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? ‘K&L Gates seemed to provide an environment that would challenge me, improve my skillset, offer a broad range of work opportunities, whilst supporting my progression’, ‘international work; small trainee intake’, ‘I wanted to join a full-service international law firm with a strong reputation in the market’, ‘small training contract cohort; contact time with partners’

Best thing about the firm? ‘The culture’, ‘quality of work whilst maintaining a healthier work-life balance’, ‘there is a genuinely supportive and collaborative culture’, ‘close knit supportive atmosphere that are useful to assist in the learning process’

Worst thing about the firm? ‘Departments feel siloed from each other at associate level, meaning there is not a great firm-wide social scene or culture (should be said that improvements have been made in the last 6 months)’, ‘due to the office being relatively small with, therefore, fewer ongoing matters than in larger offices, the variety of work that you are given in a seat can fluctuate heavily depending on the status of the matters’

Best moment? ‘Being given the responsibility to instruct an expert. I felt that this was a sign of trust in my abilities that I was given this responsibility so early in my career’, ‘leading a call with a large international client’, ‘working directly for office-wide heads of department’

Worst moment? ‘At the beginning of seats it can be uncomfortable getting to grips with a new practice area, but it just takes time to readjust and learn’, ‘moving seats and starting again from square one is always challenging’, ‘unclear directions and feeling very lost with task’

The Legal 500 Future Lawyers verdict on K&L Gates

K&L Gates offers “a genuinely supportive and collaborative culture” in a setting where trainees are “challenged, supported and exposed to a broad range of work”. The global firm’s small London intake means “more contact time with partners” and “a good level of responsibility” from day one. Recruits appreciated the firm’s “focus on work-life balance, unusual for a US firm”, with one trainee drawn to the combination of “international work and a small trainee intake”. The quality of training is high. Supervisors are “approachable” and highly skilled, so “most of your queries will be answered by an industry expert”. One respondent explained: “I have far more contact with the senior members of the firm than trainees at other firms seem to have”. Others praised the autonomy to “shape our contract” and the encouragement to “get involved in as much as we can”. The culture is a clear highlight: “close-knit”, “supportive” and conducive to learning. Trainees recalled standout moments like “leading a call with a large international client”, “working directly for office-wide heads of department” and “being given the responsibility to instruct an expert”. There are a few drawbacks. Some noted that departments “feel siloed”, limiting the firm-wide social scene, and that “the variety of work in a seat can fluctuate” due to the smaller office size. The process of seat rotation and retention could also be clearer. Still, the hybrid-working policy is flexible and fair, and pro bono is taken seriously — “highly encouraged” and “easy to get involved with”. If you’re looking for high-level international work in a friendly, compact team where you’ll be trusted and supported, K&L Gates is worth strong consideration.

About the firm

Introductory paragraph about 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 in a trainee: 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

Be sincere and give accurate information, be prepared to justify all of your answers at interview stage.

Stay in touch with people you meet at events, networking is a key skill for a lawyer.

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.