Trainee Solicitor, Global Commercial Disputes at Reed Smith

The following is a Graduate Review for Reed Smith.

Reed Smith scores 3.8/5 based on 144 reviews.

All reviews are based exclusively on results of feedback from employees from Reed Smith. Employees are asked to rate Reed Smith on a wide range of work place topics, which is broken down through star ratings on the right hand side.

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What are the Best and Worst things about your job?

Best

Quality work that encourages you to develop at a fast pace. Opportunity to try different diverse areas of law. International opportunity. World-class training from some of the greatest commercial lawyers in their area. Location & salary.

Worst

Being a trainee means little responsibility at the outset and less exposure to "big-thinking" i.e. strategy and client-facing etiquette. You start off doing more administrative work, even though you may be capable of more. Poor HR support for trainees (very unresponsive), and this is very disadvantageous because they are in charge of your seat rotations - it can often feel like your career aspirations are ignored.

What is the annual salary for this role?

Starting salary: £41,000 - £43,000

Current salary: £45,000 - £47,000

What hours do you actually work, on average?

Start: 09:30

Finish: 19:00

What advice would you give to someone applying to this role?

Steer away from generic application answers - try to give answers that let your character and personality shine through. Don't write what you think they want to hear. Reed Smith is full of down-to-earth people, who want to find people that they would want to work with daily. They won't be able to find out who you are if you give them some generic spiel about having a passion for law.

Do you have any interview tips?

Reed Smith has a unique interview process that will encourage you to answer in a way that shows your strengths and interests. I would encourage you to think outside of the box and make sure your answers show a broad sense of who you are i.e. rather than solely focusing on law experience, talk about sports interests, hobbies, waitress/bar work. In my opinion, they want to see transferable skills rather than an in-depth knowledge of case law!