CMS

The Legal 500 Future Lawyers verdict on CMS

Trainees flocked to CMS for ‘the client roster, the international and client secondment opportunities, the legal tech and innovation, but above all the people’! The sprawling firm offers training contracts in London, Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield, Liverpool, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and is known for ‘big international work but without the stuffiness of American and magic circle firms’. CMS is a Future Lawyers Winner for overseas secondments and legal technology. Training at the firm is ‘extremely comprehensive’ and ‘seen as a priority’, which helps trainees feel confident. The size of CMS is both seen as an advantage: ‘I thought it could offer me access to the best training and the biggest clients’, and a drawback: ‘you can feel a bit anonymous at times’. Other things that frustrate trainees are ‘the divide between workload, hours and culture in different seats when we all get paid the same’, and ‘the process for choosing and being allocated seat which has been ‘difficult and, at times, disheartening’. But one thing is for sure: ‘the breadth of practice areas’ is largely unrivalled, and ‘everyone genuinely seems happy to be here’. This includes the CMS trainee cohort, a ‘super close and super supportive’ bunch who ‘have each other’s backs’. This camaraderie ‘really helps on hard days’, such as when ‘working late to go through boxes to try to find some correspondence’, and ‘learning to cope with stress and tight deadlines’. Most days are much more gratifying though, with trainees feeling proud of ‘obtaining a High Court judgement for an injunction against Just Stop Oil protestors at a nuclear energy plant’ and going on a fulfilling secondment to Hong Kong. For a ‘future-facing firm’ with ‘excellent secondment opportunities, strong sector expertise and down-to-earth people’, consider CMS.

Life as a trainee… Grace Owen-Ellis, trainee, CMS

Departments to date: Real estate disputes (RED); Planning

University: University of Exeter University of Law

Degree: History and Spanish (dual honours) 1st class; GDL with Distinction; LPC with Distinction

I get in around 9.30 in the morning, say hi to my team, and head straight to Cannons to pick up my free barista coffee before 10.30, and a £1.50 breakfast from the yogurt bar (or a five-item full English if needed!).

I usually have a few meetings a day, either within the team to catch up on where we’re at on a certain matter, or with another team at CMS to check in. I also regularly attend client calls to update them on how a matter is progressing, explaining next steps, and outlining any further information we need from them. Trainees are an instrumental part of matter management in the teams I have been in so far, and it is often our responsibility to produce trackers and roadmaps of how we plan to achieve a client’s goal, and to maintain regular contact with the client, the other side, and all other stakeholders to keep things moving. As CMS is highly ranked in both teams I have been in, I have worked with some really interesting clients, and frequently see the matters I am working on pop up in the news.

For lunch, the other trainees and I head down to Cannons to get a £3.50 hot or cold lunch, and I usually get the incredible salad bar, or whatever the pop up of the day is – recently we have had tacos, Greek-style street wraps, and mac and cheese. If the weather is nice, we will get this to take away and go sit by the Thames for some sunshine, which is less than 5 minutes way.

In between meetings, I will usually get stuck into meaty research tasks for unusual or cutting-edge areas of law, which I find really interesting. It can sometimes feel a bit like searching for a needle in a haystack but all my supervisors have always been brilliant at pointing me in the right direction, suggesting useful resources and starting points, and letting me know early on if they think a certain line of research may just be a rabbit hole. We also have a great Knowledge team who can set up instant email alerts for updates on cases, parliamentary proceedings and news, and are brilliant at digging up tricky to find archived cases, leases or planning permissions. I also do a lot of first drafts of legal documents. In real estate disputes these involved tenancies at will, settlement agreements and letters before action, and in planning they have involved s106 agreements and due diligence reports.

I also get involved with lots of the CSR and pro bono projects, and will find time in my day to assist with organising initiatives such as CMS Pride, volunteering at St Luke’s community centre, or helping with the scholarships scheme. My supervisors have always been really supportive of my involvement with non-billable projects, and are happy to approve my requests to be out of office for a day/afternoon to volunteer.

I usually finish work at about 6.30, giving me plenty of time to exercise or socialise after work, although I am aware that some of my friends in others teams usually finish later. If I do end up having to work later, I will usually leave the office at 7ish and continue working from home. Everyone in the teams I’ve been in has been really encouraging of this, and completely understand whenever you need to work from home/head home early.

In the evenings, playing for a CMS sports team is a great way to meet amazing people from different teams at all level, and I play tag rugby on Mondays and netball on Tuesdays. In June I went on two CMS-funded sports tours, to Dublin with tag rugby and La Manga with netball, which were both incredible fun. I look forward to getting involved in the famous CMS football world cup next time round.

Overall, CMS has a brilliant culture and I have really enjoyed undertaking a range of interesting and challenging work overseen by really supportive supervisors, and have enjoyed being able to indulge in lots of ‘extra-curricular’ activities such as sports and volunteering as well.

About the firm

The firm: CMS is a future facing firm. Whether stakeholders are big or small, they always have the firm’s full attention and expertise.

The pace at which the world is changing is staggering and a slowdown is nowhere in sight. Technology is expanding the boundaries of what is possible, opening up new markets, sectors and opportunities. To make the most of these, CMS provides sound business strategies to clients, supporting development and implementation.

The deals: Please see our website.

Senior partner: Charles Currier

Managing partner: Stephen Millar

Other offices: 80+

Who we are: CMS is a full-service law firm combining top-quality sector expertise with international scale. CMS puts the interests of clients at the heart of everything they do across 80 offices in over 40 countries in the UK, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America. With more than 1,250 partners and 5,800+ lawyers, CMS works in cross-border teams to deliver top-quality, practical advice.

What we do: The firm is recognised for its sector excellence and focus in consumer products; energy; financial institutions; hotels and leisure; infrastructure and projects; life sciences and healthcare; real estate; and technology, media and telecommunications.

What we’re looking for: We’re looking for well-rounded individuals who can demonstrate the following qualities: personal effectiveness; professional communication; drive for achievement; leading self and others; future facing approach; relationship-building skills; and commercial awareness.

What you’ll do: Typically, you will complete four six-month-long seats across a two-year period, working across different practice groups. We also provide alternative qualification routes, such as part-time training contracts, which are offered on a case-by-case basis.

Meeting clients and working alongside lawyers at all levels will soon become second nature to you.

Courses, lectures and workshops will sharpen your technical expertise. On-the-job training and technical workshops will broaden your skillset.

Perks: Benefits include corporate and subsidised gym membership, flexible holiday allowance, private medical/dental care, cycle to work scheme, employee referral scheme.

Sponsorship

The PGDL and SQE grant are £15,000 in London and £13,000 each outside of London.

The Diploma in Professional Legal Practice (Scotland) is £13,000.

Seat options

We offer a variety of seats within the following practice areas: corporate; EPC; finance; innovation; LAIE; real estate; TMIC. In addition, we offer client and international secondments.

Tips from the recruiter

1. Research the firm thoroughly and make sure your application includes tailored reasons for why you want to work for CMS.
2. Attention to detail is important – make sure you spell check your application before submitting it.
3. Get creative – think about what your different experiences can bring to the role, whether working in a shop or corporate environment.

Diversity and inclusion