At Ropes & Gray, our lawyers and professionals work at the intersection of innovative business developments and complex legal challenges. Explore the careers and opportunities available.
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Find your place at Ropes & Gray
As London’s preeminent private capital law firm, we act for sophisticated private capital investors and providers, covering all their needs, as well as advising some of the world’s biggest public companies on their most challenging issues. We value individualism, we work well as a team and, above all, we combine professionalism with personality—our clients enjoy working with us and value the emotional intelligence we bring to our work.”
Rohan Massey, London Office Managing Partner
Why Choose Us
Set up in 2010, Ropes & Gray London is one of the largest offices in the Ropes & Gray network, and the hub of the firm’s EMEA network. While we are now an established presence in the UK, we’ve retained all the buzz of our start-up years. It makes us a little bit different: it means we have the stature and resources of a major international law firm combined with the pace, inclusivity and career progression of a specialist firm. Our clients like to work with us. We are, of course, always professional, but we are personal, and personable with it.
We are one of London’s leading international law firms for private capital clients. We also advise some of the world’s largest companies on their most challenging issues. We act for sophisticated private capital investors and providers giving them all the legal services they need: from fundraising to transactional deal-making and financing, and from antitrust to compliance, data protection, life sciences, restructuring, real estate, financial regulation and tax. We act for leading European, US and Asian clients, and our London office regularly advises clients on global deals as well as transactions across the EMEA market, often working alongside colleagues from other parts of the Ropes & Gray network.
We have our private capital focus, but we don’t restrict ourselves. Our individual practice areas are also successful in their own right, often outside of the private capital market. In fact, they act for some of the most well-known companies in the world, particularly in the life sciences and healthcare, technology and financial services sectors.
For example, our Litigation & Enforcement team, which specialises in financial crime, global regulation, and risk has been involved in some of the most high-profile and complex cross-border regulatory investigations of recent years.
Meanwhile, our Privacy, Data Protection and Cybersecurity team has helped clients deal with the legal aspects of some of the biggest recent data breaches and cyber incidents, and our Antitrust team regularly advises on complex cases in every major European forum.
We provide sophisticated clients with personalised and innovative legal solutions. Our clients value our entrepreneurial spirit, our innovative approach, and our emotional intelligence. They like the fact that our solutions are tailored exactly to their problems and may not be the answers they had initially expected. There is no such thing as a typical Ropes & Gray person. But we all have some things in common: we value individualism, we work well as a team, and we are great to work with.
As a group, we’re international, diverse and professional. With around 30 partners, 150 fee earners and an annual trainee intake of 12, everybody in the office knows everyone else. That means that every hire we make is an important investment for the firm, because each team member has a distinct role to play in delivering excellent service to our clients.
Find a Position
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60 Ludgate Hill
London EC4M 7AW
T +44 20 3201 1500
London EC4M 7AW
T +44 20 3201 1500
Ropes & Gray in Europe
The London office is the hub of our European operation. Our lawyers come from more than 15 different countries and have more than 29 languages between them. We work across borders seamlessly, have the experience and skills to advise clients anywhere in the world, and regularly advise our clients on cross-border European matters. We know the markets and understand the political, cultural and economic environments our clients operate in to best get the deal done. So, while we are based in London, we’re equally at home in legal markets across Europe and Asia.
We also have a network of relationship law firms across the EMEA region, allowing us to draw on the expertise of local counsel when working on cross-border deals. Our preferred law firm strategy means that we work only with firms that can provide our client base the highest level of commitment, service and quality, with experience and expertise in our clients’ areas of business. We have invested significant resources in building, monitoring and maintaining the quality of our European preferred law firm network.
London Awards & Rankings
UK A-LIST
LAW.COM
LAW.COM
HIGHLY COMMENDED
PRIVATE EQUITY TEAM OF THE YEAR LEGAL BUSINESS
PRIVATE EQUITY TEAM OF THE YEAR LEGAL BUSINESS
Highest % of female equity partners
Law.com
Law.com
BEST LAW FIRM FOR PERKS
LEGAL CHEEK
LEGAL CHEEK
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment is one of our most important missions. Through the work of our global and local diversity committees and sponsors, we are working to continue 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 Womens’ Forums for lawyers and business support professionals, a Black Affinity network, an LGBTQ+ network and a Parent’s Network.
We partner with selected organisations, such as diversity recruitment expert Rare: we use their Contextual Recruitment System in our trainee recruitment process to further understand the context in which applicants’ experiences have been gained, and to identify outperformers that others may miss; Sponsors for Educational Opportunity (SEO) London, which introduces us to talented students from diverse backgrounds who have the potential to thrive as trainees at our firm; we are a Corporate Sponsor of the Black Solicitors Network (BSN).
We have a high level of female representation across all levels and practice groups, with women making up 40% of partners and 51% of associates.
Our London office has strong female leadership, which is a testament to the value the firm places on recognizing talent and promoting a diverse and inclusive work environment.”
Libby Todd, London Office Women's Forum Co-Leader
Social Responsibility
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. From 2019–2021, the London office completed more than 16,000 hours of pro bono service. Some of our partnerships and community initiatives include:
- Investigating a potential miscarriage of justice/wrongful conviction with APPEAL.
- Partnering with Kids in Need of Defense UK (KIND UK) to help undocumented minors obtain citizenship or leave to remain in the United Kingdom and working with United Legal Access assisting claimants under the Windrush Compensation Scheme.
- 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.
- Supervising postgraduate law students from Queen Mary University advising entrepreneurs at the qLegal clinic, and collaborating with the Imperial College tech hub to provide assistance to sustainable start-ups.
- Providing volunteer support at the University House Family Law Clinic.
- Supporting charity partners The Felix Project and Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation by way of financial contributions, fundraising, in-person volunteering, business and administrative support and pro bono work.
- Taking part in charity fundraising events throughout the year, such as the London Legal Walk for London Legal Support Trust, World’s Biggest Coffee Morning for Macmillian Cancer Support and the Tour de Law for Breast Cancer Awareness Now, among others.
- Working toward a cleaner, greener office by undertaking initiatives to save energy, reduce waste and lessen our environmental impact, as well as providing education to staff in relation to green steps to be taken at home.
We are proud to offer a programme in which all our London lawyers and business support professionals can play a role, making a valuable contribution to local needs and global challenges.”
Felicity Kirk, International Pro Bono Lead
Sustainability
With 14 offices in cities around the globe, we are mindful of our environmental footprint. As the firm continues to grow, we look for ways to apply sustainable practices and promote green initiatives.
- We recycle all paper, aluminum, plastic and glass where available—and several offices participate in composting.
- Sophisticated HVAC controls, motion sensor light switches and efficient lighting keep energy usage down, while specially designed faucets minimise water consumption.
- We purchase Energy Star-rated computers and office equipment, and printers are configured to print double-sided by default.
- Ten of our 14 offices are in areas that are easily served by public transportation.
- 83 percent of our real estate portfolio is powered by 100 percent renewable electricity.