Ropes & Gray
London·Boston
Private equity·Life sciences·Litigation
Ropes & Gray has won Law360's Private Equity Practice Group of the Year seven times and held a top-three spot on The American Lawyer's A-List for eight consecutive years.
Why this firm
Named Law360's Private Equity Group of the Year, seven times
Named Chambers USA's Healthcare & Life Sciences Law Firm of the Year for 2026, its second win after 2021
Small enough that everyone in the office knows everyone else: trainees share an office directly with their supervising partner in every seat
A genuine litigation bench sits alongside its private equity and life sciences strength, not a two-practice firm
What this firm looks for
Drawn from Ropes & Gray's own recruitment materials
Based on the firm's published recruitment materials, graduate recruitment commentary and stated values.
Proactive self-starters, not escalators
Trainee accounts describe the firm valuing people who offer their own solutions to problems and act without waiting for direction, rather than immediately running to someone else with a problem.
Individualism alongside teamwork
The firm's own recruiting line, echoed in its Chambers Student profile, is that there is no such thing as a typical Ropes & Gray person, naming individualism, not just team fit, as a shared trait it recruits for.
Sources non-traditional backgrounds directly
Ropes & Gray runs its own named scheme, BRidge to the City (with Bloomberg's Legal & Compliance pro bono programme), giving first-year students from low socioeconomic backgrounds paid City work experience with a route to a scholarship and a vacation scheme place.
Past applications
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