Squire Patton Boggs - True Picture

Firm profile

We are one of the world’s strongest integrated law firms, providing insight at the point where law, business and government meet. A multidisciplinary team of more than 1,500 lawyers in over 40 offices across 4 continents provides unrivalled access to expertise, guidance and invaluable connections on the ground. Recognised as having one of the broadest global footprints in the legal industry, we provide access to new knowledge, new markets and new expertise across the US, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Many of our UK clients are among the biggest names and brands in the world, from FTSE and Fortune 100 companies to emerging and fast-growth businesses, financial institutions, and regional and national governments.

Main areas of work
Business Immigration; Communications; Competition – antitrust; Corporate; Data privacy, Cybersecurity & Digital Assets; Environmental, Safety and Health; Financial Services; Government Investigations and White Collar; Intellectual Property and Technology; International Dispute Resolution; Labour and Employment; Litigation; Pensions; Real Estate; Restructuring and Insolvency; Tax Strategy and Benefits. 

Training opportunities

Our commitment continues to be on providing the highest-quality learning experience, and we will continue to provide the required training and support, not only for you to qualify as a solicitor of England and Wales, but also to enable you to thrive in your careers at our firm.

Our unique approach to the SQE will provide you with a tailored programme of learning, not only to pass the SQE, but also to prepare you for your career at our firm. We will develop the key skills you need to succeed from day one as a trainee with us.

The trainee solicitor programme comprises six four-month seats during the training contract. The key to the training contract is ‘involvement and responsibility’, which is achieved through the choice and number of seats that can be undertaken during the programme, including secondments to clients and our overseas offices. Trainees benefit from two-tier supervision and challenging work to aid their development.  

Vacation placements

We run a one-week summer placement scheme that provides students with genuine experience as to what life is like as a trainee solicitor. We offer two dates for scheduling and hope to accommodate preferences as best we can.

The minimum requirement is that you are on-track to achieve or have achieved a 2:1 in your undergraduate degree. You would need to be at least in your penultimate-year of a law degree, final-year of a non-law degree to be eligible to apply for the summer placement scheme, so that you can complete all required learning (LLB/PGDL/SQE) before the start date. We still accept applications from those that have completed the LPC, but if you have not completed this, you will be expected to complete the SQE which will be fully funded by SPB at point of offer.

We recruit all of our future trainee solicitors from the summer vacation scheme.  

Other benefits

25 days’ holiday, death in service, life assurance, pension and income protection. Flexible benefits package that includes private medical insurance, dental insurance, cover, a cash plan, a Ride2Work scheme and a season ticket loan. 

Open days and first-year opportunities
We encourage you to come and meet us at university events and our various panels/sessions with Legal Cheek, LawCareers.Net, Aspiring Solicitors. We host Open Day’s in our offices every year, with applications for these opening in September and closing in October.     

Diversity, inclusion and wellbeing
As a leading global law firm, we take seriously our responsibility to call out and help eradicate inequality and discrimination in all its guises. We are intentional about doing so, both within our own firm and in the communities where we practice. We have taken a comprehensive approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), to ensure that all of our people throughout the firm feel welcomed and have equitable opportunities to belong, succeed, thrive, and fully and fairly pursue their career objectives. Our Global DEI Team focuses on strengthening our inclusive working environment by raising awareness through action, championing allyship, and providing guidance and training to drive meaningful change. The team consists of dedicated and experienced DEI practitioners, leadership, partners and staff who sit in different offices and cover multiple jurisdictions, ensuring that each initiative is globally and locally relevant. We look at the entire employee life cycle and center our goals around four strategic pillars – career, culture, community and clients. This ensures that our recruiting, hiring, development and promotion practices all reflect our shared focus. As part of our action plan, we have introduced a number of measures focused on improving our approach to the recruitment, retention and advancement of employees, and strongly believe that working with our clients to create programs helps strengthen our ability and outreach as a whole, meaning we can have maximum impact on our people, industries, local communities and the wider global society.

We are proud of the many employee resource groups (ERGs) within the firm which offer an opportunity for colleagues across practice groups, functions, geographies, etc. engage with various topics. Each ERG is chaired by a senior partner acting as a champion who drives initiatives that are measured and reviewed to ensure that we are achieving our aims. Everyone in the firm is encouraged to engage with the diversity, equity and inclusion agenda. Fee-earners have been allotted a 50 hours billable hours allowance across the UK LLP.

Some initiatives and accomplishments include:
1. A holistic wellbeing programme to promote good mental and physical health across our firm globally through a series of initiatives around the themes of health, family, finances, community and career;
2. Signatories of the Mindful Business Charter, a bilateral collaboration between leading banks and law firms committed to promoting more mindful working practices and reducing avoidable stress;
3. Introduction of blind screening, contextualised recruitment and specialist outreach programmes to encourage higher application rates from ethnic minorities and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds;
4. Signatories of the Social Mobility Pledge with a commitment to improve access to the profession through our network of partnerships with organisations such as Sutton Trust, Social Mobility Business Partnership as well via our programme of work insight schemes;
5. Active participants in Pride marches across the UK locations;
6. Launch of the firm’s Global Squire Women’s Affinity Network;
7. Named as a Top 30 Employer for Working Families 2023.