Freshfields reviews

3.7

69% would recommend to a friend

(641 total reviews)

Edward Braham and Stephan Eilers

50% approve of CEO

71% positive business outlook

Freshfields has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 641 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Freshfields employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Legal industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

641 reviews
3.0
Dec 21, 2018

Leadership and identity problems (New York office)

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Prestigious - Great international work - Challenging assignments with early responsibility

Cons

- No sense of teamwork among team members: associates tend to become good teammates, but there is a gap between them and partners. You often feel like you work “for someone and their goals” instead of “with someone towards a common goal.” This is made clear to you with passive agressive comments when partners get stressed. - Very clear favoritism by the managing partner of certain employees. This sets bad precedent for the rest of the partnership to behave in the same way. - No proper work assignment system in corporate. - No cohesion in associate development between groups within the corporate umbrella. - No proper database for corporate precedent. - Fear of giving real feedback about superiors when asked: people tend to not say what they think about bad leaders/managers even in “anonymized reviews”. - No proper integration of new lateral hires. You see all these new faces walking around but no one bothered to introduce them and welcome them to the firm. - Focus on litigation and arbitration training and lack of focus on corporate.

3.0
Dec 12, 2017

Associate

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good firm, best legal work in the market

Cons

The working hours were horrific, and there was little care for employee welfare

4.0
May 31, 2017

Great firm

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The firm offers excellent benefits for the staff and there are a number of social clubs for employees to join. The onsite doctor, dentist, gym, restaurant mean you never really have to leave the building. The culture is relaxed yet demanding in a sense that the work must be of the highest quality. Learning and development opportunities are readily available with an online portal and library of courses.

Cons

For those in business services there is little room to progress upwards, more so horizontally. The impending moves to Manchester mean there is a gloomy outlook for those in business services and whether they will remain in London. There are also a small hand of self-entitled members of staff.

Viewing 52 - 54 of 641 Reviews

Glassdoor has 883 Freshfields reviews submitted anonymously by Freshfields employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Freshfields is right for you.