The tie-up between City outfit Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and US law firm Bryan Cave has officially gone live today.
The new global player, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP), boasts around 1,600 lawyers across 32 offices in 11 different countries. Last month, we reported that partners on both sides of the Atlantic had voted overwhelmingly in favour of the new combination.
The merger is unique because both legacy outfits were run by women: BLP’s managing partner, Lisa Mayhew, and Bryan Cave’s Washington-based chair, Therese Pritchard. BCLP will now be co-chaired by both women.
Commenting on the tie-up, Mayhew said: “Creating Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner has been a fantastic journey for us all. Our firms have come together with a commitment to serve our clients as one team.”
Pritchard added:
“Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner is well positioned to provide global strategic counsel to our clients across industries and geographies. Our integrated structure is designed to institutionalise and reward collaboration across our global platform.”
BLP, prior to today’s merger, offered around 40 training contracts annually, as it says on Legal Cheek’s Firms Most List 2018. We understand that details regarding the number of trainees the new firm will look to recruit going forward will be divulged in the near future.
The firm performed well in our Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, achieving As for training, quality of work, peer support, tech and social life. At our Legal Cheek Awards ceremony last month, BLP was shortlisted for its use of social media.
Meanwhile, Missouri-headquartered Bryan Cave was founded in 1873 and specialises in a range of practice areas including tax, retail, private wealth and technology.
A former City lawyer has become the first person to be jailed as a result of an investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign team.
Alex van der Zwaan, who until last year was an associate at the London office of US law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, was accused of, among other things, lying to FBI investigators about his communications with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates. Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
In February we reported that Belgium-born van der Zwaan had, as part of a plea deal, admitted one count of making a false statement to investigators. Yesterday, the 33-year-old former City lawyer was sentenced to 30 days in prison, fined $20,000 (£14,000) and handed two months of supervised release.
According to reports, van der Zwaan’s lawyer had argued that a fine was sufficient punishment. But US district judge Amy Berman Jackson didn’t agree, reportedly saying:
“I’ve thought about it, but I just can’t say: ‘pay a fine at the door and go’. We’re not talking about a traffic ticket. This is lying in a federal criminal investigation.”
Van der Zwaan — who is married to art critic Eva Khan, the daughter of the Russian billionaire German Khan — reportedly told the court: “What I did was wrong. I apologise to this court, and I apologise to my wife.”
According to the ex-City lawyer’s now defunct Skadden profile, van der Zwaan specialised in litigation, congressional investigations and government policy. He completed the Legal Practice Course (LPC) at BPP Law School in 2007 and speaks four languages: Dutch, English, French and Russian.
As news broke of van der Zwaan’s guilty plea, a Skadden spokesperson said:
“The firm terminated its employment of Alex van der Zwaan in 2017 and has been cooperating with authorities in connection with this matter.”
The New York-headquartered outfit offers around ten London-based training contracts annually and pays its rookies £118,000 upon qualification.
It orders MP to stop ‘masquerading’ as one its cartoon characters
Beano has fired off what appears to be a spoof cease and desist letter to Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, requesting that he refrain from “masquerading” as Dennis the Menace’s arch-nemesis Walter the Softy.
The comic book company has written to the MP for North East Somerset claiming he has “adopted trademarked imagery and brand essences of the character to the benefit of enhancing your career and popularity.”
The ‘legal letter’, signed by Mike Stirling, head of Beano Studios in Scotland, goes on to “firmly request” that the well-known Eurosceptic “cease and desist in your ongoing impersonation” of Walter.
It’s come to our readers attention that @Jacob_Rees_Mogg has been masquerading as Beano character Walter Brown. A clear breach of our copyright. pic.twitter.com/voWQZ5VkPS
The pink bowtie-wearing character, who does happen to bear a striking resemblance to the Eton-educated politician, first appeared in the Beano in 1953, and is often on the receiving end of Dennis and his friends’ bullying.
But it would appear Rees-Mogg has taken the Beano’s online banter in good spirits. Responding to the tweet, which at the time of writing has garnered more than 3,500 retweets, he said:
“I am flattered to be accused by the Beano’s legal eagles of imitating Walter the Softy whose powerful physical prowess is so much greater than my own.”
This isn’t the first time a cease and desist letter has been been used for comedic effect.
Closer inspection of the legal letter parchment revealed the brewery could flog its existing stock of Dilly Dilly beer, but requested it refrain from selling future products under the catchy name.
The outfits with the biggest (and smallest) pay gaps in the City
Today is the day all businesses with more than 250 staff members must, by law, release their gender pay gap data. With data from almost 60 law firms at Legal Cheek’s fingertips, now seems a good time to analyse and compare.
Unlike with retention rates or partner promotions, however, analysing and comparing isn’t as easy as it sounds. City outfits have released their stats in a myriad of ways — some inclusive of partner statistics, others not, for example. This makes the data very difficult to shimmy into a neat table where results can be compared like for like.
The gender pay gaps discussed in this piece have been calculated by looking just at firm employees, not partners, as is required by statute. To stress, a number of outfits did release partner data either adjunct to their employee data or within their overall pay gap, but the statistics discussed in this piece do not include this.
Using these statute-compliant sums, we can reveal that 59 firms have posted mean gender pay gaps ranging between 2.3% and 39.1% and median gender pay gaps ranging between 4.8% and 68.2%. The average pay gap (mean) for these firms was 21.1%, while the average pay gap (median) was 30.7%.
A full list of these firms, ranked from highest median gap to lowest, can be found at the bottom of this piece.
Generally, it seems firms’ median pay gaps are higher than their mean pay gaps. Thirty-two of the 59 firms have median gender pay gaps of more than 30%, yet only six firms exceed this 30% figure when we look at mean stats instead.
For some firms, their individual results differ markedly depending on whether you focus on their mean or median gap. Take Jones Day and Forsters as examples. The former has a 32.6% mean and 4.8% median gap, and Forsters has a 2.3% mean and a 20.4% median. That said, Gowling WLG’s (25%) and Pinsent Masons’ (22.4%) mean and median stats are exactly the same.
As for general trends, the widest gender gaps tend to lie with the US firms. (Though note that Jones Day has the lowest median gap of all the firms listed.) This makes sense given that data shows law firms with the fewest women pay the highest salaries.
The magic circle firms are far from grouped together in the table and appear all the way from the eighth highest spot (Linklaters) to the 54th (Freshfields).
Vauxhall satellite office will ‘significantly’ cut commuting time
Allen & Overy is to pilot a new 24-hour office space in South West London next week, as part of a wider strategy to improve the magic circle player’s flexible working offering.
The satellite office, based at Tintagel House, Vauxhall, can accommodate eight lawyers at any given time, and boasts amenities including showers, a cafe and a roof terrace overlooking the River Thames.
A quick search on Google Maps reveals A&O’s new mini-office is about three-and-a-half miles away from its plush Spitalfields HQ. The satellite space will operate initially as a six-month pilot and will welcome its first lawyers on 9 April.
So what’s the thinking behind the firm’s riverside bolthole?
Well, according to A&O, it will provide a “quiet working space, combining some of the benefits of remote working with the facilities of an office”. Regarding the hub’s location, the magic circle firm said:
“Vauxhall was chosen for the pilot because it has excellent transport connections. Based on careful research, we found it is a convenient location for many of our people to get to and from home, significantly cutting down their journey time into the office.”
A&O’s new office-offering comes just over year after it launched its Fuse’ innovation hub. Located within the firm’s City HQ, the “specially-designed” space can accommodate around 60 entrepreneurial individuals who are able to tap into some of the outfit’s top legal minds.
AI, blockchain and cybersecurity lessons also on the menu
Clifford Chance has launched a global initiative to help its lawyers gain a better understanding of tricky tech topics including coding, artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain.
The aim of this new ‘Tech Academy’ is to encourage CC’s lawyers to become more tech-savvy through a combination of online learning and face-to-face workshops. By way of example, the magic circle player says staff will have access to two online training programmes on coding, “one for those with basic understanding and another for those with intermediate knowledge”.
Online resources aside, lawyers will also have the opportunity to get to grips with topics such as AI, blockchain, cybersecurity and e-commerce through a series of workshops held throughout the year. The full-day skills sessions — which are available “around the world”, the firm says — are run by an Aussie-based consultancy outfit called Collective Campus.
“Our clients’ market environment is undergoing a paradigm shift,” says Clifford Chance finance partner Paul Landless, “with technology pervasive across all sectors and deeply affecting our clients’ businesses.” He continues:
“As a firm we want to develop our people fully with a balanced set of both technical and business skills for today and the future, focussed on what our clients need and with a strong grasp of business trends in our clients’ industries.”
Clifford Chance isn’t the first magic circle firm to take pro-active steps to ensure its lawyers have a command of coding.
In late 2016, we reported that Linklaters was encouraging its lawyers to learn how to create computer code following a request from a forward-thinking trainee.
Katherine Cousins, now an associate, turned her tips into a book
Judging by its inoffensive title and front cover, you may not think that Successful Solicitor: Get Ahead of the Game as a Junior Corporate Lawyer is full of material that was censored by the author’s firm. And yet, it is.
Katherine Cousins, a City solicitor, had in 2013 written a fashion blog for the then-named Berwin Leighton Paisner‘s intranet during her time as a trainee. This came about, she tells us, “following a chat I’d had with a member of the graduate recruitment team that vac schemers were turning up dressed far too casually for a City law firm”.
However, she saw her efforts pulled by the firm (which has now merged and is called Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner) over concerns it was inappropriate — a fact that caught the press’s attention. Cousins continues:
“After the firm/press reaction, one of my very good friends was trying to make me feel better and said something like: ‘People write funny, controversial things every day that don’t make the national press, it was really well written. You should write more.’ I put it to one side to focus on being the least problematic trainee of all time for the rest of my TC, but it stuck with me.”
Now, five years later, Cousins’ once-censored fashion advice lives on in the pages of her 115-page debut title, which she wrote over the course of two years on her morning commutes and on weekends. It includes “all the tips, tricks, hacks and lessons I’ve learned”. But, given its backstory, it’s the fashion and beauty know-how we couldn’t help but skip to.
A number of quotes from Cousins’ book
“Like it or not,” she says, “your clothes make an impression and you don’t want that impression to be ‘Does he understand how to use an iron?’ or ‘Nice to know she likes red bras’.”
Her blunt advice for men, then, is to punt for a “dark blue, charcoal or grey” suit — “black is only for funeral attendees and bouncers” — and smart shoes that are “not too pointy” nor worn without socks. As for shirts, “avoid checks and stripes” and remember: “Skinny ties are for Hoxton bars, not the office.”
To female lawyers, Cousins advises going for as expensive a suit as you can. Marks & Spencer and Whistles are both namechecked. But a word of warning from Cousins about ASOS and Topshop: “Outside a fashion magazine, a jungle print short suit is not office appropriate.”
Other titbits of advice for women include investing in non-VPL knickers and non-patterned hosiery. If you colour your hair be aware “roots look scruffy and unprofessional”. Oh, and: “Do not wear false eyelashes to work. You’re not a nightclub dancer.”
When you’ve got your necessarily totally-devoid-of-all-personality look down, readers can turn over the page to find competition lawyer Cousins’ advice on “how to avoid ‘associate’s belly'” caused by a toxic mix of “high billables, little sleep and canteen food for every meal”. You can combat weight gain by drinking one of your meals, moving around the office even if only to get a coffee and squeezing in workouts where you can, Cousins says.
Though advising readers who are worried about weight gain to work out is hardly revolutionary, following all the tips included in Cousins’ book, published by Buggle Publishing, at times seems quite unachievable. Being proactive when seeking work, knocking on doors, not saying no, “skipping lunch, cancelling drinks or working till midnight” — it sounds like a life many would not want to lead.
But Cousins — who studied international relations and social anthropology at St Andrews — in the first few pages of her book stresses you don’t have to be perfect to be a successful corporate lawyer. She says:
“I have cried in the toilets on multiple occasions… I’ve left my phone off for days when on holiday and I’ve read the FT for two hours and listed it as ‘business development research’ on my timesheets. I’ve also worked 80-hour weeks, finished urgent tasks from the Eurostar/my hotel room/the start line of a marathon.”
Despite this, Cousins has had a glittering career as a junior lawyer thus far. She ended up at Baker McKenzie in Brussels, Belgium, on qualification and is now a solicitor at Constantine Cannon — “I’m human. And I’m an excellent lawyer,” she says.
And sometimes even excellent lawyers have “gotten far too drunk at graduate recruitment events”. Cousins explains:
“Being a trainee can sometimes feel like being on a two-year freshers week. You are expected to participate in graduate recruitment events and these will almost certainly involve drinking large quantities of dreadful, cheap wine without any dinner.”
Making a drunken fool out of yourself and having the hangover from hell the next day, thankfully, isn’t inevitable.
Eating something filling and fatty before an event (Cousins says oily avocado on toast is “a perfect pre-gaming snack”) and going for “clean alcohols” like vodka and gin are just two of her recommendations.
“Do remember to drink some water between rounds,” she says. City lawyers are far from perfect, but: “calling in sick with a hangover [the next day] is absolutely and completely unacceptable.”
Dentons has launched an innovation hub in its London office to encourage start-ups in the space technology sector through its doors.
The global outfit, which has teamed up with venture capital fund Seraphim Capital, will provide office space and legal support to six small “data and satellite-led businesses” for nine weeks later this year.
The aim of the new ‘Space Camp’, the firm says, is to help “support the growth of the best spacetech start-ups, helping them secure funding, achieve scale, and foster close working relationships with industry leaders”. Backed by both the UK and European space agencies, the programme will welcome its first entrepreneurial cohort on 8 May, and the second in September.
“We are very pleased to be involved with Space Camp”, says Justin Hill, Dentons’ IP partner. Hill, who is also the firm’s Space Camp liaison, continued:
“Our global TMT [Technology, Media and Telecoms] and Venture Technology groups are keen to find the most disruptive technology businesses and understand their needs and priorities. Dentons partners and associates will work closely with the accelerator programme to ensure the participating companies can springboard from our sector knowledge and global networks.”
This isn’t the first time Dentons has thrown its weight behind a start-up venture.
In 2015, it launched a business accelerator centre, NextLaw Labs, with the aim of “transforming the practice of law around the world”. Dentons has since gone on to invest in several lawtech start-ups including ROSS Intelligence, a legal advice app for lawyers.
Deal would be a legal market game-changer — if it happens
Allen & Overy is in merger talks with Los Angeles-based counterpart O’Melveny & Myers, it has been reported.
The potential tie-up — discussions about which have been brought to light by Legal Week (£) — would create a transatlantic giant with 3,000 lawyers and combined revenues of £2bn ($2.8bn), making it one of the world’s biggest law firms.
A deal of this nature could have huge implications for the global legal market. Magic circle firms have traditionally not shown much enthusiasm for the idea of joining forces with a leading US rival, opting instead to enter the American market by poaching teams or taking over much smaller firms. So a merger between two major players would represent a step change, even if A&O’s turnover is nearly three times that of O’Melveny & Myers.
It’s hard to know how far along this is. In its piece, Legal Week quotes an unnamed former O’Melveny partner as saying that their old firm is “deep” in discussions with A&O, and reports that “firm leaders have travelled to meet one another and they have discussed titles of the combined firm”.
But on Saturday O’Melveny & Myers issued this statement:
“We have no plans to merge and never have.”
While at face value it seems to scotch the tie-up, it falls short of a denial that discussions have taken place.
A&O, meanwhile, struck a markedly different note with its statement:
“While we have said for several years that we are open to considering a merger with the right partner in the US, we talk to many law firms in many countries all of the time and we do not comment on market speculation and rumours regarding any particular firm.”
Whether ‘Allen & O’Melvery’ happens or not, the willingness of A&O to seemingly take steps to bring about a transatlantic merger is significant in itself. An age of magic circle tie-ups with big US firms could be about to begin. Indeed, with the creation of Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner last month (a combination of London’s Berwin Leighton Paisner and America’s Bryan Cave), perhaps something bigger is already underway.
Adding credence to this theory are the recent unspectacular financial results of magic circle and other large UK firms. In fairness to A&O, it was something of the exception to this rule last year as it lifted profit per equity partner by 26%; still, industry number crunchers agreed that all five members of the elite quintet were aided considerably by the weak pound — which magnified the effect of overseas office earnings for this highly international collection of firms.
With the pound strengthening, the magic circle will lack this boost in the years ahead, potentially leading to increasing questions about a collective business model of high quality work delivered by large teams. Already there are doubts about its continuing viability in an age of increasing automation of low-ish level legal tasks — a concern that A&O has not been slow to respond to through, for example, its new ‘Fuse’ lawtech start-up hub, and recently-announced plans to start hiring science and economics graduates for newly-created project management roles.
A transatlantic magic circle megafirm would have lots of interesting market repercussions — not least for junior lawyer pay. Would a firm of this nature elevate London newly qualified (NQ) salaries to the US levels of $180,000 (which currently equates to £128,000). Or would it stick with the City of London rate of £81,000 that A&O currently pays to NQs?
Is black hair and professionalism an oxymoron? An aspiring lawyer looks at the research
Image credit: Pinterest
Black British women’s natural hair, often kinky and curly, has historically been described as ugly and unprofessional. During the 1880s, such hair was associated with characteristics of laziness, dirt and even dishonesty, and thus deemed inferior. Because of such a negative stigma, black females chemically relaxed their hair to make it straight.
Despite the adverse effects on their health, many black women went to such lengths because they knew those with straightened hair were deemed more reliable than those with natural hair. Although this happened hundreds of years ago, the aspiration to conform to European beauty is something that persists today and is often perpetuated by the media and traditional institutions.
My interest in this topic was sparked while reading one of Legal Cheek‘s Career Conundrums, where an anonymous training contract hunter discusses corporate law firms’ unspoken hairstyle policy. Many flocked to the comments section to encourage the law grad to get a weave because “appearance matters to clients, clients matter to the firm, therefore, your appearance matters to the firm”.
The struggle to portray a ‘professional’ image is not faced only by black women. It is a struggle that all women confront. However, it is evident that black female lawyers face unique challenges around appearance, especially when it comes to hair. For aspiring lawyers, most corporate law firms require their trainee solicitors to adhere to a strict appearance code. For example, most City firms require a smart attire/appearance that may prohibit protective hairstyles such as braids or dreadlocks.
Naturally, the way you present yourself at work can affect the image you convey to partners. It can influence work allocation and future promotions. This may make it difficult for women of colour to reach the top of the corporate ladder with their so-called ‘ethnic hairstyles’.
With the perception that straight hair equals professionalism, it seems black job seekers should perhaps think twice before wearing their hair natural for an interview. In February, the Perception Institute released research that suggested black women with natural hair experience bias in the workplace.
And first-hand accounts seem to support this. Dana Harrell — an education and sociology major at Claflin University — was told during an internship interview that if she wanted to move forward, she would have to straighten her hair. This is despite, on a panel event at City Law School, senior solicitor Angela Jackman stating hair should be a personal choice not a reflection of one’s skills or personality. Therefore, if one’s hair doesn’t prevent one from doing their job properly then why is it such a big deal in the workplace?
Understandably, most employers have adopted dress codes, in part, to keep the working environment free from distraction. Employers have the right to impose dress codes, however, they must be careful not to enforce policies based on the grounds of race or nationality. An employer who prohibits afro hairstyles in the workplace risks the serious allegation that they are discriminating against black employees.
The ‘Natural Hair Movement’ which began a few years ago (and has taken the internet by the storm) has convinced some that the disdain for natural hair is merely a result of societal conditioning. This can effectively be changed with exposure to positive visual representation via mainstream social media. For black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) females just breaking into the legal profession, their initial reaction, if faced with this dilemma, would be to conform and fit in with their colleagues. However, over time, this obedience may falter.
To many afro-Caribbeans, hair is a huge part of their identity, and by conforming they would be watering down their identity for career advancement. Many, if not all, share the following view: the way a woman chooses to wear her hair should be a matter entirely of her choice, whether it is natural, weaved or otherwise, given it doesn’t affect the quality of her work. Many are aware that self-acceptance and happiness walk hand in hand, and believe you cannot have one without the other.
Solicitor Hopeful is an LLB student and is seeking a training contract.
The President has described the search as an ‘attack on our country’
International law firm Squire Patton Boggs has cut ties with Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, after FBI agents raided his New York office.
On Monday, investigators apparently seized files relating to Cohen’s clients and personal finances from his office and a hotel room he was using, as part of an ongoing federal investigation. Reacting quickly, Squires fired off a statement confirming that its working “arrangement” with Cohen had come to an end. It said:
“The firm’s arrangement with Mr Cohen reached its conclusion, mutually and in accordance with the terms of the agreement. We have been in contact with federal authorities regarding their execution of a warrant relating to Mr Cohen. These activities do not relate to the firm and we are in full cooperation.”
Cohen had formed a business partnership with the Ohio-headquartered outfit about this time last year. Details of this remain thin on the ground, and the firm’s press release announcing the partnership no longer appears on its website, according to reports.
Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen Ryan, said in a statement that the US Attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York had carried out “a series of search warrants” and “seized the privileged communications” between Cohen and his clients. Ryan — who is a partner at US outfit McDermott Will & Emery — branded the raid “completely inappropriate and unnecessary”.
Meanwhile, Trump went one step further and described investigators’ actions as a “disgrace” and an “attack on our country”.
Cohen has been under heavy public scrutiny in recent months after he admitted making a $130,000 (£92,000) payment to porn actress Stormy Daniels, real name Stephanie Clifford, just days before the 2016 Presidential election. Daniels claims she had a sexual affair with Trump and also claims she was paid to keep quiet. Trump denies the allegations and said he was unaware of Cohen’s payment.
There are currently no plans to offer training contracts at ‘billion dollar’ office
International law firm Reed Smith has announced that it will open a low cost support hub in Leeds this summer.
The new Northern hub, which will be known as Reed Smith Global Solutions, is due to open its doors in early July and will offer support to the firm’s London office. According to Reed Smith, the centre will provide a “creative environment” for its lawyers and support staff “to find new approaches to problem solving”.
But training contract hunters of the North take note. The firm, which hopes to hire associates and paralegals through targeted local recruitment, has told Legal Cheek that there “are no plans for trainee roles in Leeds at present”.
Our Firms Most List shows that Reed Smith currently offers around 25 London-based training contracts each year. Trainees start on £40,000, rising to £70,000 upon qualification.
Reed Smith confirmed its Leeds centre will handle both legal and business support matters, and will see the creation of a new records & e-discovery practice. The firm launched a similar low-cost venture in 2003 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Over time, Reed Smith intends to integrate both offerings to form a new Global Solutions network.
“With its strong talent pool, high quality real estate, growing technology offering and two-hour connection with London; Leeds is the perfect location from which to launch our billion dollar start-up,” said Tamara Box, Reed Smith’s Europe & Middle East managing partner. Box, who also heads up the firm’s structured finance department, continued:
“Reed Smith Global Solutions represents our commitment to the evolution of our working practices and to delivering high quality services, which are essential for the firm to remain competitive in today’s crowded marketplace.”
Reed Smith isn’t the first international legal player to be lured up North.
Most British people would rather punt for a lawyer made of flesh and bone than metal and circuits, according to new research.
Automation software and technology has become more sophisticated and intelligent in recent years, intensifying the threat to human jobs. But research released earlier this week suggests legal advice may be safe from the tech revolution.
The findings — collected by Mindshare and analysed by marketing outfit Reboot — show that a whopping 86% of respondents would prefer to take legal advice from humans over robots.
Other sectors surveyed include banking and politics: 71% of those questioned said they’d prefer human bankers, while 75% stated they were keen to avoid a House of Commons full of robots. Elsewhere, 89% of the survey’s 6,000 respondents said they’d prefer to take medical advice from a human instead of a machine.
Shai Aharony, managing director of Reboot, commented:
“Whilst the assumption tends to be that it will either be people or robots, I believe they will complement each other in different tasks and facilitate new types of jobs. Although, as automation becomes more prominent and Brits’ understanding of it drastically improves, this may potentially change”.
Despite these findings, law firms continue to invest heavily in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).
At a recent Legal Cheek event, Pinsent Masons‘ partner Philip Scott spoke of how AI has helped lawyers perform bulk analyses of thousands of documents — small wonder firms like Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance and Slaughter and May have teamed up with tech companies including iManage, Luminance and Kira Systems.
Technology has infiltrated legal education and training too: Legal Cheek recently reported that law school giant BPP had introduced a digital module onto its Legal Practice Course (LPC). Tech-savvy students, such as Joshua Browder, who created the DoNotPay robot lawyer aged 19, have also latched on to this wave.
International duo Baker McKenzie and Reed Smith have upped the salaries of their newly qualified (NQ) lawyers, Legal Cheek can reveal.
First up, Bakers. The 77-office outfit has bumped London NQ pay from £72,000 to £75,000, equating to a modest rise of £3,000 or 4%. The money move puts Bakers’ new associates on a par with their counterparts at a host of top City firms, including: DLA Piper, Hogan Lovells, Macfarlanes, Mayer Brown, Norton Rose Fulbright and Travers Smith. Sitting just above Bakers on the NQ pay table is magic circle titan Linklaters, which pays its London associates a base salary of £78,500.
Trainee remuneration remains unchanged, with first years earning £45,000, rising to £49,000 in year two.
Next up, Reed Smith. The firm has increased the salaries of its junior City lawyers, based in the Broadgate Tower, by 7% to £75,000. Up from £70,000, the pay boost puts Reed Smith’s NQs on the same level as Bakers’ bunch and the plethora of City firms namechecked above.
The outfit’s rookies are also cashing in. Those in the first year of their training contract at Reed Smith will now receive a salary of £43,000, up from £40,000, while those a year ahead will earn £47,000, up from £44,000. This equates to uplifts of 8% and 7% respectively. Legal Cheek’s Firms Most List shows Reed Smith takes on around 25 trainees each year.
Pay packets aside, both outfits performed well in our Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey. Bakers bagged A*s for quality of work and social life, as well as As for training, peer support, partner approachability and perks. Meanwhile, Reed Smith achieved A*s for tech, canteen and office, it winning a gong for the latter at our Awards ceremony last month.
News of Reed Smith’s pay increases come just 24 hours after it revealed that it will be launching a low cost hub in Leeds. The centre, which will be known as Reed Smith Global Solutions, is due to open its doors in early July.
Legal Cheek junior lawyer soft skills workshop and social, with Axiom, Hardwicke and Herbert Smith Freehills
Calling all junior City lawyers! On the evening of Thursday 10 May we are holding the inaugural Legal Cheek junior lawyer social, at Hardwicke in central London.
The free event is open to all corporate and commercial junior lawyers and trainees, and will contain plentiful opportunities to be informed and entertained in equal measure.
There will be three 15-minute informal TED-style presentations, in which Herbert Smith Freehills corporate and M&A senior associate Sid Shukla, Axiom fintech lawyer Atik Ahmed and Hardwicke’s Brie Stevens-Hoare QC will share some of the pearls of wisdom they have learned while developing soft skills during their careers.
These will be interspersed with a series of short speed networking sessions. Refreshments and nibbles will be liberally supplied throughout.
Hogan Lovells has told its junior lawyers to seek out feedback on their performance from partners and other associates on a continuous basis. The decision comes following a successful pilot scheme across a number of the global outfit’s offices, including London.
Launched last year, the pilot encouraged young associates to seek feedback on their performance through regular meetings. The trial involved approximately 500 associates and senior associates, plus 50 counsel.
And it appears to have gone well.
So well, in fact, the firm has decided to scrap its traditional annual review programme and to roll out this new ‘Pathways’ approach instead. Hogan Lovells says the move “empowers associates” and will “enhance their skill development”. The scheme will be expanded to include the firm’s business services next year.
Commenting on the move, Hogan Lovells’ CEO, Steve Immelt, said: “Much of the legal industry focuses on the annual performance review.” Immelt, who is based in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office, continued:
“It’s time to break that outdated and irrelevant mold and move on to provide the information that people really need to hear throughout the year — what am I doing well, where can I grow, what is my career path. Pathways helps us fulfill our fundamental responsibility to be candid, supportive, and constructive with our people.”
This isn’t the first time a firm has reevaluated the way it measures lawyer performance.
In 2016, magic circle outfit Allen & Overy (which, according to reports, is currently flirting with the idea of a US tie-up) launched a new appraisal scheme which focuses on regular feedback and dialogue to boost the development and performance of its associates.
The Legal Services Board (LSB) has written to MPs on the Justice Committee to explain why it dismissed their calls to delay its decision to approve the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE).
Addressing the committee’s plea to defer its decision for six months, LSB interim chair Dr Helen Phillips said it had already extended the SQE decision period on two separate occasions — equaling “the full 90 days permitted by statute.”
She continues: “We have powers in certain circumstances to issue a warning notice and extend this period, but they were not applicable in this case.”
The response comes just weeks after Justice Committee MPs urged the LSB to delay its decision to enable the application “to be given more careful scrutiny”. The missive, signed by Committee chair and ex-criminal barrister Bob Neill, suggested that the SQE model risked “damaging the reputation of our legal profession” if sufficient “safeguards” were not put in place.
Dismissing the Committee’s concerns, the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) plans to introduce a centralised super exam were officially given the go-ahead by the LSB last month. Justifying its approval, Phillips’ letter continues:
“We assessed the arguments put forward for and against the changes and concluded that there was no evidence to suggest that a negative impact on the international competitiveness of the England and Wales legal profession is likely to result from the removal of the requirement for prescribed academic study of law. Any residual risk was not considered sufficient for this to be a ground for refusing the application, especially when balanced against the wider potential positive impacts on the regulatory objectives that the SRA is seeking through the changes.”
That being said, Phillips was quick to point out that there is still a long way to go before the SQE becomes a reality, adding:
“It is important to stress that the introduction of the SQE does not follow automatically from today’s approval. The SRA will have to submit and the LSB will have to approve further rules change applications. Approval of this application does not mean any further rule changes will be approved.”
The SRA has battled hard to ensure its super exam dream remains alive.
Last April, the SRA revealed plans to replace the traditional routes to qualification — the Legal Practice Course (LPC) and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) — with the super exam as early as September 2020. The plan is that the new route will be split into two parts (SQE1 and SQE2) and will still require wannabe solicitors to complete a training contract, albeit on a more flexible basis than previously.
City law firms have also expressed concerns over the new exam format, particularly the proposed transition period. The SRA has suggested a preference towards a “lengthy transition period” during which time both the traditional route to qualification and the SQE will operate in parallel. Despite this, we reported earlier this year that City firms were likely to ignore this lengthy transition period and insist trainees sit the super exam from 2022 onwards.
Legal Cheek is offering an exclusive two delegate tickets for £400 + VAT deal for the Future of Legal Education and Training Conference on May 23. The offer is open until 5pm on Friday 20 April — and can be accessed here.
Lack of young lawyers entering the field has left justice system facing a ‘cliff edge scenario’
Criminal defence solicitors may become extinct in parts of England and Wales within five years, according to the Law Society. The warning from Chancery Lane coincides with the publication of an interactive heatmap showing the ageing profile of criminal solicitors across the country.
Law Society president Joe Egan warned that government cuts to legal aid coupled with an increasingly ageing profession mean the criminal justice system is facing a “cliff edge scenario”. Egan continued:
“There are not enough young lawyers entering the field of criminal defence work.”
The Law Society’s new heatmap shows that across Dorset, Somerset, Wiltshire, Worcestershire, West Wales and Mid Wales, over 60% of criminal solicitors are over 50-years-old. Across the profession as a whole, just over a quarter (27%) of solicitors are 50 or over. Incredibly, in Norfolk, Suffolk, Cornwall and Worcestershire there are no criminal solicitors under 35, according to the stats.
A screenshot of the Law Society’s interactive heatmap
As an interesting aside, Egan himself hit headlines last year after it emerged that his firm, Bolton outfit Joe Egan Solicitors, was paying its rookies below the recommended solicitor minimum wage. At the time Egan cited, among other things, government cuts to legal for failing to cough up the cash.
“Criminal justice is at the heart of a democratic society and duty solicitors ensure a fundamental part of the justice system is upheld. Twenty years without any increases in fees, and a series of drastic cuts have pushed the criminal justice system to the point where lawyers can no longer see a viable career doing this work.”
Today’s findings will come as no surprise to solicitors currently plying their trade at the legal aid coal face.
Last year, the Junior Lawyers Division (JLD) said there was “no incentive” for young solicitors to qualify into criminal law. The organisation — which represents lawyers, trainees and students — slammed the government’s swingeing cuts to legal aid, and argued that this would prevent aspiring criminal solicitors from lower socio-economic backgrounds from entering the profession.
Earlier today, Legal Cheek reported that 90 chambers now publicly support the Criminal Bar Association’s (CBA) call for direct action in response to fresh government cuts to legal aid. In a message to its members, CBA chair Angela Rafferty QC said that the bar’s “resolute approach” had led to a “watershed moment”.
Barristers have been refusing to take new publicly-funded cases since April 1. This is in response to the government’s changes to the Advocates’ Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS), which barristers say will result in further cuts to their income.
Of the 40 trainees due to qualify this spring, 30 have been handed permanent contracts by the global firm. CMS, which provides around 65 training positions annually, confirmed 27 newly qualified lawyers (NQs) will be based in London, two in Bristol and one in Manchester.
CMS said its corporate team will take eight newbies, while energy, projects and construction will gain four NQs. Other departmental destinations include real estate, technology, media & telecommunications, banking & finance, insurance & reinsurance, litigation & arbitration, pensions and IP. Sixty-percent (18) of the firm’s new intake is female.
Today’s retention result is a marked improvement on the CMS autumn 2017 score of 66% or 72%, depending on how you slice it. On that occasion it kept hold of 47 of its 65 NQs — four of which were on fixed term contracts.
Retention rates aside, our Firms Most List 2018 shows that CMS’ new City recruits will start on a salary of £67,500, while their counterparts in Bristol will earn a recently improved £49,000. NQs in Manchester start on £40,000.
The 75% score comes almost exactly a year after the firm officially formed through a three-way merger between CMS Cameron McKenna, Nabarro and Olswang. The deal — which is still understood to be the biggest ever UK legal tie-up by lawyer headcount — went live back in May.
Like with many mega-mergers there have been some bumps along the way.
In 2016, we revealed that trainees at CMS Cameron McKenna (as it was still known back then) were being offered up to £10,000 if they agreed to defer their training contract start date until February 2018. At the time, the five-figure sweetener was understood to be a direct result of the firm trying to juggle the trainee intakes from an extra two firms. Twenty-five soon-to-be trainees eventually accepted the voluntary deal.
But what’s it like to work at CMS post-merger? Well, in our Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey it scored As for training, quality of work and perks, as well as Bs for peer support, partner approachability, work/life balance, tech and office. At our glitzy Legal Cheek Awards ceremony last month, CMS was highly commended in the ‘Best Law Firm for Client Secondments’ and ‘Best Use of Social Media’ categories.
£34,000-a-year school says aspirations are ‘personal’ to the students
Image credit: Twitter (@Argus_JoelA)
Co-ed private boarding school, Ardingly College in Sussex, has been defending itself against claims of sexism and gender stereotyping following an advertisement showing a male pupil with aspirations to be a lawyer, politician or swimmer alongside a female pupil whose aspirations are to be an actor, vocalist or writer.
The ad, which is part of a series for the Harry Potter-esque establishment, has appeared on buses in the local area recently.
Martin Harris, managing director of Brighton & Hove bus operator, the bus company where the ads have appeared, told the media that he was “mortified” and would be pulling the ads from its buses.
Reactions on social media have also been strong with one tweet calling it: “entry level sexism”:
saw this on a bus the other day advertising Ardingly College except the guys had 'Lawyer' instead of 'Debater' is this not like entry level sexism? ITS 2018 GUYZ. MIX IT UP. GIRLS HAVE BRAINS TOO. pic.twitter.com/2N1OY0G8UC
Sorry… what’s going on here, @ArdinglyCollege? Boys can be lawyers and politicians but the most academically rigorous pursuit you’re getting girls ready for is “writer”??
Ardingly’s head teacher, Ben Figgis, has had to defend the ads and the school explaining that it was a misunderstanding; the labels were “the personal ambitions” of the students who featured in the billboards: “As a school we have not put words into their mouths, nor would we want to.”
This mishap is unfortunate, particularly given that in the posh mag Tatler‘s review of the school (featured on the school’s website), Figgis is quoted as saying:
“Leave your stereotypes at the door… Girls play football and take A-level physics; boys give talks at the feminist society and do jazzercise. Modern co-education at its best.”
