Survey Results - Trainee feedback on K&L Gates

The lowdown - Trainees (in their own words) on K&L Gates

Why did you choose this firm over any others? ‘Quality of work; early responsibility; leaner teams; small intake of six; varied seat offerings; likelihood of obtaining seat preference due to small cohort size; US firm without US culture; good work/life balance’, ‘US law firm; broad range of clients; seats aligned with my key legal interests; small trainee intake’, ‘it’s an international firm with offices worldwide and good expertise in industries I was interested in, such as energy, construction and arbitration’

Best thing about the firm? ‘Friendly nature’, ‘everyone is incredibly friendly and easy to communicate with and the approach to hybrid working (in most departments) is very good – we have a lot of flexibility about where and how work is done – as long as the end product is good most partners don’t seem to mind how you get there’, ‘the people’, ‘the culture of supportiveness / close-knit teams / clear value on pro-bono work / the amount of people that have stayed here for their whole career since qualifying’

Worst thing about the firm? ‘There aren’t many social opportunities. We have a monthly drinks trolley but normally only the trainees and a handful of associates turn up. There are no impromptu drinks, largely owing to the fact that a lot of people work from home’, ‘the London office is a significant practice but it is just one of many offices. Key decisions and the direction of the firm are determined by the US’, ‘tech/eco-friendliness’

Best moment? ‘During my first seat I was tasked with drafting an important witness statement on a high-value construction matter in Saudi Arabia. I was personally responsible for arranging interviews with him and often interviewed him about complex factual issues on my own. The matter was decided entirely in our favour, and we saved the client around $150,000,000 in damages’, ‘the occasions when I have been given associate-level responsibility for matters with significant international clients’, ‘being given the opportunity as a trainee to present on a global asset management and investment funds partners call’

Worst moment? ‘I worked on a stressful matter involving lots of late nights inserting cross references and tidying up footnotes in thousands of pages of pleadings for a large-scale international arbitration. It was not the most entertaining task in the world, but it had to be done, and stuff like that generally falls on the cheaper resources (a.k.a the trainees)’, ‘spending a sweltering summer weekend in the office without any air-conditioning reviewing bundles’

The Legal 500 Future Lawyers verdict on K&L Gates

K&L Gates is the ‘perfect marriage of a friendly British culture with the high-quality international work of an American firm’. With more than 45 offices worldwide, the US firm’s expertise in energy, construction and arbitration makes it a top contender for trainees interested in these areas. A small intake of around six trainees each year keeps the cohort intimate, ‘increases the likelihood of obtaining seat preference’ and translates into ‘high levels of responsibility’. Recruits report ‘single-handedly managing matters and liaising directly with clients’ from early on, thanks to the firm’s lean team structure. ‘Being given the opportunity to present on a global asset management and investment funds partners call’ is one such example. In terms of culture, at K&L Gates ‘you get more respect, exposure and responsibility as a trainee, and the people are friendlier and more approachable than at bigger or more well-known London firms’. There is also a ‘better work/life balance and a better attitude towards the mental wellbeing of staff’ to boot. Little wonder K&L Gates is a Future Lawyers winner for job satisfaction, quality of work, vacation scheme and salary. Some respondents complained that the social life is ‘limited’, which is mostly down to the fact that so many people work from home. Trainees would like to see ‘more impromptu drinks’ too. The technology and eco-friendliness are ‘not the best’, but, on the plus side, the pro bono offering is ‘great! There’s an abundance of pro bono work and it is really valued at the firm, with many trainees doing 50+ hours of pro bono service each year’. To work at a firm which is a leader in its field, treats its trainees with respect and offers excellent career prospects, consider K&L Gates.

About the firm

The firm: K&L Gates is one of the largest law firms in the world with more than 40 offices located in key capital cities and world commercial and financial centres across five continents. At K&L Gates, we foster an inclusive and collaborative environment across our fully integrated global platform that enables us to diligently combine the knowledge and expertise of our lawyers and policy professionals to create teams that provide exceptional client solutions. We marry process with vision, success with dedication, and method with passion.

Managing partner: Paul Callegari, London Managing Partner.

Other offices: Austin, Beijing, Berlin, Boston, Brisbane, Brussels, Charleston, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Doha, Dubai, Dublin, Fort Worth, Frankfurt, Harrisburg, Hong Kong, Houston, Kansas City, London, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Miami, Milan, Munich, Nashville, Newark, New York, Orange County, Palo Alto, Paris, Perth, Pittsburgh, Portland, Raleigh, Research Triangle Park, San Francisco, São Paulo, Seattle, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, Taipei, Tokyo, Washington DC, Wilmington.

Who we are: K&L Gates fosters an inclusive and collaborative environment across its fully integrated global platform.

What we do: K&L Gates is active in the areas of corporate/M&A, capital markets, private equity, restructuring and insolvency, banking and asset finance, structured finance, derivatives, aviation, debt capital markets, Islamic finance, funds, financial services regulation, antitrust, competition and trade regulation, public policy, real estate, planning and environment, intellectual property, technology transactions, construction, energy, infrastructure and resources, insurance coverage, regulatory, tax, employment, litigation, international arbitration, investigations, enforcement and white-collar crime, plus other forms of dispute resolution.

What we’re looking for: We are looking for highly motivated, intellectually curious individuals with an interest in commercial law, looking for comprehensive training.

What you’ll do: A thorough induction scheme: emphasis is placed on early responsibility and client contact. Pro bono and CSR activities are encouraged.

Perks: Life assurance scheme, group income protection, gym membership, group pension plan, season ticket loan, private GP service, employee assistance program, cycle to work, eye test, language learning tool and fertility support.

Sponsorship

SQE sponsorship of £13,000.

Seat options

Corporate; asset management and investment funds; white-collar crime; intellectual property; antitrust, competition and trade regulation; energy, infrastructure and resources; construction and infrastructure; employment; real estate; planning and environment; finance; litigation and dispute resolution.

Tips from the recruiter

  1. Be sincere and give accurate information, be prepared to justify all of your answers at interview stage.
  2. Stay in touch with people you meet at events, networking is a key skill for a lawyer.
  3. Stay on top of current affairs, being a lawyer is also about understanding your clients and their industries.

Diversity and Inclusion

Percentage of female associates: 50%

Percentage of female partners: 15.2%

Percentage of BAME associates:  29.6%

Percentage of BAME partners: 2.2%

Our commitment to diversity goes far beyond rhetoric and initiatives. We seek and welcome the talents of those from different walks of life and cultural backgrounds. We strongly believe we build better teams, forge better client relationships and provide better customer service because of our diverse
team of professionals.

In 2020, the firm pledged to listen, be educated, take action, and work together to help in the fight to end inequality and foster a more inclusive society. We encourage everyone to get involved in any way that inspires them, whether by continuing to educate yourself, engage in challenging conversations, or work alongside clients and one another in the community. We also recognise the important work our people contribute around the world and have instilled the Global Diversity Hours Policy to offer nonbillable, credited hours to all lawyers for their time spent towards diversity and inclusion. The policy encourages our lawyers to have meaningful participation in diversity and inclusion efforts both within and outside the firm for the benefit of K&L Gates, its clients, and all of its constituents.

In our commitment to listen and be educated, our firmwide Diversity Committee and Women in the Profession (WIP) Committee lead numerous programmes and initiatives to further our steps as a firm to better understand our shared history and to meaningfully improve the outlook for our shared future. Launched in 2020, our firmwide speaker series, Conversations About Race and Diversity, focuses on the lingering effects of inequality and systemic racism in our society, and the importance of diversity and inclusion. Thousands of stakeholders at the firm have listened and learned from our guest speakers, making this series the most well-attended web event this firm has ever held. Past notable speakers include:

  • Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of NAACP
  • Honorable Bernice B. Donald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
  • Reverend James M. Lawson, Civil Rights Movement activist, professor and minister
  • Clarence Dixon, Executive Director, Global Head of Loan Services and Head of UK D&I Committee of CBRE
  • Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal
  • Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, author, historian, and journalist
  • Honorable Tony Coelho, former U.S. representative (CA), House Majority Whip, and principal author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

In addition to listening and educating ourselves, we also take action to connect and support our historically underrepresented lawyers at the firm. Launched in 2020, we partner with Ms. JD, a nonprofit in the US, to offer a 12-week business training and client-engagement programme called Pathway to Success to our high-achieving women associates. The programme was piloted in the US and has since expanded to our offices in Europe. We also have initiated a similar programme for our junior women partners across our global platform. Other notable programmes include our recently launched regionwide diversity mentorship programmes that are structured to be tailored to the interests of each mentoring pairs, a region-wide diversity retreat in the US, and robust diverse pipeline programmes aimed at diverse first-year law school students.

One of K&L Gates’ diversity and inclusion goals is to build a stronger diverse community at the firm. By way of example, we have local diversity and WIP committees across our offices, including a diversity and inclusion committee in London who meet every month to plan events, and share and communicate
ideas and office initiatives. Everyone in the committee, from junior employees to partners, has a voice at the table. The London diversity and inclusion committee is composed of champions who spearhead various diversity groups for the office including women, wellness, LGBTQ+, and multicultural society groups. Our multicultural society group organises and participates in several initiatives focused on educating and celebrating our culturally diverse workforce. Some of our notable efforts include recognising and honoring cultural days, conducting a reverse mentoring initiative to help educate non Multicultural Society colleagues on the issues experienced by Multicultural Society colleagues, collaborating with RARE to implement a tracking system for social mobility and collect contextualised data for consideration as part of the recruitment process and benchmarking with Pirical for an independent assessment of the London office’s performance on recruitment, retention and promotion. We also enjoy firmwide platforms to advance our LGBTQ+ and disability efforts through our LGBTQ+ subcommittee and employee resource group as well as our disability inclusion taskforce.

Lastly, we work together with industry leaders to ensure we are current in our best practices and policies. For the 12th consecutive year, the Human Rights Campaign awarded K&L Gates a 100% score in the organisation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), and named the firm a ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.’ Our firm has also been awarded a US Gold Standard Certification by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) for a tenth time, recognising the high levels of success by the firm’s women as partners and leaders. In our inaugural year of participation, we are among one of only seven law firms to achieve the ‘Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion’ distinction in the 2023 Disability Equality Index by DisabilityIN. Our firm received Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certification Plus status in Diversity Lab’s latest iteration of its innovative diversity programme, recognising leading law firms that ‘have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion’. We have also frequently been named a ‘Top Performer’ and received the ‘Compass Award’ by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). The designations recognise active LCLD member corporations and law firms who have dedicated the most time and energy to participating in LCLD programmes and supported its mission of creating a more inclusive legal profession. Furthermore, K&L Gates, along with longtime firm client Amazon, also recently received a 2020 Corporate Pro Bono Partner Award from the Pro Bono Institute’s (PBI) Corporate Pro Bono project for their joint contributions in support of Mary’s Place, an organisation providing shelter and services to women, children and families in their journey out of homelessness.