Spotlight on: Reed Smith

Visited Reed Smith this week to find out more about them and for RS to find out how to attract more applicants from a university like the LSE.  Many students think of them as a US firm but they are a large international firm covering 3 continents with a very large London office with a single partnership.  So what makes them stand out:

• Interesting range of practice areas including media, real estate, shipping, energy and natural resources, health, international arbitration, government investigations and white-collar criminal defense.  All this in addition to the standard financial, business and corporate practice areas….
• They only take on 24 trainees a year to ensure that they have a structured, quality hands-on training with client contact, rather than bundling and case management.
• They also want to retain all their trainees upon qualification.
• And finally, they have a very strong commitment to pro bono activities

Find out more on their comprehensive web pages.

And some good advice from one of their partners about applying for firms and talking about why this firm:

Don’t get too hung up on overall company rankings; they go up and down for each firm over time and different practice areas compete with the same practice area within different firms.  Look at the firm as a whole, the atmosphere and the culture and take any opportunity to talk to staff working there.

Personally, how can I not recommend a firm that has such amazing Xmas lights outside the door!