Freshfields reviews

3.7

68% would recommend to a friend

(644 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 644 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

644 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.

1.0
Mar 12, 2023

Poor culture

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent pay and perks. Good office location.

Cons

Horrible work life balance. Expect to work insane hours. Partners are rude and demanding. There is a culture of bullying. If you are not in the “inner circle” you will be overlooked and dismissed constantly - forget about opportunities for advancement. Management is a mess.

2.0
Jul 21, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good international work, international work culture, some great people, good brand to have on resume

Cons

Horrendous office politics, particularly in certain groups that create a toxic work environment (cut-throat and disingenuous, with a lack of transparency at all levels of management; professional opportunities based on outside-office friendships with managers/favoritism over performance or business reasons). Some partners openly tolerate or possibly even encourage bullying. Some teams are increasingly homogeneous in terms of demographics.

Viewing 10 - 12 of 644 Reviews

Glassdoor has 889 Freshfields reviews submitted anonymously by Freshfields employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Freshfields is right for you.