The Legal Cheek View
It was a chance encounter on the streets of Boston in 1912, between Harvard classmates Robert Eliot Goodwin and Joseph Osborne Procter Jr., that led to the creation of the Boston law firm Goodwin. The young American duo decided to take the plunge and agreed to put $500 each into the firm. Over a century later, Goodwin’s global revenue sits at $2.45 billion (£1.79 billion), following an 8% increase this year.
Across the firm’s two UK offices, turnover skyrocketed 14% to over $200 million (£146 million), up from $174 million (£127 million) the year before. Partners continue to cash in with an average profit share of $3.62 million (£2.65 million) –– an 11% gain on the previous year and comfortably above the numbers earned at Magic Circle counterparts.
Goodwin follows an ambitious strategy to strike early in markets where its blend of expertise in life sciences, private equity, real estate and tech is thriving, meaning the firm counts 16 offices internationally in tech hotspots including Silicon Valley, Cambridge, San Francisco and Santa Monica. The latest addition to this roster came in the form of a Brussels outpost earlier this year, which balanced out the firm’s decision to shutter operations in Frankfurt.
In the City, where the firm has been since 2008, Goodwin has been growing exponentially, growing from 12 to over 350 lawyers in the past ten years and quintupling its partner size in that time. In fact, the London office has gotten so big that the firm has outgrown its old digs in 100 Cheapside and upsized to a new 90,000 square foot office space in the Sancroft Building offices on St Paul’s Paternoster Square. Apparently, the firm consulted an office-wide committee of all its London lawyers and operational employees when designing its new abode and we’ve got to say that, if so, Goodwin recruits sure have got some expensive taste. The three-tiered hub which has stunning views overlooking St Paul’s also includes a communal ground floor reception, break-out rooms, hybrid working spaces, a ‘sanctuary’ area equipped with prayer rooms, feeding rooms and a first aid office, access to a rooftop terrace kitted out with Love Island-esque sofas (where a partner might pull you for a chat), and –– wait for it –– an entire dance studio designed to host regular yoga and Pilates classes!
Not that rookies can’t afford to go elsewhere for their Zumba lessons –– Goodwin recruits are some of the best paid in the City with the firm recently bumping NQ salaries to a staggering £175,000 as well as raising trainee salaries to £55,000 and £60,000 in years one and two respectively.
For this, you’ll pay with a “varied” work/life balance according to recruits. One hardworking trainee had this to say: “I get up on Monday and am either working or sleeping until Friday mostly, aside from 20 mins at the end of the day so I’m not dreaming about work”. Nor are weekends off-limits, especially if you want to go far. “It really depends on the team but generally you are expected to be on call 24/7 if you want people to like you,” claimed one trainee, whilst another added: “at least every three weeks I will be working over a weekend (I respond to emails over most weekends)”.
In terms of the actual work on offer, you can expect “a lot of responsibility and intellectually challenging work”, according to our sources, with associates said to “give you more challenging work as you progress throughout the seat provided you have demonstrated you can do the more basic tasks.” Clients include the likes of Moderna, Slack and Meta, and trainees in London –– who frequently get such opportunities to work on billion-dollar deals in cutting-edge industries –– have been busy advising Harbour BioMed in its $175 million global strategic collaboration with AstraZeneca to help discover next-generation therapeutic antibodies, as well as supporting tech company Relay on its $35 million financing to build its AI capabilities.
Our sources do warn that trainees can sometimes “find themselves restricted to admin work” in certain practice areas, with some supervisors being less trusting to put juniors on the big name deals –– but this is entirely seat-dependent.
Higher-ups at Goodwin receive mixed reviews with some reporting that “associates and partners make time to ensure you understand the transaction and the documents involved” whilst another reports that, despite being “generally supportive (with some exceptions), other superiors are “not particularly empathetic”. One rookie remarks that “some associates can monopolise you without understanding that you are also working for many other people”. That being said, partners are reported to be “always offering to chat or discuss anything” and newcomers also benefit from a pretty close-knit trainee cohort.
The tech is “pretty decent”, though one rookie couldn’t ignore the irony that, despite the emphasis on working with tech start-ups, “we still spend hours rolling out documents from templates or compiling bibles”. Other perks include a gym allowance, access to wellbeing services, and £15 to spend on dinner if you’re in the office after 8pm. However, some discontent has arisen due to the removal of “free cold drinks in the fridge” following the London office relocation. There’s also a rolling client secondment option for one trainee at each seat rotation!