Survey Results - Trainee feedback on Mayer Brown

The lowdown - Trainees (in their own words) on Mayer Brown

Why did you choose this firm over any others? ‘Good finance teams’, ‘the culture and the opportunity to work at a leading firm’, ‘friendly and approachable people, variety of work and inclusive culture’, ‘it met all my criteria’, ‘international opportunities and quality of training’, ‘high quality of training and smaller trainee intake’, ‘great training, great finance team’, ‘the training is top tier’, ‘the training is definitely among the best, both in terms of training sessions and quality of work’

Best thing about the firm? ‘Partner approachability, opportunities for client contact inside and outside the office, high levels of responsibility’, ‘quality of work’, ‘the general friendly culture’, ‘the people’, ‘work/life balance is excellent’, ‘genuinely friendly and approachable atmosphere. While there is obviously still a hierarchy, you very rarely, if ever, need to feel concerned about approaching senior people’, ‘the training’

Worst thing about the firm? ‘The IT’, ‘social life’, ‘there aren’t many perks’, ‘there are certain departments (mostly transactional) that have a prevalent facetime culture that pressures fee earners to not take advantage of work-from-home policies’, ‘we don’t get any IT allowance for remote working’, ‘the technology/remuneration’, ‘not many unique/niche seat options’, ‘no work-from-home tech budget’

Best moment? ‘Being trusted to lead on the running of deals, and having clients contact you directly as a result of building relationships with them’, ‘being trusted to attend a hearing alone’, ‘attending a deal signing where we really felt like all our late nights and efforts came to fruition’, ‘being given the autonomy to run deals on a day-to-day basis in the absence of the associate’, ‘drafting a letter and having the partner make no edits’

Worst moment? ‘IT issues’, ‘working on a matter that clashed with my own views/beliefs’, ‘bundling, ‘a really chaotic signing process where the client kept changing their demands at the last minute and making it seem as if I had made errors or didn’t understand their request’, ‘having to work whilst on holiday in Greece’

The Legal 500 Future Lawyers verdict on Mayer Brown

Mayer Brown offers ‘top-tier training, a broad range of seats and a great culture’. A small trainee cohort ensures ‘good exposure to work which requires a lot of responsibility’, and ‘an abundance of client contact and autonomy early on’. More encouraging still is that ‘there are plenty of females in positions of authority’ and that the international firm is ‘extremely disability friendly’. The training at Mayer Brown is ‘more comprehensive and more structured’ than at some firms of a similar standing. Respondents have ‘much nicer supervisors’, and although they ‘receive less pay on qualification, we work fewer hours, so it’s a fair trade-off’. The culture is ‘not hierarchical’, and the atmosphere is ‘genuinely friendly and approachable’ with supervisors offering plenty of ‘personal and pastoral support’. One drawback is that there is ‘no work-from-home tech budget’ at Mayer Brown, which irks trainees, especially given that they can work remotely two days a week. In fact, the IT in general leaves much to be desired. As one respondent said: ‘before coming here, I always heard complaints about the IT and wondered how bad it could be. But it can really affect your work/efficiency’. ‘Losing an attendance note that had taken me two hours because of an IT failure’ is an example of why recruits would like to see an improvement in this area. On a more positive note, ‘working on market-leading transactions’ and ‘getting a public shout out on the firm’s weekly round-up email for the work I did on a deal’ filled trainees with pride. Pro bono is another string to Mayer Brown’s bow and is ‘always available for anyone wishing to loan their time out’. To work with ‘incredibly friendly people’ at a ‘leading firm’ where trainees are given ‘real work from day one’, read up on Mayer Brown.

About the firm

The firm: Mayer Brown is the one of the only integrated law firms in the world with approximately 200 lawyers in each of the world’s three largest financial centres – New York, London and Hong Kong – the backbone of the global economy. Its ‘one firm’ culture ensures that clients receive the best of its collective knowledge and experience.

The clients: HSBC, Barclay’s, UBS, Unilever, Nestle, Google, J P Morgan, Goldman Sachs, American Express, Mitsubishi, LG, Deutsche Bank, Societe Generale, Wells Fargo.

The deals: Advised Marcura on the acquisition of the world’s leading maritime procurement platform ShipServ Ltd.; provided record-breaking support to Legal Aid DC’s 2023 Making Justice Real campaign, supporting the organisation to raise $3.49m; advised on a landmark US$67m investment for Cornish Lithium plc; advised on Hasbro’s sale of eOne film and TV business to Lionsgate; advised TC Energy Corporation on its agreement to monetise a 40% interest in its Columbia Gas Transmission, LLC and Columbia Gulf Transmission, LLC systems; assisted Intermarché in the challenge of the antitrust inspections carried out by the European Commission at its premises in 2017; represented Igneo Infrastructure Partners in its acquisition of US Signal; represented General Motors in investment with Lithium Americas; advised Chinachem Group on the purchase of One New Street Square, London, from Landsec; obtained a landmark settlement for the players on the US Women’s National Soccer Team (USWNT) in their equal-pay lawsuit against the US Soccer Federation (USSF), the parties agreeing to settle for $24m in backpay damages and a guarantee of equal pay going forward for all games, including for the World Cup.

Senior partner: Dominic Griffiths

Managing partner: Jeremy Clay

Other offices: Bangkok, Beijing, Brasilia (T&C), Brussels, Charlotte, Chicago, Dubai, Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, New York, Palo Alto, Paris, Rio de Janeiro (T&C), Salt Lake City, San Francisco, São Paulo (T&C), Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, Vitória (T&C), and Washington DC.

Who we are: We’re a global law firm, whose signature strength is high-stakes litigation and complex cross-border work in financial services.

What we do: Our lawyers have expertise across a wide range of areas including corporate, finance, real estate, litigation, white-collar crime, investigations, employment, pensions, tax, restructuring and insolvency, financial services regulatory, and intellectual property.

What we’re looking for: We’re looking for people with the potential to be brilliant lawyers; candidates who not only have a consistently strong academic record including a minimum of a 2(1) (or equivalent) degree (predicted or obtained) in any discipline, but also who have a wide range of interests and achievements outside their academic career. Additionally, we would like to see innovative candidates with a drive for results, good verbal and written communication skills, resilience, and an ability to analyse, with good judgement and excellent interpersonal skills.

What you’ll do: You will be able to tailor your training contract across a broad range of seats, including our main practice areas in London, and international secondments. If you don’t want to stray too far, you have the option to gain valuable in-house experience by going on secondment to one of the firm’s major clients.

Perks: Pension, private medical insurance, dental insurance, life assurance, employee assistance programme, onsite GP and physiotherapist, onsite subsidised canteen, free eye test, membership of Mayer Brown Advantage, membership of My Family Care, season ticket loan.

Sponsorship: The firm will cover the cost of the PGDL and SQE and provide a maintenance grant of £17,000 while studying the LLM SQE 1 & 2. The firm asks all students to complete their qualifications at BPP Law School in
London.