K&L Gates - True Picture

Firm profile

K&L Gates is one of the largest law firms in the world with more than 40 offices located in key capital cities and world commercial and financial centres across five continents. At K&L Gates, we foster an inclusive and collaborative environment across our fully integrated global platform that enables us to diligently combine the knowledge and expertise of our lawyers and policy professionals to create teams that provide exceptional client solutions. We marry process with vision, success with dedication, and method with passion.

Main areas of work

K&L Gates is active in the areas of Corporate/M&A, Capital Markets, Private Equity, Restructuring and Insolvency, Banking and Asset Finance, Structured Finance, Derivatives, Aviation, Debt Capital Markets, Islamic Finance, Funds, Financial Services Regulation, Antitrust, Competition and Trade Regulation, Public Policy, Real Estate, Planning and Environment, Intellectual Property, Technology Transactions, Construction, Energy, Infrastructure and Resources, Insurance Coverage, Regulatory, Tax, Employment, Litigation, International Arbitration, Investigations, Enforcement and White-Collar Crime, plus other forms of Dispute Resolution.

Training opportunites

The firm ensures each trainee is given exceptional opportunities to learn, experience and develop so that they can achieve their maximum potential. Trainees spend six-month seats in four of the areas mentioned above. Each trainee sits with a supervisor and is allocated an individual mentor to ensure all round supervision and training. The firm has a thorough induction scheme and career development programme. High importance is placed on the acquisition of business and professional skills, and early responsibility. The training programme consists of weekly legal education seminars, workshops and a full programme of skills electives. Pro bono and corporate social responsibility activities are also encouraged.

Vacation scheme

The firm’s formal summer legal work placement scheme is open to law and non-law students and other relevant postgraduates. Your two weeks with us in July will provide you with broad exposure to opportunities in diverse areas. We aim to give you a seat in at least two departments, and wherever possible we will allocate you to a seat of your choice.

Other benefits

Subsidised sports club membership, season ticket loan, permanent health insurance, life assurance, GP service, cycle to work scheme, employee assistance programme and pension. 

Open days and first-year opportunites

Open days are held monthly from December through to May each year. Please express your interest in attending an open day when applying for a training contract or a legal work placement, and we will respond accordingly.

Diversity, inclusion & wellbeing

Our commitment to diversity goes far beyond rhetoric and initiatives. We seek and welcome the talents of those from different walks of life and cultural backgrounds. We strongly believe we build better teams, forge better client relationships and provide better customer service because of our diverse team of professionals.

In 2020, the firm pledged to listen, be educated, take action, and work together to help in the fight to end inequality and foster a more inclusive society. We encourage everyone to get involved in any way that inspires them, whether by continuing to educate yourself, engage in challenging conversations, or work alongside clients and one another in the community. We also recognise the important work our people contribute around the world and have instilled the Global Diversity Hours Policy to offer non-billable, credited hours to all lawyers for their time spent towards diversity and inclusion. The policy encourages our lawyers to have meaningful participation in diversity and inclusion efforts both within and outside the firm for the benefit of K&L Gates, its clients, and all of its constituents.

In our commitment to listen and be educated, our firmwide Diversity Committee and Women in the Profession (WIP) Committee lead numerous programmes and initiatives to further our steps as a firm to better understand our shared history and to meaningfully improve the outlook for our shared future. Launched in 2020, our firmwide speaker series, Conversations About Race and Diversity, focuses on the lingering effects of inequality and systemic racism in our society, and the importance of diversity and inclusion. Thousands of stakeholders at the firm have listened and learned from our guest speakers, making this series the most well-attended web event this firm has ever held. Past notable speakers include:

• Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of NAACP
•Honorable Bernice B. Donald of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
•Reverend James M. Lawson, Civil Rights Movement activist, professor and minister
•Clarence Dixon, Executive Director, Global Head of Loan Services and Head of UK D&I Committee of CBRE
•Kevin Jennings, CEO of Lambda Legal
•Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, author, historian, and journalist
•Honorable Tony Coelho, former U.S. representative (CA), House Majority Whip, and principal author and sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

In addition to listening and educating ourselves, we also take action to connect and support our historically underrepresented lawyers at the firm. Launched in 2020, we partner with Ms. JD, a nonprofit in the US, to offer a 12-week business training and client-engagement program called Pathway to Success to our high-achieving women associates. The programme was piloted in the US and has since expanded to our offices in Europe. We also have initiated a similar programme for our junior women partners across our global platform. Other notable programmes include our recently launched region-wide diversity mentorship programmes that are structured to be tailored to the interests of each mentoring pairs, a region-wide diversity retreat in the US, and robust diverse pipeline programs aimed at diverse first year law school students.

One of K&L Gates’ diversity and inclusion goal is to build a stronger diverse community at the firm. By way of example, we have local diversity and WIP committees across our offices, including a diversity and inclusion committee in London who meet every month to plan events, and share and communicate ideas and office initiatives. Everyone in the committee, from junior employees to partners, has a voice at the table. The London diversity and inclusion committee is composed of champions who spearhead various diversity groups for the office including women, wellness, LGBTQ+, and multicultural society groups. Our multicultural society group organizes and participates in several initiatives focused on educating and celebrating our culturally diverse workforce. Some of our notable efforts include recognizing and honoring cultural days, conducting a reverse mentoring initiative to help educate non-Multicultural Society colleagues on the issues experienced by Multicultural Society colleagues, collaborating with RARE to implement a tracking system for social mobility and collect contextualised data for consideration as part of the recruitment process and benchmarking with Pirical for an independent assessment of the London office’s performance on recruitment, retention and promotion. We also enjoy firmwide platforms to advance our LGBTQ+ and disability efforts through our LGBTQ+ subcommittee and employee resource group as well as our disability inclusion taskforce.

Lastly, we work together with industry leaders to ensure we are current in our best practices and policies. For the 12th consecutive year, the Human Rights Campaign awarded K&L Gates a 100% score in the organisation’s 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), and named the firm a ‘Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality.’ Our firm has also been awarded a US Gold Standard Certification by the Women in Law Empowerment Forum (WILEF) for a tenth time, recognising the high levels of success by the firm’s women as partners and leaders. In our inaugural year of participation, we are among one of only seven law firms to achieve the “Best Places to Work for Disability Inclusion” distinction in the 2023 Disability Equality Index by DisabilityIN. Our firm received Mansfield Rule 5.0 Certification Plus status in Diversity Lab’s latest iteration of its innovative diversity programme, recognizing leading law firms that “have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” We have also frequently been named a ‘Top Performer’ and received the ‘Compass Award’ by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD). The designations recognise active LCLD member corporations and law firms who have dedicated the most time and energy to participating in LCLD programmes and supported its mission of creating a more inclusive legal profession. Furthermore, K&L Gates, along with longtime firm client Amazon, also recently received a 2020 Corporate Pro Bono Partner Award from the Pro Bono Institute’s (PBI) Corporate Pro Bono project for their joint contributions in support of Mary’s Place, an organisation providing shelter and services to women, children and families in their journey out of homelessness.