Culture at Herbert Smith Freehills

My experience of the firm culture has been one that is collegiate, friendly and welcoming. Team coffees are a regular occurrence and informal discussions are frequently had between colleagues of all levels.

Collegiate, supportive, open. I get to work directly with the Partners, Senior Associates and solicitors. There are many firm-wide social events and team events outside of work to go to!

Great collaboration across the individual teams in corporate. The socialising amongst colleagues is better than any previous job I have had.

Overall, the culture is friendly and overwhelmingly supportive. There is an expectation that each person strives to perform (in the sense that each will produce high quality work and are committed to work), which can at times be a lot of pressure but everyone is highly invested in your success and many will go above and beyond to support another member of the team or a member of another team. I would say the culture is quite horizontal, in the sense that questions are welcome at work and everyone is friendly outside of hours. Hierarchy still exists in that lawyers would be expected to make different levels of decisions and tasks based on years of experience and seniority.

Inclusive and diverse - a place where everyone is encouraged and supported to be themselves. Socialising is welcomed and colleagues enjoy a balance of work social activities and time for their own social lives too.

The whole office is incredibly inclusive and I have never felt 'left out'. Partners are incredibly approachable and always willing to help. We have numerous social events which makes it easy to maintain connections with colleagues.

The firm's culture is top notch across the board, everyone from senior lawyers and partners to support staff are so willing to help each other and generously give their time. When teams are busy within the firm there is a real expectation that everyone will pitch in equally and support each other regardless of level and that tasks are appropriately delegated to ensure (as best as can be accommodated) that one person is not tackling the brunt of the work. This level of cooperation and teamwork is facilitated through the regular team meetings that all teams have where lawyers and support staff give an update on their capacity and their ability to lend a hand. This collegiate approach to workflow helps to ensure that everyone feels supported with their workload and comfortable to outsource work if needed. Further, being an international firm there is a real concerted effort I have felt to resource out to other offices where the matters require, which has been a really effective means of resource management in those larger matters I have assisted on.

The culture in my team specifically is fantastic. My colleagues are incredibly supportive, kind and generous with their time. Just today, my supervising partner surprised me with a bunch of flowers to congratulate me on my admission. We have fortnightly team breakfast meetings, monthly team morning teas, and most friday nights we finish the day with a drink in the office. There is also quite a bit of flexibility allowed - I can be quite autonomous. If I need to duck out during the day to go to an appointment, or to run an errand, that is completely fine. As long as I get my work done, the team trusts that I'm on track.

In the office, it is extremely collegial. Coffees at our subsidised cafe, firm-wide trivia night, and free firm-lunch every week means we get a chance to run into so many people from different teams and meet them.

10 out 10. We are fortunate to have a cafe in the office. Graduates and colleagues often meet at lunchtime, despite being in different teams. We have monthly office drinks, multiple 'clubs' (ranging from running club to wine club). Each practice group also run their own social events. I would describe the culture as professional, yet fun.

Everyone is very social, incredibly friendly, no matter who is at an event, I know I can chat to them in a casual way.

Strong culture in the corporate team where people are committed to quality of work but are also very social. Company has great events.

Overall, a nice and fairly young group of people. There is a relaxed vibe in the office, but also a respect and commitment to hard work.

There is a very collaborative culture - with an emphasis on personal as well as professional bonding. There are informal and formal cultural initiatives, and various different opportunities to connect through work or as a standalone exercise separate from your day-to-day job. It is a high-performance law firm, and with that will be some long hours. There is no denying that this is true, but they're confined to when they are strictly necessary and i have never worked long hours without a team also working alongside of me.

Very friendly, good social culture without too much pressure - people very much have lives outside work.

Great company culture - once a week a group of us will do an early morning run and coffee. Celebrate post-trial. Celebrate someone's birthday or engagement with morning tea including work anniversary's.

Very good. There is a general acceptance of work/life balance and everyone is very helpful. We have a group chat to ask any random questions and someone usually knows the answer. The structure is very flat between grads, solicitors, and senior associates, and everyone is very co-operative.

The culture at HSF is excellent. The hours can be long, but they are not ridiculous. The team is generally very friendly, and there are frequent office drinks. The juniors and mid-level solicitors share knowledge readily. The partners generally are very approachable and willing to provide guidance. Often I will work directly with a partner, though more frequently there is also a senior associate involved in the matter. The structure is not siloed. There are many partners in the EIRS team nationally and we are encouraged to try and work with all of them at some point. At any given time I will have matters across 3 or 4 partners. There is not a great deal of socialising after work or outside work. However, there are frequent office drinks.

Collegiate and professional. Everyone is lovely and the culture is diverse in many respects. Partners are approachable and Senior Associates are accessible.

Down to earth but everyone still wants to produce good work. Specific culture is more team dependent.