Castrén & Snellman Most Attractive Legal Sector Employer in 2021 Universum Student Survey – First Ever Law Firm in First Place

Public sector employers have been the most attractive workplaces for law students since 2008 when the first survey was conducted. This is the first time that a law firm has been the most popular employer of the entire legal sector.

Castrén & Snellman’s ranking this year is the result of years or dedicated work to develop cooperation with law students and law faculties.

‘The work we do with students is very important to us. As a firm, we want to help future lawyers develop their skills early on in their careers. The thanks for this ranking go to the whole firm. I’d also like to thank the students who participated in the survey for their confidence in us’, says Managing Partner Sakari Lukinmaa.

‘We put a lot of work into being the best workplace in our field not only for students, but also for more experienced experts. It’s wonderful to see our hard work get such clear recognition from law students’, says HR Director Outi Ruohola.

‘Over the past few years, we have put extra effort into the supervision of our trainees. We have also developed the recruiting process for our trainee programmes. Every applicant can now get personal feedback on their application and interview if they want’, says HR Specialist Elina Kytömaa.

The annual survey charts the employer image of employers in various fields among students of those fields.

Sustainable Development and Responsibility Major Factors in Choosing Employers

In addition to ranking the most popular employers, the Universum survey also charted student attitudes to working life. 

The survey revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted what students want from their future employers. Providing diverse work duties remains the most important employer feature. With the pandemic, features relating to day-to-day work, such as a friendly atmosphere, salary, respect for people, a secure and stable employment relationship as well as support for work-life balance have increased in importance.

Sustainable development and responsibility are also becoming major factors in choosing employers. As many as 39% of respondents said they would reject an employer that is not active in sustainable development. Environmental matters are particularly important.

Sustainability is an integral part of work as Castrén & Snellman. As a member of the UN Global Compact, we are committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and to combating climate change as well as to managing our environment sustainably. We mapped our carbon footprint for the first time last year and compensated our emissions in 2019. This year, we  joined the Oikotie Responsible Employer campaign. 

The results of the survey were published on 18 May.  A total of 14,078 students and 488 law students participated in the survey this year.  In addition to law students, Universum surveys students in the engineering, health/medicine, business and IT sectors.