Weil’s London office is a leader in the U.K. legal market, and is the hub of our European practice. We support a varied client base of European, U.S. and global private equity houses, corporates and financial institutions on domestic and cross-border matters.
Our Practice
Established in 1996, we are the largest of our European offices, and consistently regarded as one of the most successful London offices of a U.S.-based law firm. We provide clients with legal expertise at the highest level across our key practices of:
Awards and Recognition
50
- Legal Advisor of the Year – Real Deals Sustainable Investment Awards 2025
- #1 European M&A Legal Advisor – GlobalData H1 2025
- Finalist for Best Corporate or Business Tax Practice – Tolley’s Taxation Awards 2025
- Finalist for Team of the Year: Finance – The Lawyer Awards 2025
- Finalist for UK Firm of the Year – IFLR1000 Women in Business Law EMEA Awards 2025
- Highly Commended for “Competition Team of the Year” – Legal Business Awards 2025
- Shortlisted for “ESG Program of the Year” and “Commercial Litigation Team of the Year” - Legal Business Awards 2025
- Restructuring Department Shortlisted for “Chapter 11 Firm of the Year” and “Debtor-Side Law Firm of the Year” – GRR Awards 2025
- Shortlisted for “M&A/ Private Equity Team of the Year” and “Finance Team of the Year” – Chambers UK Awards 2025: Winter Edition
- Shortlisted for Law Firm of the Year: Transactions – Alternative Credit Awards 2025
- Shortlisted for Innovative Lawyers in Restructuring – FT Innovative Lawyers Awards 2025
- Shortlisted for IJGlobal Investor Legal Adviser of the Year – IJGlobal Investor Awards 2025
- Earned Top Rankings across both Large Cap and Mid-Market Categories – Octus EMEA Restructuring League Tables H1 2025
- Recognised as a Leading Legal Advisor - 9fin’s European High Yield Bond Law Firm League Tables for H1 2025
Environment, Social, Governance (ESG)
Our approach to Corporate Sustainability is central to our culture.
The London office Corporate Sustainability strategy focuses on three key areas: Pro Bono, Social Impact and Climate Action. Weil has developed an initiative to tackle a range of social issues that impact the economic mobility of its clients, people and communities.
Our Corporate Sustainability vision is to enhance the social and economic mobility of our clients, people and communities. To achieve this aim, we deliver a range of activities and initiatives which ensure we are a responsible business that fosters a healthy, supportive, and inclusive culture for our people to lead healthy lives and reach their full potential to deliver the best service to our clients and communities. This culminates in a corporate environment which both encourages and enables partners and employees to use their time and skills to tackle a range issues in the world around them.
Our Corporate Sustainability strategy is built on three components:
- Pro Bono – Our goal is for all lawyers to perform 50 hours a year of pro bono legal advice and in the London Office, all pro bono hours are counted as billable for the purposes of compensation. Since 2015, the London office has provided more than 106,000 hours of pro bono work on a range of innovative and complex matters in the social finance, humanitarian and access to justice space. We see pro bono as a vehicle for skills-development and leadership and it allows our lawyers to harness and develop their legal skills while simultaneously helping organisations with a social purpose achieve their goals. We work with a number of Law Centres and advise a range of leading charities, NGOs and social enterprises, with a particular focus on access to justice and social finance.
- Social Impact – All Weil partners and employees are encouraged to spend two days a year volunteering in the community. We place a strong emphasis on social mobility and board-level volunteering. We support around 500 young people and jobseekers a year via WEIL (Widening Entry Into Law), a range of employability programs, and we actively support our people to be appointed as charity trustees or school governors. In addition, we also support a number of grass-roots community organizations across London. Since 2015, partners and employees have spent more than 16,000 hours volunteering. Our community programs are designed to help our people to develop new skills, broaden their horizons and take themselves outside of their comfort zone. In 2024, we launched our five-year fundraising strategy “Empowering Every Generation” in which we are supporting six charities –Drive Forward Foundation, In-Deep Community Taskforce and The Magpie Project. We are aiming committed to raise £600,000 during this time to help these charities expand their work in reducing poverty and supporting both young people and older people.
- Climate Action – We have received accreditation for ISO50001 (Energy Management System) and ISO14001 (Environmental Management system), which are internationally recognised industry standards (externally audited), aimed at continuous improvement in energy reduction. We have also achieved consistent top level success at the City of London Clean City Awards for a number of years, with our reduction of single use plastics throughout the office and collaboration with service providers being particularly noted. We are members of the Legal Sustainability Alliance (LSA) and have a Partner lead Climate Action Group within the firm.
ESG in numbers 2015 – 2024 (inclusive)
- 106,000 hours of pro bono
- 68 hours per lawyer per year
- 800+ pro bono matters
- 16,000+ volunteering hours
- Supported 5,000+ state school students via employability workshops, work experience, mentoring and career talks
- £1m raised for charities
- Legal 500 ESG Awards - Social Mobility Champion of the Year (2024), Social Mobility Employer Index: Top 75 Employer 2023, ESG Advisory and Pro Bono: Real Deals Future 40 ESG Innovator 2023, Best CSR Team of the Year and Best Legal Partnership at the Business Charity Awards (2022) Law.com Top UK Firms for Pro Bono (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022)