K&L Gates - True Picture

K&L Gates training contract review 2025

The Firm

2025 will mark the twentieth anniversary of K&L Gates’s London office, which came to be following a merger with Nicholson, Graham & Jones, a firm that had been around in the City since 1858. In the past 20 years, the firm has merged with a number of other firms across the world to become the international behemoth it is today, with more than 45 offices across five continents. The firm has made itself comfortable in all four corners of the world, from Doha to Dallas, and Portland to Paris. Pittsburgh is where K&L Gates first set up shop, however, and it seems only fitting that a Steel City firm earns recognition in construction and transport from Chambers UK. The guide has also awarded the London office’s work in capital markets, aviation finance and corporate/M&A.

“… bigger deals and cases with significant international reach.”

Aside from this reputation, trainees were also drawn to the firm’s small trainee intake. Only six trainees enter the fold each year, meaning that newbies get plenty of responsibility from a very early stage. According to training principal Paul Callegari, this means that “the people that thrive at our firm are those who are interested in rolling up their sleeves and getting involved. People who want responsibility with supervision and who are willing to take on board constructive feedback will do really well here.” Indeed, the successful applicants we spoke to all wanted to get in on “bigger deals and cases with significant international reach,” and were certainly not disappointed. However, despite the massive range of the work, sources were also drawn to the more personal aspects of the firm, explaining: “I felt a genuine connection with the people here while going through the application process. The interviews seemed more tailored, and not generic at all.”

The Seats

Straight out of (or rather, into) the gate, trainees are allocated their first seat based on availability and any previous experience they may have. “I think the HR team makes a conscious effort to align it with your background,” a trainee clarified. “They’re interested in your cover letter and the modules you studied, and might assign your first seat accordingly.” Trainees complete four six-month seats, including at least one transactional and one contentious seat.

Construction is one of the firm’s bigger departments, and sits under the energy, infrastructure and resources umbrella while also working closely with real estate and finance. There are separate seats for trainees in contentious and non-contentious construction. We heard that those in the contentious construction seat work with infrastructure clients in the UK and abroad, particularly in the Middle East. Tasks for trainees on this side of the coin involve things like client meetings and conducting interviews with witnesses. The non-contentious side of the work, on the other hand, usually involves high-profile construction developments in cities across the UK. For example, the firm recently advised M&G Real Estate and Vanquish Properties on the development of 40 Leadenhall Street, which has a 14-storey building and a 34-storey tower! Aside from general admin, trainees on such matters also work with subcontractors and review and draft contracts: “I always got to do a first draft of the appointment or agreement to appoint a contractor or consultant. I’d get the markup back, read it through, make notes and then discuss it with a senior associate.”

Trainees in K&L Gates’s finance department can expect to try out both general finance matters and aviation finance work, one of the firm’s specialties. Aviation matters come with plenty of global cross-collaboration, and K&L Gates’s finance lawyers in the UK, Japan and Australia all worked together to advise JP Lease on its recent sale of two Boeing aircraft to Virgin Australia. The team also works closely with the corporate team on deals that need financing. For trainees, “bread-and-butter tasks are drafting board minutes and other ancillary documents.” Otherwise, newbies handle various areas of project management, such as liaising with clients and stakeholders, keeping track of transactions and managing documents, as you “need to be able to tell your supervisor what state we’re in, who we’re waiting on and what’s where.” Managing conditions precedent checklists is another classic trainee task, but apparently there’s also some freedom to the role: “I’d always be the one sending out emails or picking up the phone to speak to the other side, which was a good experience as well.”

“You get exposure to the full spectrum of the corporate world.”

We heard that corporate matters “always have some kind of international element to them, which is really cool because I get to liaise directly with local counsel in different jurisdictions.” Work is available in M&A, capital markets, private equity and commercial contracts, so trainees felt “you get exposure to the full spectrum of the corporate world.” For example, those involved in commercial contracts have recently been working with SharkNinja and Gucci, while recent M&A work includes advising PT Pertamina Hulu Energi on a $650 million acquisition. Trainees do a fair amount of deal management, but more responsibility comes from tasks such as writing due diligence and verification notes for investor presentations. As one source explained, the level of responsibility can vary depending on the size of a matter: “I’ll do more admin on larger deals to help things tick along, but I can do more on smaller matters. I’ve drafted short-form sale purchase agreements, board resolutions and various other ancillary documents.”

Over in real estate, interviewees had the opportunity to take on lots of drafting, such as licences to alter, lease agreements and surrender agreements. When a big sale agreement is going on in the team, trainees regularly get the chance to draft the ancillary documents. More broadly, the team works with a whole range of clients, from retail to global pharma companies. The firm is continuing to work with Edinburgh St James on the £850 million construction of the St James Quarter Development, one of the biggest construction projects currently going on in the UK. Otherwise, trainees can also get involved in some pro bono work through this seat as the team “helps a lot of charities with their leases and lease renewals – that’s very interesting as well.”

“They add your name to the office door as soon as you join the firm as a trainee. It’s very much an ‘I’ve made it’ kind of feeling!”

Trainee Life

Trainees had lots of positive things to say about the firm’s accessible location at One New Change by St Paul’s Cathedral. One especially nice touch was the fact that “they add your name to the office door as soon as you join the firm as a trainee. It’s very much an ‘I’ve made it’ kind of feeling!” Trainees share an office with their supervisors, which many appreciated as “you get to know them well and can chat about football, your weekends or their kids – it’s a good way to find out more about them and how they work.” Interviewees also appreciated how “they’ve all overseen plenty of trainees, so they know what support we need. They also know what to do when a trainee is having a bit of a panic!”

It's not just supervisors who received glowing reviews; interviewees also gave the firm’s culture a “ten out of ten. It’s a really, really open, friendly and supportive place. There’s always someone you can speak to if you’ve got a question or just need to talk.” Though there might not be as many social events as some others in the City, trainees still felt that there were opportunities to spend time with colleagues outside of the firm, such as the recent 90s arcade-themed summer party. Trainees also spoke fondly about monthly trainee coffee mornings, where the whole cohort gets together to talk about how they’re getting on. Diversity, equity and inclusion events also feature on the calendar, with opportunities for newbies to get involved with SEO London and to mentor people from under-represented backgrounds in the legal profession.

Interviewees also had the chance to get involved in quite a lot of pro bono work through the firm. Everyone at the firm below partner level is scheduled to work an evening or two each year at the Battersea Legal Clinic, and trainees can advise on a number of legal issues such as employment, contract and small claims at the South West London Law Centre. Other pro bono clients in London include a UK-wide social impact sports charity and Black Mothers Matter, a charity which is committed to supporting and celebrating Black pregnancies across the UK. Further afield, international pro bono projects look like research and advisory work in the human rights space, as well as work with Accountability Now, a foundation seeking justice for the victims of the Beirut Port explosion in 2020.

Though City law can get a bad rep for brutal hours, K&L Gates trainees seemed happy with the hours they were working. There were a couple of reports of weekend work, but it was described as “very rare,” as an average day typically ends between 7 and 8pm. One insider also assured, “without deadlines, you can leave at 5.30pm.” However, even when slightly longer hours are needed, trainees still felt that their time was respected: “It’s commercial law so we know what we’re getting ourselves into, but there’s an understanding here of what you’re doing and how much time you’re putting in.” This meant that trainees were generally satisfied with their salary in relation to the hours they were working.

“Lots of the partners trained here.”

When it’s time for qualification, a list of NQ jobs is circulated, and trainees are free to apply to any positions that appeal to them. They then complete an interview before offers are made. There were some grumbles about the jobs list being released a bit later than at other firms, but interviewees still felt that the firm was clear about the process and general timeframes. In 2024, K&L Gates kept on four out of six of its qualifiers, and trainees were generally optimistic about long-term career plans with the firm: “Lots of the partners trained here, so there’s certainly a homegrown culture!”

How to get a K&L Gates training contract

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Vacation scheme deadline (2024): 31 January 2025 (opens 1 November 2024)

Training contract deadline (2026): 31 July 2025 (opens 1 November 2024)

The vac scheme route

K&L Gates offers a two-week vacation scheme in June/July, during which applicants are able to sample a couple of departments and attend some outings into the City. “I found everyone very friendly during my vac scheme, and I got to do some proper trainee work like bundling and helping draft an article for a newsletter,” said one source who'd taken part.

Applications are made online followed by an online verbal reasoning test. Successful candidates will be invited in for an interview with HR. After their fortnight at the firm, vac schemers are automatically invited to attend a training contract assessment day and progress their application from there.

“Normally people apply for a summer vacation scheme to come and have a look at the firm first, and make an informed decision as to whether or not they would want to train here,” says the firm's graduate recruitment team. “But that's not the only route; it just gives us longer to get to know them.”

Direct training contract applications

Direct applicants are tasked with a short online assessment that tests verbal reasoning. Those with high enough scores are asked to attend an assessment day.

The day involves a group exercise followed by an informal presentation in which “all have the opportunity to speak,” the graduate recruitment team tells us. We say take the hint: get talking. A written test and reasoning tests are also part of the day.

We also got some insight into what kind of competencies assessors are on the lookout for. “We'll be gauging whether people can write well, think clearly and draw logical conclusions under time pressure. We're looking for team players, not prima donnas or dominators. We want to understand people's skills, and we want them to be able to work collaboratively.”

The final stage of the training contract application involves an interview with two partners, followed by an individual exercise with HR. After that, HR “gathers together all the information it has on each candidate,” and it's decision time.

Ideal candidates

The firm tries to avoid a homogeneous trainee intake. London Managing Partner, Paul Callegari, explains: “That's the beauty of our process – we get applications from all kinds of universities and backgrounds, and we look at them all. What stands out for us are candidates with the drive and initiative to think something through creatively and to accept a challenge. We don't choose candidates who like to have things passively fed to them.”

“We want our trainees to have a fairly entrepreneurial view of things, to appreciate and enjoy new opportunities. An individual who isn't fazed by that is likely to thrive in our environment,” Callegari adds. “Clients expect you to come up with fairly novel solutions to their problems, and that requires an imagination. You can't get that from textbooks or websites.”