedback loop that makes recommendations to the senior management.