Ropes & Gray London is one of the largest offices in the Ropes & Gray network, and the hub of the firm’s EMEA network.

We are part of a world-leading US-based global law firm and set up in London in 2010. While we are now an established presence in the UK, we’ve retained all the buzz of our start-up years.

It makes us a little bit different: it means we have the stature and resources of a major international law firm combined with the pace, inclusivity and career progression of a specialist firm. Our clients like to work with us. We are, of course, always professional, but we are personal, and personable with it.

As a group, we’re international, diverse and our team is always professional, but uniquely personable. With around 30 partners, 134 fee earners and a trainee intake of 24, everybody in the office knows everyone else. That means that every hire we make is an important investment for the firm, because each team member has a distinct role to play in delivering excellent service to our clients. 

Internationally, Ropes & Gray is best known as the preeminent law firm for private capital clients. But we do more than just transactional PE work, in fact we also advise some of the world’s biggest businesses on their most challenging issues.

To find out what it is like to work at Ropes & Gray read the firm's Meet the Lawyer profile.

Our scheme is a really valuable opportunity for you to experience first-hand what it is like to be a trainee at the firm, and to understand the firm’s culture and expertise. You will also learn about how law firms work as a business, and how we differentiate ourselves from our competitors.

During the two-week scheme you will complete practice group and client work at trainee level. Before you join the scheme we’ll ask you for your practice group preferences and we’ll take these into account when allocating your supervisor. You will also be mentored and supported by your trainee ‘buddy’ and will be invited to an evening event with all of our trainee cohort. You can also expect to meet lawyers from each practice group, attend workshops, and you will have the opportunity to interact with our employees at social networking events.

Throughout the two weeks you will also be assessed for a training contact at the firm, and all students will be asked to research and write a short blog post and will be interviewed by two members of the trainee recruitment panel. 

If you’re selected for a vacation scheme, you’ll get to experience firsthand what it’s like to be a trainee at the firm. You’ll receive mentoring and support from your supervisor, meet lawyers from each practice group, attend workshops and interact with our employees at social networking events. In addition, all candidates will be asked to research and write a short blog post and be interviewed by two members of our trainee recruitment panel. Our trainees are recruited exclusively from our vacation schemes. You will receive a payment of £800 for attending one of our vacation schemes and, most importantly, you’ll come away with a crucial network of contacts.

From September 2021, the routes to qualifying as a solicitor in England and Wales changed. A future trainee has to complete two years of qualifying work experience and pass the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), a new, two-part centralised assessment being introduced by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. This has changed the training requirements for our future trainees with a new updated Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) for non-law graduates and an entirely new course (in place of the Legal Practice Course) for all future trainees that includes comprehensive preparation for the SQE assessments, as well as the knowledge and skills they will need for a career in City law practice. 

Fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment is one of our most important missions. Through the work of our global and local diversity committees and sponsors, we are working to continue to build cultural awareness and cultural competence by enhancing programming that focuses on understanding bias, discrimination, and racism, and on building allyship. We have several local employee networks, including Womens’ Forums for lawyers and business support professionals, a Black Affinity network, an LGBTQ+  network and a Parent’s Network.

We partner with selected organisations, such as diversity recruitment expert Rare: we use their Contextual Recruitment System in our trainee recruitment process to further understand the context in which applicants’ experiences have been gained, and to identify outperformers that others may miss; Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London, which introduces us to talented students from diverse backgrounds who have the potential to thrive as trainees at our firm; we are a Corporate Sponsor of the Black Solicitors Network (BSN).

We have a high level of female representation across all levels and practice groups, with women making up 40% of partners and 51% of associates.

We will pay tuition and examination fees for both the GDL and SQE.

Maintenance will be paid at the current rate of £17,500 per annum.

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