Litigation and Dispute Resolution at Herbert Smith Freehills | Career Guide

HSF's disputes offering is widely recognised for its cross-border capabilities and depth of specialist teams. The firm is known for combining courtroom litigation with international arbitration and regulated investigations, enabling lawyers to work on multi-jurisdictional matters that blend civil procedure, arbitration rules and regulatory frameworks.

Key practice areas within HSF's disputes group typically include:

• Commercial Litigation: Handling contract, tort and complex civil disputes arising from cross-border commercial relationships.

• International Arbitration: Acting under LCIA, ICC, ICSID and other institutional rules on investor-state and commercial arbitrations.

• Competition, Regulatory and Investigations: Representing clients in enforcement actions, dawn raids, and regulatory proceedings across sectors.

• Construction and Engineering Disputes: Advising on NEC, FIDIC and bespoke contract disputes and related adjudications.

• Insolvency, Restructuring and Asset Recovery: Running claims linked to insolvency, fraudulent trading and cross-border enforcement.

• Financial Institutions Litigation: Defending and bringing claims for banks, insurers and asset managers.

This breadth means trainees and associates can gain exposure to different dispute resolution mechanisms and jurisdictions, which is attractive if you want a litigation career with an international dimension.

HSF is regularly instructed on high‑value, complex and often multi-jurisdictional disputes. While I will not list specific client names, typical matters include investor-state arbitrations, multi-party ICC arbitrations, commercial trials in the English High Court, enforcement proceedings in multiple jurisdictions and cross-border regulatory investigations.

Day‑to‑day work as a disputes trainee or junior associate will vary by seat but commonly includes:

• Drafting and document work: Preparing witness statements, pleadings, skeleton arguments and witness bundles for hearings.

• Disclosure and document review: Running disclosure exercises, supervising e‑disclosure platforms, and preparing schedules of documents.

• Legal research and memos: Researching procedural points (for example, service out of the jurisdiction, jurisdictional challenges) and substantive law issues.

• Strategy and client meetings: Preparing internal strategy notes, attendance at client meetings and helping draft settlement correspondence or arbitration strategy papers.

• Advocacy and hearing preparation: Assisting on hearing bundles, preparing advocates with chronology and authorities, and supporting witnesses at trial.

Example task strategy: If asked to prepare a witness statement for a junior matter, start by drafting a clear chronological narrative, cross‑reference supporting documents by exhibit number, and insert signposting headings to help the judge or tribunal scan the statement quickly. Supervisors value precision, concision and clear indexing.

HSF offers structured training combined with on‑the‑job learning. The firm's global platform means formal workshops are often supplemented by international experience.

Typical elements of training and development include:

• Formal Training Programme: Classroom and online modules on procedure, drafting, disclosure, ethics and client care that run alongside seat‑based learning.

• Mentoring And Buddy Systems: Regular contact with a supervisor, a career development partner and a more senior mentor for technical and soft‑skill guidance.

• Advocacy And Skills Workshops: Mock hearings, skeleton argument clinics and advocacy coaching to build courtroom confidence.

• Secondments: Opportunities to second to overseas offices or in‑house legal teams. Secondments are especially useful for disputes lawyers because they develop commercial awareness and client management skills.

• International Exposure: Working with teams across jurisdictions on cross‑border litigation and arbitration cases.

How to make the most of training: Volunteer for tasks that expose you to the full lifecycle of a dispute (initial strategy, interim applications, trial, enforcement). Ask for feedback after hearings and save redrafted documents as templates of what supervisors expect.

HSF's disputes teams are typically organised by sector and by substantive specialism (for example, international arbitration, construction, financial litigation). This structure allows trainees to rotate across complementary practices and build specialised expertise.

Cultural features commonly reported by junior lawyers include:

• Collegial Teams With High Expectations: You will work with experienced partners and senior associates who expect accuracy, commercial thinking and responsiveness.

• Fast‑Paced And Client‑Focused Environment: Case timelines, court deadlines and tribunal timetables require prioritisation and careful time management.

• Collaborative International Network: Frequent collaboration across offices means you will learn to draft for different legal systems and work with lawyers from multiple jurisdictions.

Work‑life balance realities: Large disputes can demand long hours near hearings and deadlines. Mitigate stress by keeping a running task list, using calendar blocks for deep work, and seeking support from mentors on workload prioritisation.

Your application should demonstrate technical knowledge, commercial awareness and evidence of litigation‑relevant skills. The following strategies are practical and implementable.

CV and Cover Letter

• Highlight Litigation‑Relevant Experience: Moots, pro bono litigation work, mini‑pupillages, witness statement drafting in moots and any advocacy experience are particularly relevant.

• Use Brief Examples: For each experience, write one line describing the context, your contribution and the outcome (for example, "Prepared skeleton arguments and advocacy notes for university mooting team that reached national semi‑finals").

• Demonstrate Commercial Awareness: In a cover letter paragraph, explain one recent development affecting HSF's core sectors and why it matters commercially; reference sources such as Chambers Student, Legal 500 or YourLegalLadder for market context.

Interview And Assessment Centre

• Prepare Procedural Basics: Be ready to explain differences between negotiation, mediation, arbitration and litigation, and basic steps in English civil procedure (for example, issue, pleadings, disclosure, trial). You do not need exhaustive knowledge but should be confident with the framework.

• Practice Case Studies And Group Exercises: Assessment centres often include a case discussion. Structure your contributions: identify the problem, propose a stepwise solution, and consider client risk and costs.

• Prepare STAR Examples: Use Situation, Task, Action, Result to answer competency questions, emphasising teamwork, resilience and attention to detail.

Work Sample Tips: If given a drafting task (for example, a skeleton argument extract), ensure clear signposting, concise argument headings, accurate citations and a short executive summary for the partner or client.

Interview Red Flags To Avoid: Over‑generalised statements about the firm, lack of interest in disputes specifically, and limited examples of practical drafting or advocacy experience.

Use a mix of market intelligence, practical resources and structured support to prepare.

Useful resources:

• Chambers Student and Legal 500: For rankings, practice descriptions and recent market commentary.

• Legal Cheek and LawCareers.Net: For recruitment timelines, application tips and firm‑level insights.

• YourLegalLadder: For tailored support such as training contract application tracking, firm profiles, mentoring, mock interviews and commercial awareness updates that are directly relevant to HSF applications.

• Leading Texts And Practice Guides: Access guides such as Civil Procedure (Sweet & Maxwell) and arbitration rules (LCIA/ICC) to familiarise yourself with procedure and common drafting conventions.

Practical preparation steps (actionable):

• Build A Short Reading List: Monitor recent High Court and Court of Appeal decisions in your chosen sector and write short one‑paragraph briefings explaining the commercial consequences.

• Practice Drafting Weekly: Spend one hour each week drafting a short skeleton argument, witness statement extract or skeleton for a mock interim application and seek feedback from a mentor.

• Arrange Mock Hearings: Use university mooting societies, pro bono clinics or YourLegalLadder mentoring to rehearse advocacy and receive structured feedback.

Final tip: Tailor every application to the disputes work you want to do. Demonstrate practical litigation experience, commercial awareness and the capacity to learn fast on multi‑jurisdictional matters. That combination will make your application to HSF's litigation and dispute resolution teams stand out.