The Legal Cheek View
Location, location, location, is the name of the game for global super giant Greenberg Traurig. In opening a new office almost every year since its creation in 1965, Greenberg has stamped its name in 13 countries across the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. The firm now boasts over 2,750 lawyers across 47 different offices, with the newest additions in Riyadh, Singapore and San Diego.
From their towering position in the Shard, the London office’s relatively smaller contingent of around 140 lawyers have concentrated their efforts on the titan’s varied practice areas. These include arbitration, banking & finance, capital markets, civil fraud & business disputes, corporate/M&A, data protection & privacy, employment, competition law and regulatory, funds, IP, litigation, private equity, real estate, regulatory, restructuring & insolvency, tax, and white collar crime & investigations (phew!). In order to handle all of this work with such a streamlined roster, the London office has been on the hunt, poaching 15 top targets from City competitors such as Weil Gotshal & Manges, Baker Botts, and Morrison Foerster in the past year alone.
With top lawyers comes top clients, so it should come as no surprise that Greenberg’s clientele is a checklist of big names in the music, banking, tech, business and entertainment industries.
With such an impressive CV it’s hardly surprising that the firm is able to boast a decade’s worth of successive growth with a 6% increase taking global revenues to $2.3 billion (£1.8 billion). Profit per equity partner (PEP) also rose 4% to $2.4 million (£1.8 million) in what the firm says has been a “phenomenal” year, in spite of difficulties caused by “interest rates” and “other geopolitical problems”.
On offer for prospective recruits are around eight training contracts annually, providing the select few with two years of “good training from talented supervisors”. In typical US fashion, trainees are expected to do a lot of “learning on the job”, but we’re told that the firm is making a conscious effort to increase team-wide training. What’s more, the sessions that are on offer are said to be top-draw: “The team is excellent at explaining the background to tasks and providing detailed feedback on almost every task. The more structured training has substantive and useful content, even if these sessions are often delayed due to how busy the teams are”, one Legal Cheek insider revealed.
There are no international secondments on the cards, but several juniors report a particularly productive stint at a renowned multinational hospitality company.
As part of every trainee’s right of passage, you can be expected to pick up the odd “less stimulating” administrative task, but the majority of the work carries “real responsibility”. As one source reports, “The work and clients are high profile and teams are small in size so if you make yourself available you can quickly find yourself in the thick of a transaction, negotiating documentation and handling communications with clients and opposing counsel. Supervisors can be playful and encourage trainees to take on more responsibilities, but are ready to jump in and give direct feedback. Mistakes are fine but it is important that you can always demonstrate you are trying to produce work to the highest standard and pay attention to all of the details.”
In no time, trainees could find themselves advising on a deal between the Crown Estate and Oxford Science on a landmark life sciences lab, or helping tie down a contract with Teeswork for an offshore wind farm at the UK’s largest freeport — these are just some of the less starlit but equally fascinating deals which the London team have been engaged on as of late.
If all of this stardom and graft is at all intimidating, fear not, we’re assured that those at Greenberg Traurig are actually a pretty nice bunch. All insiders scored their peers well and were quick to praise their “highly supportive cohort!” There are quarterly team socials, regular trainee meet-ups and the occasional firmwide event thrown in for good measure, all of which contribute to the “pretty good” social life at GT. Superiors were also said to be “in the main, highly approachable and happy to provide assistance”, even if some partners at the firm were “understandably less so” in light of their busy workloads.
Situated on the eighth floor of one of the City’s most iconic buildings — the Shard — Greenberg’s open-plan office has undergone a recent renovation. Although not all are as dazzled by the slightly “underwhelming” interior which is also said to be a little “small”, there’s no qualms with the “amazing location” — “It’s The Shard – need I say more?” asks one smug trainee.
Indeed, it seems to be this environment that is keeping the rookies happy in spite of what can be very long office hours: “In the busier seats and during certain time periods, it can be really difficult to make time for exercising, socialising or even basic household admin” reveals one LC insider, “but some seats have a really good balance that is very sustainable”. Another junior was happy to report that “when I am required to work late I am never doing it on my own, the entire team is collaborative and working together”.
If that wasn’t enough, a space in London Tower Bridge also comes with its own perks as GT employees receive discounts at exclusive designer sales and various restaurants. Alongside this, the firm also offers private health insurance and free Deliveroo and taxis after a certain time.
When working from home, which trainees are able to do one day a week, GT’s facilities team are praised for being “great at getting us whatever we need, whether it be a desk, monitors or an office chair”. It seems even when rookies leave the Shard, the luxury experience continues.
Other points of note include the firm’s carbon neutral status and its use of 100% renewable energy for its 35 US offices. This social good is in addition to a strong pro bono practice, assisting non-profit organisations, families and children, immigrants, refugees, the LGBTQ+ community, veterans, and taking on a variety of human rights cases and issues as well as criminal work.