Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP - True Picture

Fried Frank training contract review 2026

The Firm

“We’re a US law firm, but we’re a global law firm,” explains training principal David Christmas when we catch up with him about the firm. He continues: “We’re headquartered in New York, but Fried Frank’s office in London is not a satellite office to New York. It’s a fully functioning, standalone offering of Fried Frank.” While the firm is often considered a bit of an investment funds pro, it’s far from a one trick pony. As Christmas tells us, “We have four key areas: corporate, finance, litigation, real estate, and all of the other supporting departments that go with that.”

Several of these departments, including fund finance and investment funds: private equity, have gained recognition in our sister guide Chambers UK, and that’s aside from the firm’s accomplishments in Chambers USA and nods in Chambers Global. Nevertheless, for more than one trainee, the firm’s financial industry and investment “specialism was something that interested me. It definitely caught my eye.”

“I wanted something more personal.”

But it wasn’t only practice areas drawing trainees to the firm: “I never liked the idea of being one of 100 trainees. I wanted something more personal,” shared one junior when asked what made Fried Frank stand out from the crowd. Saying there’s a small trainee cohort almost seems like an understatement; although Fried Frank recently increased its intake from three to four (!) trainees per year, it’s still one of the smallest intakes out there. “We want our trainees to get the best exposure, and I think the smaller intake means that they’ll always be busy,” says Christmas, a statement very much borne out in our interviewees’ experiences: “People will give you increasingly challenging work if they see you’re capable of it – I’ve really enjoyed that.”

The Seats

Trainees must complete seats in the asset management, finance, and corporate/M&A departments. For their remaining seat, they can express a preference for antitrust or real estate, but choices can’t be guaranteed. Having three compulsory seats “from the outside might sound like a negative, but it can be a positive because it’s one less thing for you to think about,” one junior informed us. “My experience has been that it takes an extra stress off your shoulders” while getting exposure to all the firm’s key areas of work.

The main focus of the asset management department is fund formation; in other words, “they help to set up various funds for all the big-name private equity and private credit houses and infrastructure funds.” As such, it’s fitting that the department is often referred to colloquially as ‘funds’. To name drop just one well-known client (the books are full of them!), Fried Frank regularly represents BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, on a wide variety of matters. But what does the work actually involve? Team members negotiate terms, draft limited partnership agreements (“which are the core documents”), draft the PPMs (“the marketing documents that go out to potential investors”) and review investor documents.

Where most of the admin stuff happens as a trainee is during marshalling and closing: “It’s a lot of amending signature pages, sending out closing emails and running trackers.” Thankfully, there is room to get stuck into “some high-level stuff pretty quickly,” such as managing workstreams, which gave juniors “a mini-associate type of feeling.” While we were told it was such a steep learning curve because "there are a lot of new concepts,” more formal training also helped to ease trainees into this seat. Our sources found it “really enjoyable to work with the clients: infrastructure credit, private equity, venture capital, all sorts.” Another added: “Especially as a junior, it’s really nice to get that exposure to different funds and strategies.”

“Especially as a junior, it’s really nice to get that exposure to different funds and strategies.”

From the trainee perspective, there are a lot of different things to get involved in during a seat in corporate, from typical M&A to working with private equity funds investing in companies to secondary deals. As a result, it’s not just trainee tasks that are varied, but the clients too… who, you may ask? Fried Frank recently advised Domino’s on its acquisition of Shorecal Limited, the largest Domino’s franchise business operating in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, as well as the sale of Domino’s London-based corporate store business to a select group of franchises.

More generally, “it’s always interesting to work with clients where you’ve bought something from them, you know their names, or all your friends know them.” Day-to-day, juniors can expect to do their fair share of diligence, such as preparing fact books, discussing with specialists, and “learning to prepare things for the layman.” They also get to work on ancillary documents, join client calls to take notes, and deal with Companies House. Compared to other departments, rookies tend to work on fewer matters at any one time, so “I enjoyed getting stuck into two or three deals – I felt closer to the deals as a whole.”

The finance department “works across different traditional finance streams,” including quite a bit of fund finance due to the firm’s funds focus. Depending on the economy, the department handles varying amounts of restructuring, leveraged finance, and corporate financing work at any given time. For instance, is anyone else craving a slice of pizza? (Can you tell we’re hungry?) The firm advised HWS Group, the franchise holder of Pizza Hut, on the restructuring and pre-packaged administration sale of the restaurant chain in the UK and Ireland to an affiliate of Directional Capital. But fund finance and leveraged finance are the two main areas of work. As such, a seat here “feels very varied and very instrumental to all the other practice areas.”

Trainees might work on anything from leveraged buyouts to subscription facilities to support for the funds team. We were told there’s a huge demand for trainees in finance, so juniors “get thrown in straight away because there’s so much to do: preparing board minutes, checklists, lots of different types of docs.” Insiders reported working on ventures, facility agreements, loan notes and warrants, as well as having opportunities to draft: “Basically, you can get involved in as much as you want to get involved in.”

Most of the work in the antitrust and competition department is transactional, supporting the M&A team by “making sure that sell side have appropriate protections; buy side work on making the filings.” The London team handles matters from around the globe except for the US (matters there are handled by the US-based offices). The department also liaises with local counsel in different jurisdictions who make filings for FF in those regions. “In the last few years, foreign direct investment has become more prevalent,” one interviewee relayed, so that’s become “the bread and butter of the team.”

Clients come from many industries. Recently, the firm acted for Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI), during its sale to a consortium of New Mountain Capital and Capital G. BMI is one of the largest music rights organisations in the world, acting for the likes of Taylor Swift and Rihanna… from whom we at Chambers Student are still patiently waiting for new music (take your time, Rihanna, we’ll wait forever!).

Time here is “very different to the other teams, very research heavy,” which is “refreshing; it’s nice to use a different part of your brain.” In practice, this often means researching the target in the proposed transaction, then feeding this research into memos for clients and determine whether an acquisition would trigger a filing somewhere in the world. Trainees also draft filings, take part in discussions with regulators and assist associates on giving sanctions advice. “A lot of the sales we’ve worked on will appear in the Financial Times or Wall Street Journal,” recounted one insider, “That’s a really rewarding aspect of the job.” Another newbie “really enjoyed it,” as being part of a relatively small team allowed for opportunities to “get stuck in really quickly.”

Trainee Life

It’s inevitable that trainees will arrive with some preconceived ideas of what life at their new firm will be like, and Fried Frank is no exception: “When you’re going to an American firm, you think it’s going to be more of a pressure cooker,” one admitted, “but the reality here is that people are really relaxed and have always got time to help.” In fact, despite the stereotypes about US firms, the supportive culture at Fried Frank was a theme running through our interviews: “Everyone is really generous with their time,” an insider nodded, “high-flying partners will have a chat with you when you bump into each other at the coffee machine.” During busy periods, “you can rely on your colleagues to have your back. Everyone is working towards the same goals; you’re not left in isolation. I feel comfortable asking someone for advice, training or help.”

“Everyone is working towards the same goals; you’re not left in isolation.”

Roughly once a quarter, there’s a trainee social to which future trainees and recently qualified lawyers are also invited. Most departments host a monthly drinks, and “if it’s quieter one evening, we might do an impromptu drinks or something like that.” There are summer and winter parties, the latter often taking place in January instead of the busy December period to ensure as many people as possible can attend. Trainees really enjoyed office socials, “because you know everyone in the office. Seriously – you can walk around the office and just be able to strike up a conversation with everyone.”

The diversity and inclusion forum puts on events for cultural holidays like Lunar New Year, Diwali and Eid, which can be “a nice opportunity to get together and sit down with colleagues.” There are also various diversity groups people can join, including the Women's Forum, Working Families, First Generation Professionals network, EDGE - Ethnically Diverse Group of Employees, Pride Alliance and the Disability Inclusion Alliance. When pro bono opportunities arise, the firm sends out weekly emails inviting people to get involved and sometimes, opportunities crop up in departments like corporate and real estate.

Working at 100 Bishopsgate (right next to the iconic Gherkin), “you feel like you’re in the beating heart of London,” and we heard that the office itself is generally rather “swanky.” Trainees are required to show up in person Tuesday through Thursday, although it's often more, and our sources didn’t mind this one bit: “I enjoy the social environment,” one shrugged, “generally being able to walk into someone’s office if you have a question to ask them rather than having to send an email or call them.” Every trainee shares an office with their supervisor.

Speaking of supervisors, juniors are “encouraged to work with lots of different people within the department to get well-rounded training, learn different styles, and get different types of work,” but most of a trainee’s workload comes via their supervisor. “I couldn’t really ask for anything more from them,” one trainee told us, citing how their first supervisor was “always there to answer question;” this sentiment was echoed amongst our interviewees. What’s more, “there’s not a culture of you coming back from lunch to redlines on your desk,” another source mentioned, “People talk you through your work, and there’s an imperative put on improvement and active feedback.”

“People talk you through your work, and there’s an imperative put on improvement and active feedback.”

Those close relationships with supervisors and other senior members of the team also provide opportunities for hands-on learning. Formal training sessions are put on by each department every week or two: “It’s nice to have those training sessions baked in because you can sit down and have a bit of structure as well,” a rookie highlighted.

We’ll be Frank – the hours can be demanding. Juniors usually work into the evenings and sometimes past midnight. That said, we heard that “if you’re working on something really interesting and you feel like it’s both noticed and appreciated, you don’t feel it as much.” Trainee salaries“are definitely on the good side of the spectrum,” and with one of the highest NQ salaries in the City, our sources were more than happy with their compensation.

As for qualification, “the process is pretty soft compared to lots of larger firms,” a trainee explained, elaborating: “You get soft offers throughout your training contract” from partners who would like a trainee to join their team once the training contract is over. Offers are formalised during the fourth seat. How did our insiders feel about this process? “I really like it because it gives you the chance to speak with the people who you worked with, who liked working with, and drive that,” shared one junior. They continued: “It encourages relationships between seniors and juniors because the seniors have a vested interest in the next gen of the firm.” Our sources reckoned, given the small intake, the firm wants to retain all of its trainees. In fact, in 2025, Fried Frank offered all of their qualifiers an NQ position!

How to get into Fried Frank 

Open for 2028 training contract applications on 1 December 2025 and applications close on 22 May 2026.  

Application and trainee profile 

Ambitious growth has motivated Fried Frank to open its doors to trainees, and “while a lot of that growth has been achieved through lateral hiring, we are also very much committed to organic growth,” asset management partner and training principal David Christmas tells us. "Our training programme ensures that we will have homegrown talent in our pipeline to promote over the years, helping to cement the firm's culture.”  

With around 490 applicants for four spots, places are naturally very competitive. Those willing to defy the odds can find the firm's application form on its website. It currently contains questions on subjects such as commercial awareness, personal achievements and the potential challenges facing the firm in the next 18 months. In addition to this, applicants are also required to complete a Watson Glaser critical reasoning test online. The firm currently doesn't offer a vacation scheme, so applicants should take care to make sure their applications are top-notch! 

Interviews 

"The first round of interviews is really there to gauge the applicants’ interest in pursuing a career in law with the firm,” Christmas explains. This is followed by a commercial group exercise – “typically a discussion surrounding an aspect of a corporate transaction.” The whole process takes “a couple of hours,” Christmas estimates. Around eight to ten candidates are invited back for a second interview which is conducted by two partners. “Specifically, candidates need to be aware that a smaller office environment entails less spoon-feeding and a lot more responsibility than one might have at a larger firm.”