Faegre Drinker is a top 50 US firm designed for clients. With more than 1,200 experienced attorneys, consultants and professionals in 21 locations across the United States, United Kingdom and China, we serve clients in every US state and more than 100 countries. We have the strength to solve the most complex transactional, litigation and regulatory challenges. We partner with clients ranging from emerging startups to multinational corporations, delivering comprehensive and customised advice that advances their most ambitious objectives.

In London, we have 34 lawyers and a total staff of 58.

Types of work

Our focus in London is on advising clients which range from Fortune 500 companies to high-quality emerging companies meeting their legal needs, both domestically and internationally.

Corporate: includes mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, management buy-outs, joint ventures, private equity, flotations (IPOs), fundraising and corporate reorganisations. We have particular expertise in advising on AIM listings.

Finance and restructuring: advice in contentious and non-contentious, cross-border and domestic financial restructuring, insolvency, corporate recovery, turnaround and distressed real estate matters.

Business litigation: general commercial litigation with a growing emphasis on mediation and arbitration, much of which is international.

Commercial: a wide range of contentious and non-contentious commercial and IP matters for a diverse client base. Our expertise also covers franchising, outsourcing, international data privacy, e-commerce and digital media.

Employment: advice on a broad range of employment issues from recruitment to dismissal and also on employers' duties on business sales and reorganisations, share option and incentive plans, global mobility and immigration and termination issues such as redundancy, unfair and wrongful dismissal and restrictive covenants.

Who should apply

We are looking for motivated people not only with strong academics, but who are also team players with good all-round ability, common sense and ambition. In addition, strong communication skills and an appreciation of our clients' commercial interests are essential.

We offer a number of vacation placements over the summer months during which you will be given an opportunity to experience first-hand the work undertaken day-to-day by our trainees across our practice groups.

The London office is split into five main practice groups. We offer training in those groups and trainees will assist a number of partners or solicitors within any group. This provides a good breadth of experience and you will quickly become integrated within the firm. Our aim is for trainees to be one of the team and to have responsibility (subject to appropriate supervision) at an early stage. We provide some in-house training and trainees are encouraged to attend outside lectures and courses where appropriate. Appraisals are undertaken every three months.

London diversity and inclusion committee

The London diversity and inclusion committee is an associate-led initiative open to all colleagues in the London office. Working in conjunction with our US-based counterparts, we promote diversity and inclusion as one of Faegre Drinker's core values. Our intention is to create and maintain an environment where all perspectives are welcome and valued, and where everyone is provided with opportunities to develop and advance both within Faegre Drinker and our wider communities. We typically focus on the following areas: 

• access to the legal profession;
• training and learning development;
• recruitment and retention; and
• volunteering and client events.

As part of a social mobility project, we partner with two local schools which have a significant number of high-achieving young people from low-income families. Each year, we host legal work experience weeks and insight days at our offices aimed at students in KS4 and KS5 who are interested in finding out more about a career in law. We also organise office-wide training on D&I topics and have some exciting new volunteer and client events in the works. Trainee involvement with the London D&I Committee is encouraged and valued.

London associates' committee

The London associates' committee comprises all associates, trainee solicitors and paralegals in the London office. The purpose of the committee is to coordinate communication between the office's associates and its leadership and to discuss and implement initiatives that are important to them. 

London women's committee

We are committed to fostering an environment in which women thrive and can progress. The London women's committee is focused on the retention and promotion of women lawyers and pursues initiatives to support them, including business development, mentoring and social events.

• Corporate & Commercial
• General Commercial

• London

• BPP Legal Advice Clinic
• LawWorks (the Solicitors Pro Bono Group)
• London Legal Support Trust (LLST)
• The Advocates for Human Rights
• TrustLaw Connect
• UnLtd