Mayer Brown

Mayer Brown is a leading international law firm with offices in key business centres across the Americas, Europe and Asia. The firm has more than 1,750 lawyers, including approximately 1,000 in the Americas, 450 in Europe and 300 in Asia. The firm's Asia presence was enhanced by its 2008 combination with Johnson Stokes & Master, the largest and oldest Asia law firm. (In Asia, we are known as Mayer Brown JSM.) In December 2009, Mayer Brown formed an association with Tauil & Chequer, a leading law firm in Brazil. This unequalled on-the-ground presence in the world’s leading markets for legal services enables Mayer Brown to offer clients access to local market expertise on a global basis. The international reach of the firm is further enhanced through an affiliated trade office in Beijing as well as three independent alliances with leading law firms in Mexico, Italy and Spain.

Mayer Brown advises on both regional and international transactions and litigation and its lawyers have extensive experience managing pan-European, transatlantic and global projects. The firm takes a cross-practice, cross-border approach to solving the needs of its clients through the seamless integration of its lawyers across the globe.

Mayer Brown is noted for its commitment to client service and its ability to solve the most complex and demanding legal and business challenges worldwide. The firm serves many of the world’s largest companies and financial services organizations, including a significant proportion of the Fortune 100, FTSE 100, DAX and Hang Seng Index companies and most of the major investment banks.

Our strategic target is to continue to make our mark as one of the few truly leading global law firms. We have an aggressive growth strategy which looks to build our critical mass in order that we can generate growth to our revenue through a mixture of organic and lateral opportunities. We remain focused on our chosen client base of major financial institutions and multi-national corporations working on large scale complex cross border and practice work. We aim to service those clients through our platform utilising our client and industry programmes but offering a local strength with global reach.

CSR and Diversity
Mayer Brown takes pro bono work and social responsibility seriously. In the London office, more than a quarter of our people are involved in pro bono and community service projects over the course of any year, and we have been recognised locally and internationally for our achievements in this area. We also recognise our responsibilities as a leading global law firm and we encourage applicants from all backgrounds to promote diversity within the firm.

“Mayer Brown is committed to diversity because it is the right thing to do and because it makes sound business sense. Diversity broadens our knowledge and skills, heightens our awareness of and sensitivity to cultural issues and equips us to respond to the challenges of serving a clientele that spans the globe. Diversity is a hallmark of Mayer Brown heritage and will be a key driver of our future success.” Bert Krueger, Mayer Brown Chairman

Working at Mayer Brown
We focus on giving our new lawyers one-to-one attention, support and the opportunities you need to succeed in the legal world. Mayer Brown’s European offices offer a rich variety of ways for you to practise law in offices and practices of different sizes. Although we are one of the world’s largest full-service law firms, our offices are made up of tightly knit teams with cultures that are open and inclusive.
That means you get the best of both worlds at Mayer Brown. Because we are a large and growing firm, you'll find expanding opportunities to serve clients locally and internationally. And you'll find colleagues who are ambitious and hard-working but who also believe in having lives outside work. Our lawyers say the culture is one of the best things about working here.

Supporting Your Career

Training – A Supportive Learning Environment
Our training ethos is to continually enhance the quality of the service we offer to our clients and to ensure that all our staff have the skills needed to work effectively and efficiently. We understand that learning and development are integral to our success and at Mayer Brown we recognise the importance of individuality. We actively encourage people to take responsibility early in their careers and provide a supportive environment in order to help them achieve this.
We have a central training department which organises the majority of the non-technical skills training. Our practical skills courses complement the existing technical skills of our staff and are tailor-made for the needs of individuals and their departments. They include Presentation Skills, Legal Writing and Drafting, Management, Ethics, Practice Development Skills, Advocacy and Higher Rights training, to name just a few. Our trainers are selected carefully to ensure the utmost quality in delivery and content and are either experienced professionals from within our own staff or sourced externally.
In addition to the central training department, each practice area has specialist Professional Support Lawyers who understand the markets in which their clients operate and ensure that their teams are kept up to date with the latest legal developments.
Our Library facilities, including on-line resources and state of the art knowledge management system are available throughout the London practice.

Mentoring/Appraisals
At Mayer Brown we think it is important for you to have feedback on your performance. We do this through a system of appraisals and mentoring. Formal appraisals are held once a year, and reviewed six monthly, and are a benchmark of your progress. The appraisal also helps to identify any training or development issues and is useful to help you to manage your own career building on your own individual strengths and interests.
In the larger Groups, Assistants are generally allocated a partner as a mentor with whom they will meet on a regular basis informally to discuss technical aspects of their work, in particular workloads, to ensure a good variety and spread of work. This also gives the mentor an opportunity to offer guidance and support with future specialisation. In small groups this will happen on a more informal basis.

Partnership Prospects
Never before has partnership at Mayer Brown been so exciting or profitable. Partnership is awarded to individuals on successful attainment of all selection criteria which is evaluated by the selection committee.
The Partnership is currently around 100 lawyers from all practice areas, many of whom have emerged through the ranks of Mayer Brown together with an increasing number of lateral hires. It is a progressive leadership team where talent is rewarded and where entrepreneurialism is combined with good business sense.