Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP |

Since 1946 our lawyers and staff have worked across practices, industries, jurisdictions, and continents to provide clients with simple, actionable approaches to their most complex legal and business challenges, whether domestic or international. We support every client relationship with intellectual agility, commercial acumen, and a human touch.

Who We Are. We have 14 offices in 16 major financial centres around the world, but we are a single, integrated firm. This “one firm” approach means we can better collaborate and deliver all our resources to all our clients, wherever they may be.

Inclusion & Culture. At Cleary all members of our community are deserving of respect and appreciation for the contributions that they make as individuals within our firm. This principle was central to our firm’s founding and we embed it in the way that we work by ensuring everyone has equal opportunities to develop and succeed. 

Ground-breaking Work. For more than 70 years, clients around the world have entrusted us to seamlessly handle their most challenging assignments, from large corporate transactions to cases of first impression. Our work is rarely easy, but our lawyers get the opportunity to work on high-profile cases and innovative deals—where the stakes are high and each lawyer’s talents can make a difference.

 

One Firm

We are a single, integrated, global partnership. Our ‘one firm’ approach enables us to deliver all of our resources to all of our clients, wherever in the world they may be.

Core Areas of Practice

Our core areas of practice in London include M&A and other corporate work, international capital markets and finance, antitrust, litigation and arbitration, tax, financial regulation, employment, and intellectual property. Lawyers who focus on different practices work closely together, according to the requirements of a particular transaction.

Multi-office Deal Teams

The London office is a key part of our closely integrated network of international offices. Our focus on high-quality, innovative, and high-profile transactions means that our work almost always has a cross-border element. We work with colleagues in our U.S., Latin American, European, Middle Eastern, and Asian offices on a daily basis. Deal teams typically combine the skills and resources of lawyers from more than one office.

Practice Environment

Our London office offers a dynamic, challenging, and stimulating environment in which to practice law. Our firm conducts the highest-quality work for the most interesting clients. You will work with colleagues of a consistently-high calibre across numerous jurisdictions. Lawyers in London are supported by an international network of knowhow, precedents, and best practices built on the vast experience of all our lawyers worldwide. Our London office practises in a smaller and more informal environment than is possible in the larger London firms. We believe we provide the optimal setting in which to train and practise as a solicitor.

• 25 days’ holiday
• Fitness subsidy
• Health screening
• Private health insurance
• Life insurance of three times annual salary
• Long-term disability insurance
• Critical illness insurance
• Dental insurance
• Employee assistance programme
• Emergency backup care,
• Cycle to work scheme
• Subsidised staff restaurant

We recruit our trainees through our vacation schemes. 

All candidates should submit a cover letter and full CV, including a breakdown by subject of all A-Level (or equivalent) results and degree results where known.

Applications for vacation schemes should be submitted via our website and are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Our Inclusion & Culture  Working Group fosters a strong sense of community and belonging by supporting affinity groups and working committees as well as building cultural networks through Heritage celebrations. Our group’s agendas cover a wide and visible set of initiatives that range from mentoring programmes and professional development to speaker series and workshops. In addition, the London office supports four resource groups, made up of a cross section of our legal and professional staff population. While these groups are open to all, respectively they focus on issues specific to the LGBTQ+ community and the Black Asian and Minority Ethnic community as well as Social Mobility and Wellbeing matters Initiatives and events are designed to promote inclusivity through awareness raising and education both within the firm and the wider community. 

We were the first international firm of U.S. origin to sign the Law Society’s Diversity and Inclusion Charter, the flagship diversity initiative of the legal profession. We also pride ourselves on having more than 72 female partners and counsel globally, with the first woman elected to partnership in 1978. There is an overall focus on creating an atmosphere of inclusiveness through a diverse workforce, and more than 65 languages are spoken by our lawyers around the world.

We are also proud to be using Rare Recruitment’s Contextual Recruitment System (CRS) which allows us to consider achievements in the context in which they were gained. We understand that not every candidate’s achievements look the same on paper – and we want to recruit the best people, from every background.

Inclusion and Culture are more than just words at Cleary.  It is a firm priority and commitment for all. In short, you will find Cleary a compelling place to work—and diverse in the broadest sense of the word.