Working at A&O Shearman

Discover what it means to belong and excel with us

We're an industry-leading global law firm focused on creating transformational change for the benefit of our clients, people, communities and the wider world. This provides great career opportunities. Whether you're helping clients solve complex challenges, transforming the ways we manage our business, or ensuring the smooth running of our operations, this is an environment where you can belong and excel - whether you’re starting out or taking the next step in your career.

Together, we achieve unparalleled outcomes for our clients and for each other.

Thrive as a legal professional

Want to make an impact? With us, you’ll work alongside leading minds to help clients address complex, multi-jurisdictional issues. We’re a partner and trusted advisor to some of the world’s most sophisticated companies, governments and financial institutions.

Here are examples of recent complex deals spanning all sectors.

Energy venture

Advising JERA Nex Limited (the renewables business of Japan’s largest energy and power generation company) on its 50:50 joint venture with BP to combine their respective offshore wind businesses.

M&A - retail

Advising L’Oreal Groupe on its acquisition of a majority stake in British premium skincare brand Medik8.

Medical innovation

Advising GSK on its research collaboration with the University of Oxford focused on the potential of cancer prevention through vaccination.

Bond market debut

Advising the Republic of Indonesia on its debut issuance of RMB6 billion (USD842.3 million) in aggregate of offshore EMB-denominated (dim sum) bonds. This is the republic’s first entry into the dim sum bond market.

Sports - soccer deal

Advising Apollo Sports Capital on its acquisition of a majority stake in Atlético Madrid soccer club.

Sale of investment businesses

Representing Macquarie Asset Management in its USD1.8bn sale of its North American and European public investments businesses to Nomura.

Technology infrastructure acquisition

Representing Sanmina Corporation in a USD3bn agreement to acquire the data center infrastructure manufacturing business of ZT Systems from AMD.

We count as clients:

Numerous multinational public companies listed on the NYSE, LSE, Euronext, Euronext Paris, and the Tokyo and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
The 10 largest banks by market capitalization.
The 5 largest private capital firms by assets under management.
Multiple sovereign governments together with their ministries, departments, and executive agencies.

A professional standing outdoors, looking ahead.

Advance your career as a business team professional

We’re a progressive global firm and our business teams play a vital role in helping us maintain our leading-edge presence and performance. There are many ways in which our business professionals support us, including helping us to: manage our brand and promote our areas of expertise; maintain and evolve our global technology systems; execute our financial processes efficiently; attract, hire and train the right talent; proactively manage risks; embed our culture; and excel in knowledge-sharing.

With us, you’ll work with bright, focused collaborators across the firm, both legal and business professionals from different functions. There are always rewarding opportunities to grow, add value and help shape success, locally and internationally.

Why our clients value us

"When we have a problem, it’s impossible to imagine that A&O Shearman doesn’t have a solution."
Infrastructure corporate client
"One of the firm's strengths is the consistency and quality across offices."
Consumer and retail corporate client
"The legal work is impeccable. A&O Shearman stands out from its competitors for global reach."
Energy major client

A professional smiling while seated in an office environment.

AI and innovation

Whether you work in our legal teams or business teams, you’ll have access to AI that enables you to execute tasks more effectively, so that you can focus on adding value.

We will equip you with the tools and know how to deliver your best work; our leadership in AI is built on legal firsts, speed to market, and clear focus on what experts and technology bring together. We develop, deploy and scale AI systems throughout the firm, and we provide the necessary training to ensure that we’re using AI smartly.

Our Markets Innovation Group (MIG) has developed multiple groundbreaking legal tools internally and externally to extract new value from, and with, legal documentation.

By implementing Harvey AI and our own ContractMatrix suite we offer the most advanced legal drafting, negotiation and know how technologies globally.

We also advise clients in every part of the AI value chain and on all aspects of AI, grounded in deep technical understanding and deployed with commercial relevance.

Innovation accolades

World's most innovative law firm - Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Global Summit 2025 named A&O Shearman "World's most innovative law firm"
Innovation in generative AI - ContractMatrix won the Financial Times award for "Innovation in generative AI tools"
Pioneering AI strategy - The firm was commended by the Financial Times for its "Innovation in generative AI strategy"
Firm-wide strategy - The Financial Times noted A&O Shearman as a standout in their "Law firm strategy"