Lawyers

With lawyers from coast to coast in the United States, as well as in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, Reed Smith is known for its experience across a broad array of industry sectors. Reed Smith is a dynamic international law firm dedicated to helping clients move their businesses forward. With an inclusive culture and innovative mindset, we deliver smarter, more creative legal services that drive better outcomes for our clients. Our deep industry knowledge, long-standing relationships, and collaborative structure make us the go-to partner for complex disputes, transactions, and regulatory matters.

Our commitment to excellence and innovation starts with service. In addition to our professional achievements in the legal community, we have earned an international reputation for exceptional, seamless client service. Domestically, we have honed our skills acting for the energy, entertainment, financial, health care, life sciences, and transportation sectors. Our London lawyers have advised on all aspects of English law involving trade, litigation, and commercial concerns worldwide. Based in the City of London, and supported by our global network, our London office strategically supports clients worldwide with the cutting-edge advice they need to grow and manage their businesses.

At Reed Smith, we are committed to providing an inclusive workplace for all. We believe in a culture of respect that attracts and retains top talent, promotes opportunity for everyone, and builds a sense of community and belonging for all. This allows innovation to flourish and helps us develop the right relationships with our clients, forming connections that lead to better understanding of commercial challenges and opportunities. People thrive when they are respected and valued.

All our new partners attend an induction to support them in their transition to partnership. Reed Smith prides itself on its international platform and culture of collaboration, as well as its focus on cross-selling. For laterals, the firm has a comprehensive and impressive onboarding programme, both on the practical and social side. The firm works hard to ensure that integration processes are as straightforward and run as smoothly as possible. 

The strength of goodwill and collegiality in the relationships among our partners underpins our cross-selling/cross-serving achievements. We apply the same spirit to all our relationships across the firm. One way we have been building on this has been our Women’s Initiative Network (WINRS), where senior women partners work with female associates and junior partners to develop their capacity to contribute to the success of the firm, and to equip them to become part of the next generation of leaders within Reed Smith. 

Some of our senior associates will choose the role of counsel as an alternative career path to partnership or as a stepping stone to move into the partnership at a future date. 

Reed Smith has successfully moved away from the typical and rigid post-qualification progression method to a more dynamic and successful competency-based system, called Careers Academy. The purpose of Careers Academy is twofold: to provide the firm’s lawyers with the transparency, development opportunities, and support they need to achieve career satisfaction and success at Reed Smith, while at the same time allowing the firm to provide the best legal representation to its clients. 

The programme provides a framework to develop and reward associates from NQ level through to senior associate. Each associate is appointed a careers advisor to act as an independent mentor. Associates also benefit from comprehensive performance reviews, which results in a real understanding of how to manage and develop their careers. To help associates progress against the competencies, Careers Academy provides a wide variety of development opportunities, from training programmes mapped to the nine core competencies to on-the-job development, pro bono opportunities, client and intra-firm secondments, online resources, and more.  

The firm places a great emphasis on providing associates with high-quality work both in terms of the clients it acts for and the type of work undertaken. Client secondment opportunities are readily available in the UK and sometimes overseas. 

As demonstrated by our continued growth in size, revenue, and profit, Reed Smith is a firm that is driven to achieve – but it’s also part of our relationship philosophy that people need a balanced life. The chargeable hours targets we set for our lawyers are intended to be sensible, not exhausting. Those who outperform expectations are rewarded for their additional contribution. 

We always have a number of paralegals throughout the firm in our different practice areas, in both permanent and temporary roles. To apply for paralegal opportunities at the firm, candidates should have completed either a Law Degree or GDL. Candidates should be aware that paralegal opportunities at Reed Smith are not a route into our training contracts.