UK Careers

Fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment is one of our most important missions. Through the work of our London Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee we are working to build cultural awareness and cultural competence by enhancing programming that focuses on understanding bias, discrimination and racism, and on building allyship. We have several local employee networks, including a Diversity, Equity & Inclusion group, a Women’s Forum for lawyers, a Women’s Network for business support professionals and a Parent’s network.

We’ve partnered with diversity recruitment experts Rare and use their Contextual Recruitment System in our trainee recruitment process. The system enables us to further understand the context in which applicants’ experiences have been gained, and to identify outperformers that others may miss.

We also partner with Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London, who introduce us to talented students from diverse backgrounds who have the potential to thrive as trainees at our firm.

We have a high level of female representation across all levels and practice groups, with women making up 42% of partners and 51% of associates.

For all at Ropes & Gray, pro bono and community work is an integral part of life at the firm. You can be involved from the moment you join, helping a broad range of clients, sometimes as part of an international team and sometimes helping a small community-based organisation. You will use your professional training and wider skills to make a difference in our communities. In 2019 alone, the London office completed more than 4,000 hours of pro bono service. Some of our partnerships and community initiatives include:

• Investigating a potential miscarriage of justice/wrongful conviction with The Centre for Criminal Appeals.
• Partnering with Kids in Need of Defense UK to help undocumented minors obtain leave to remain in the United Kingdom.




• Advising The Nature Conservancy and The Caribbean Biodiversity with corporate governance and financing of their environmental programming.
• Working on rule of law programming in Sub-Saharan Africa with Lawyers Without Borders. Trainees have the opportunity to participate in developing the programmes and their delivery in country.




• Staffing a family law clinic for victims of domestic violence and assisting a number of small charities with general corporate, real estate and tax advice through the TrustLaw clearinghouse.
• Organising money-raising events throughout the year in support of many different charities: The Royal British Legion, Breast Cancer Awareness, Prostate Cancer, Smart Works and Streetwise to name a few. We also have teams who participate in events such as Tour de Law and The London Legal walk. 
• We partner with The West London Mission, supporting their work to empower people affected by homelessness, poverty and trauma to live more fulfilling lives. This relationship is ongoing and has been part of the Ropes & Gray family for the past three years.