When you join us, we’ll give you all the opportunities you need to grow your career. As well as getting exposure to a huge breadth of work, we’ll enable you to reach your goals with flexible training and development plans. Individually designed, these plans will allow you to gain experience in all areas and help you discover what's best for you and your career.

Career opportunities

Our Business Services departments enable our lawyers to do what they do best: provide authoritative and original advice to our clients. From business development to knowledge and learning, each division provides their expertise and contributes to the wider success of the firm.

Business development

Our business development team works alongside our partners and lawyers across our sectors, services and offices to support and develop our relationships with clients, delivering an exceptional service and exploring new avenues through which we can help them meet their business needs. Our brand, marketing and digital team help position us as thought leaders amongst our target markets in the areas we most want to be known for, by creating intuitive and engaging collateral, events and campaigns.

As part of the business development team, you will play a hands-on role in contributing to the firm’s success and helping to achieve its objectives. This could be as one of our business development professionals, coaching partners on relationship building, or building our brand as one of our marketing, design or events professionals. 

If you’re a commercially minded individual with a passion for business development and improving the client experience in a professional services environment, you could be just what we’re looking for. 

Business finance

The Herbert Smith Freehills finance team works closely with management, practices, partners and Business Services teams to assist in driving its strategy, profitability, cash flow and growth.

Business finance ensures an adequate Financial Control Framework is maintained to safeguard the integrity of the firm's finances and plays a key role in mitigating financial and business risks. The team provides robust financial information internally and externally to enable decision making, effective operations and to help the firm meet its clients' needs and statutory requirements. As a member of the finance team, whether you are in core finance, taxation, treasury or projects, you’ll play a critical role in the firm's success.

Client services

First impressions last forever. The client services team is the face of Herbert Smith Freehills, representing our brand and values, delivering the highest level of service to clients and stakeholders at our offices and events.

We take our reputation seriously. It’s critical that all our clients, employees and stakeholders have the best experience possible. 

Join us and we will provide you with career opportunities that only a leading global law firm can offer, both within client services and across the firm.

Corporate services

Corporate services is comprised of a number of teams from the firm's central management functions, which support key activities both within the firm and in the external market. They coordinate common initiatives, improve communication and drive greater efficiency across our operations.

The teams, working globally, comprise of:

Management services

This team is formed of a number of partners and consultants who provide leadership in developing our management and strategic direction, and in spearheading key strategic initiatives. Within this team, you’ll be supported by our strategy and planning team, which provides analysis to inform decision-making, develop business plans and project manage agreed initiatives and strategic reviews.

Pro bono and citizenship

Within this team, you’ll focus on:

  • providing pro bono legal services to members of the public through legal and community centres, and sponsoring legal clinics in association with law faculties
  • sustainable development, working with non-governmental organisations, supporting rule of law initiatives, and training on behalf of local bar associations in African and South East Asian countries
  • building community through financial and in-kind support to community partners with a focus on those organisations that promote access to justice and opportunity; and
  • reducing environmental impact, including targets for reducing energy and carbon, food waste, recycling and encouraging more environmentally friendly travel options

Internal/external communications

These teams are responsible globally for advising on and supporting our communications activities in all media, both internally and externally, and including the development of our communications strategy and new communications initiatives.

Business Services Programme Management Office (BSPMO)

The BSPMO manages an extensive portfolio of global firm-wide projects, including new systems and major transformation programmes. Services offered include programme/project management, change management and business analysis.

Facilities

The facilities team plays a central role in managing our working environment and the services within it, so that practice areas can serve their clients to the best of their ability. That goes beyond just ensuring that professionals have the client-facing and office services and equipment they need. It’s about ensuring that every space around our global network serves its purpose effectively, whether that’s an office, a breakout area or a conference room.

General counsel and risk

General counsel and risk is a multi-disciplinary legal and analytical team. It consists of an internal legal services team, risk and compliance lawyers, internal audit, information security, enterprise risk and new business intake. These disciplines work together globally to ensure that we fulfil all our governance, contractual regulatory and compliance obligations. The general counsel and risk team also advises on the firm's risk profile and risk-based decisions. 

The team also supports the executive and governance boards, manages the firm’s insurance matters and has responsibility for implementing the firm's client and matter selection strategy. 

It advises our partners and lawyers to ensure that Herbert Smith Freehills remains a highly trusted advisor in a constantly changing world, and works with our Business Services professionals in managing risk on behalf of the firm and enabling high quality strategic and risk-based decisions to be made.

Human resources

Our competitive advantage is our people and our culture. Our HR team works closely with the leaders of the business to recruit exceptional people, nurture their development and guide their career.

As a member of the HR team, you could be working as a business partner assigned to a particular practice group, or in one of our specialist areas, including graduate or lateral recruitment, global mobility or reward. No matter what your position, you’ll play a core role in shaping the future of the firm.

Information technology

Innovative, efficient and effective IT systems are essential to the successful operation of a global law firm like Herbert Smith Freehills. The information technology team keeps our global team of lawyers and Business Services staff connected, whether we're in the office or on the move.

Information technology is responsible for everything information systems-related. That includes:

  • technical support: IT helpdesks, asset management (including laptops and mobile devices) and technical training
  • infrastructure: networks and systems, servers (real and virtualised), disaster recovery, business continuity and IT security
  • innovation and technology: driving the increasingly important adoption of technology in new ways
  • development: designing and acquiring business applications.

While the roles within the division may vary, all involve providing the very best services and systems. You may also have the opportunity to work on challenging projects across the firm.

Knowledge and learning

Our knowledge and learning professionals support our lawyers to provide world-class legal advice. The team works collaboratively and innovatively to provide measurable value to our clients.

As part of this dynamic global team, you will drive collaboration and knowledge-sharing across jurisdictions and practice groups. You’ll be involved in strategic projects and deliver knowledge and learning solutions directly to our people and our clients. Whether it’s providing insightful legal updates, specialised research, innovative learning solutions or quality know-how and precedents, your expertise will equip our people with the skills and insight to deliver excellence in a competitive marketplace.

We’re committed to your career development and will support you with exceptional training, coaching and mentoring opportunities. If you’re passionate about knowledge and learning, grow your career with us.

Legal PA services

The role of Legal PA is critical in assisting our people to perform at the highest level. The team provides high-quality support to partners and throughout our practice areas.

Your support will mean our lawyers can concentrate on providing creative, original advice to their clients. Our Legal PA services team also plays a client-facing role as Legal PAs are typically in regular contact with our clients on behalf of lawyers.

Legal project management

Our legal project management offering comprises of:

  • a Centre of Excellence: teams of Project Management, Process Improvement and Data Analytics Specialists
  • embedded Legal Project Managers (qualified subject matter experts) within Practice Groups across the network

The team’s goal is to improve the efficiency of matter management so that costs, value and profitability align, and to meet implicit and explicit client needs in service delivery. It combines both lawyers and non-lawyers, focussed on the common objective of bringing clients the best experience of working with the firm.

Learning and development

Whether you’re an experienced professional or at the beginning of your career, we’ll provide you with a stimulating environment in which to develop.

Our unique Business Services Academy programme in London has gained external recognition (Highly Commended at the Legal Education & Training Group Awards 2012 for Best Law Firm Learning & Development), and enables us to offer a wide range of business skills training to all our Business Services professionals here. 

We continually work to evolve this first-class programme to meet new business demands and to ensure it is accessible to as many people across our offices as possible. Please contact your office to find out how you can access the Business Services Academy programme.

The skills training is delivered in a variety of ways – interactive workshops, self-study or recommended reading. All of these will help you develop your knowledge of the firm and your professional skills. In addition, we have an active panel of internal coaches and mentors who are available to any Business Services professional that is looking for more personalised support to reach their full potential and achieve higher goals. Where there is a business need, we will also support you with professional qualifications on a case-by-case basis.

MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Working with the diverse groups that make up our pro bono client base around the world offers you the chance to develop your professional knowledge and make a positive impact on issues close to your heart and ours.

Find out more about our other pro bono and citizenship opportunities here.

FIND OUT MORE

Current Opportunities

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