A US lawyer has been gored in the neck having reportedly defied strict rules to snap a selfie during the annual Running of the Bulls festival in Pamplona, Spain.
Jaime Alvarez, 46, sustained the harrowing injury during the final stages of Sunday morning’s run, the first of the 2019 fiesta of San Fermin, according to media reports.
The San Francisco-based public defender had thought the coast was clear to shoot a selfie video of him running the 875-meter cobblestone course through the city to the bullring plaza. Reports say he ran most of the course ahead of the pack but upon reaching the home straight, a bull suddenly charged at him and pushed its horn deep into his neck, fracturing part of his cheekbone and narrowly missing major arteries and veins.
Alvarez, who completed a juris doctor at New York City’s Fordham University School of Law, is now recovering in hospital having undergone two and a half hours of surgery.
Commenting on his near-death experience, the criminal defence specialist told NBC 15:
“The joy and excitement of being in the bullring quickly turned into a scare, into real fear for my life. In the course of a few seconds, a million thoughts came to my mind, and that of dying was definitely one of them.”
Alvarez had attended the festival with his wife and daughter, and according to reports, ignored their wishes for him to not participate in the run. He told NBC 15 he was swept up in the atmosphere of the summertime festival, which is attended by up to one million tourists each year, and that the energy in the streets was too strong to resist.
The controversial festival which is condemned by animal activists takes place from July 6-14. It involves six cattle chasing hundreds of runners through the Spanish city (from their corral to the bullring) each day.
Taking photographs on the course is prohibited under official bull run rules. In 2014 a runner faced a $4,100 (£3,300) fine after snapping a selfie with the stampede.
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A trio of top City outfits have released their 2018/19 financial results.
Single-office-outfit Macfarlanes confirmed turnover was up 8% to £217 million and operating profit hit £111 million, a rise of 4% over the previous 12 months. Despite the boosts, the firm’s profit per equity partner (PEP) remained level at still a very hefty £1.7 million.
Commenting on the latest figures, Macfarlanes senior partner Charles Martin said: “Thank you to our fantastic people for another good year. This year has started well too and we are busy going into the summer. This could be a tricky year but we have positioned the practice to take advantage of the opportunities that more challenging times present.”
Meanwhile, international player Ashurst revealed a 14% uplift in turnover from £564 million to £641 million, while PEP soared to £972,000 — a whopping boost of 31% on last year’s result of £743,000.
“In the last financial year, the firm has delivered a strong level of performance, with growth across all regions and divisions”, Paul Jenkins, global managing partner of Ashurst, said. “We have continued to place significant emphasis on achieving sustained revenue and profit growth which is evident from our pleasing results.”
Elsewhere, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) posted revenues of £966 million, up more than 4% on the previous financial year, while profit enjoyed an 11% uplift from £277 million to £307 million. PEP stood at £949,000, up 11% from £852,000.
Mark Rigotti, chief executive officer, said: “This has been a very good year. Our financial and market performance is the strongest it has ever been. We have acted as trusted advisers to our clients on their most pressing strategic challenges. Our success reflects their success.”
Strong 93% retention result comes as magic circle firm ups GDL maintenance grant to £10,000
Slaughter and May’s London office
Magic circle player Slaughter and May has confirmed an autumn 2019 retention score of 93%.
From a qualifying cohort of 40, the Bunhill Row-based firm confirmed that 37 soon-to-be associates were staying put. Slaughter and May, which dishes out around 85 training contracts each year, received 39 applications and made 38 offers.
Slaughters said it was “extremely pleased” with today’s result which remains “broadly in line with previous years”. In the last three rounds, it posted results of 97% (34 out of 35), 95% (35 out of 37) and 86% (32 out of 37).
The firm also confirmed it had upped its Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) maintenance grant to £10,000 — a rise of 25% for those studying inside London (previously £8,000) and 43% for those outside (previously £7,000). The boosts will take effect for all future trainees beginning the GDL in September 2019 onwards.
Boost comes as City player confirms 4% bump in PEP to £1.25 million
Travers Smith has become the latest law firm to join the City’s growing war over junior lawyer talent, upping its total newly qualified (NQ) solicitor pay package to as much as £110,500.
The two-office-outfit confirmed an NQ now has the “potential” to receive, including bonus, a salary of between £93,500 and £110,500. The move sees Travers’ base rate move from £78,500 to £85,000 — a rise of 8% or £6,500.
Legal Cheek‘s Firms Most List shows Travers’ trainees, of which there are around 25 each year, receive £45,000 in year one, rising to £50,500 in year two.
Pay rise aside, Travers also confirmed a 4% bump in its profit per equity partner (PEP) to £1.25 million, as revenue underwent an 11% uplift to £162.5 million. The firm did not report its profit growth.
David Patient, Travers’ managing partner, said: “This has been another very successful year for the firm, building on the momentum of the last few years. These excellent results are the product of fantastic teamwork and collaboration across the whole firm. We’ve done great work for great clients again this year, and it’s been a collective effort by our market-leading disputes, transactional and advisory practices.”
‘Got a text’ = a new brief has arrived in chambers
The return of Love Island means it’s time to brace yourself for a raft of bizarre but catchy lingo thrown about the Majorcan villa. We’ve already heard iconic catchphrases, ‘I’ve got a text’, ‘my type on paper’ and ‘grafting’ crop up in convo with a couple of new additions such as ‘bev’, ‘it is what it is’ and ‘factor 50’.
For lawyers unacquainted with wacky words as such, one barrister has created a handy translator for some of the hit dating show’s most popular phrases.
Love Island for Lawyers is the fun and light-hearted dictionary put together by Carmelite Chambers criminal silk and chair of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), Chris Henley QC. Despite claiming he has “never watched” the reality TV show in the CBA’s ‘Monday’ Message, Henley’s list is sure to raise a chuckle among members of the legal profession.
What the Islander says
Lawyer translation
“Got a text”
A new brief has arrived in chambers
“If there’s one thing I am, it’s loyal”
I’m going to cut your throat
“Grafting”
Doing an overnight skeleton argument
“It is what it is”
Response to an unanswerable bad character application
“Casa Amor”
The Court of Appeal
“Recoupling”
A successful application to transfer the representation order
A panel of experts discuss coding, AI and how soft skills remain paramount
Should aspiring lawyers, aiming to woo over increasingly tech-savvy firms, learn to code? For training contract seekers up against fast approaching summer deadlines, it’s an important question. According to Rif Kapadi, a senior associate in Pinsent Masons’ privacy and commercial team, fluency in computer code is an impressive quality to possess and one which will no doubt catch the eye of graduate recruiters. Speaking at last month’s ‘Secrets to Success’ event at The University of Law’s (ULaw) Manchester campus, panellist Kapadi explained:
“It shows me that they’ve done something above and beyond the law; that they are driven and possess an aptitude to learn new things quite quickly.”
Indeed, such specialised skills will go far in a profession which is currently in the grips of a tech revolution. “Tech is here to stay”, it’s not simply a fleeting-fad that lawyers can wilfully ignore, Kapadi told an audience of over 80 students. As more clients want everything done yesterday and for a very cheap price, emerging tech is an appropriate tool for improving efficiencies, hitting deadlines and ultimately getting more value for money, he explained.
Sharing his examples of innovation-in-action was Michael Black, a Freshfields M&A associate currently on secondment at the magic circle firm’s Manchester hub. Black, who works within a team of lawyers, legal technologists and project managers, explained how the legal industry’s new ‘out with the old, in with the new’ mentality has led to the greater automation of simple tasks, particularly through the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Black also cited common examples of firms using smart algorithms to give trainees and paralegals the head start on document-heavy contract reviews or initial drafting exercises — freeing them up for more challenging, higher value work.
Left to right: Catherine Morgan, Rif Kapadi, Michael Black and Declan Hollows
Bringing together people with non-traditional expertise, such as legal technologists having the capacity to code, alongside lawyers would prove useful for incumbent firms seeking to avoid complacency and as part of a general move to shift away from traditional tried-and-tested workplace practices. This movement is especially key, Black stressed, to remaining ahead of the curve and staving off mounting competition from alternative legal service providers — including from the so-called ‘Big Four’, whose experience handling large accounting and consulting projects efficiently could attract value-seeking clients.
Coding aside, both Kapadi and Black, whose firms are among several key players in Manchester’s thriving lawtech scene, noted the far-reaching implications of everyday innovations that the digital native generation often take for granted. Smart phones, Skype, Wi-Fi and email are indispensable tools for the modern, agile working lawyer, they stressed.
A danger exists, too, in allowing trendy tech-talk to distract you from seeing the bigger picture: law firms want intelligent, business savvy lawyers capable of building rapport with clients.
Although coding is a useful skill to possess, aspiring lawyers shouldn’t lose sight of the fundamentals, said Catherine Morgan, a former Weightmans and DWF solicitor who currently heads up ULaw Manchester’s careers centre. Although students can tailor their degrees to reflect their budding interests — for example, through ULaw’s new MSc in Legal Technology — don’t forget about the core skills. As Morgan put it:
“Tech is simply a tool. If you haven’t got the basics, if you don’t know the law, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then it doesn’t make any difference at all — you need those basics.”
In agreement was Declan Hollows, a trainee solicitor in Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner’s Manchester risk and regulatory team. Although being tech-savvy is certainly useful, it’s ultimately not what a lawyer is, he said. “If a client phones you out of the blue and asks you about a document or for an update on a matter that you’ve been working on, Google or a form of AI are not going to help you — they will expect an answer like that [clicks fingers],” Hollows explained. “Sure, you can say ‘I need to look into this further before I fully advise you’, but a client is not going to sit on hold and patiently wait for something they’re paying you a lot of money just to know whilst you sit down and boot up a piece of tech.”
Law firms are checking your social media presence before recruiting. Catherine Morgan, careers centre manager at The University of Law's Manchester campus, explains why
Similarly, while code-speak may come in handy in striking up conversations with tech-focused clients, it’s not the be-all and end-all in building relationships. After all, Morgan believes, being a good lawyer demands more than talking shop — expect to have a friendly chat about football or even Love Island before doing business. Indeed, it was these soft skills that saw the former solicitor’s clients follow her when she moved firms. Adding her final thoughts to the coding debate, Morgan said:
“It’s all about being as personable as possible. That’s why a lot of firms when they’re interviewing you, they want the personality. You can be a straight A student, you can have black letter knowledge, but you need the personality because that is what’s going to connect with the clients and will make the business fruitful in the future.”
Global duo Allen & Overy (A&O) and Linklaters have become the latest members of the magic circle to post their 2018/19 financial figures.
A&O confirmed a 1% bump in profit per equity partner (PEP) to £1.7 million and a 5% rise in revenues to £1.6 billion — an uplift of £75 million. Profit before tax enjoyed a boost of 8% to £708 million.
According to the firm, international capital markets (ICM) and corporate were “standout practice areas” over the past financial year, while multinational work continues to be a “significant growth driver”.
Andrew Ballheimer, A&O global managing partner, said: “With growth in all regions, the business continues to perform strongly in an uncertain geopolitical environment. Last year built on our strong performances of the previous two years and the global growth which we are seeing is the result of our long-term international investment strategy, established to better serve our clients.”
Meanwhile, Linklaters today said that PEP was up 11% to £1.7m, revenue grew by 7% to £1.6 billion and pre-tax profit rose 11% to £751 million.
Gideon Moore, firmwide managing partner, said: “I’m particularly pleased that we have been able to make this progress while continuing to invest in our clients, our people and our culture.”
A&O’s latest set of financials come as transatlantic tie-up talks between it and US firm O’Melveny & Myers continue to rumble on. Despite neither firm commenting directly on the widely-reported rumours, Legal Cheek revealed O’Melveny had temporarily suspended its vac scheme and training contract application processes earlier this year while discussions take place.
The London office of magic circle law firm Clifford Chance has posted an autumn retention score of 87%.
Of the 47 trainees due to qualify this September, 41 will be staying on as newly qualified (NQ) associates. The Canary Wharf-headquartered giant, which takes on around 95 trainees each year, received 45 applications and made 41 offers. The firm did not disclose the departments or offices its new recruits will qualify into.
Today’s result marks a slight drop on the firm’s spring score of 90% (46 out of 51) but a notable improvement on its autumn 2018 result of 77% (36 out of 47).
A new partner at Winckworth Sherwood has landed himself in a spot of bother on his first day on the job after forgetting to blind carbon copy (Bcc) hundreds of contacts taken from his old firm in an email announcing his latest gig.
Blair Adams, who joined Winckworth Sherwood as an employment partner earlier this month following a two-year stint at Wedlake Bell, fired off an email containing his new contact details to 600 or so contacts.
Unfortunately, Adams’ presumably well-intentioned update backfired spectacularly after he inadvertently put the email addresses in the ‘To’ field rather than the ‘Bcc’ field meaning everyone could see the names on the list.
Legal Cheek understands the gaff, which prompted several complaints, hasn’t gone down well with Adams’ former employers, after it emerged he’d downloaded the list of contacts from his Outlook account at Wedlake Bell.
Both firms have since reported the matter to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s data privacy watchdog. A spokesperson for the ICO told Legal Cheek that it’s “aware of an incident” and “will assess the information provided”.
A spokesperson for Winckworth Sherwood said: “A new starter at the firm accidentally shared a limited number of email addresses by inadvertently using the ‘To’ field instead of the ‘Bcc’ field when sending their new contact details. This was an isolated incident and the email addresses were the only data shared. On becoming aware of the issue we acted promptly to expunge the data from all devices and systems. We have self-reported the matter to the relevant regulatory authorities.”
Meanwhile, Wedlake Bell said it had “no knowledge” that Adams had taken any client contacts from his Outlook account before he left the firm, other than those where client consent had been received, and that “the matter is being dealt with appropriately”.
Adams didn’t respond to Legal Cheek‘s requests for comment.
City solicitor Alex van der Zwaan accepts professional ban following short jail spell
Alex van der Zwaan
A former associate at Skadden has been banned from practising law after lying to FBI investigators probing links between Donald Trump and the Russian government.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) found that Alex van der Zwaan, who was based at the US giant’s London office, had failed to uphold the rule of law and act with integrity, as required by professional rules.
A Dutch citizen with Russian roots, van der Zwaan started with Skadden in 2007. By 2012 he was working on a politically sensitive report for the government of Ukraine, a Skadden client.
The work drew the Russian-speaking solicitor into the murky world of Ukrainian politics, which bled into the Mueller investigation. Van der Zwaan worked with Mueller targets Rick Gates and Paul Manafort, at one point even considering leaving his lucrative job at Skadden to work directly for them.
When the activities of Gates and Manafort attracted Mueller’s interest, FBI investigators interviewed van der Zwaan about his work with them. The eight-hour grilling took place in a high security building in Washington DC, with four Skadden lawyers facing FBI agents “who sat with their guns and their handcuffs visible”.
According to an agreed statement of facts put before the disciplinary tribunal, van der Zwaan tried to cover up relevant calls and emails “to ensure Skadden did not find out about the communication concerning his prospective employment with Mr Gates and Mr Manafort”.
He also failed to produce an email sent to him by Manafort associate Konstantine Kilimnik, a former Russian intelligence officer.
When this came out, van der Zwaan was prosecuted for providing false information to the FBI and Skadden sacked him for gross misconduct.
KCL graduate Van der Zwaan told the tribunal that he had acted “completely out of character”, pointing in mitigation to the fact that he had been President of the Law Society in his final year. He said that he had cracked under the strain of intense FBI questioning and made the “catastrophic decision” to lie with an eye on the Skadden lawyers in the room, rather than the investigators.
But he ultimately accepted that a strike-off was justified. The tribunal, noting that van der Zwaan’s conduct was “in clear breach of the Principles and was also dishonest”, made the order accordingly and fined him £3,000 costs.
City player Ashurst has bumped the salaries of its London newly qualified (NQ) solicitors following a pay review.
The silver circle outfit confirmed today that its newbie associates will start on a base salary of £84,000, up 2% from £82,000. Though pay packets could swell to as much as £105,000 with bonus applied — an uplift of 9% on the previous total compensation package of £96,600. A bonus of 25% would take total earnings to £105,000.
The firm has said the bonus will be based “not just on chargeable hours” but “overall contribution to the business”.
Commenting on the uplift, Ruth Harris, London managing partner at Ashurst, said:
“Following a very successful year, we have continued to review our remuneration in order to remain as competitive as possible. We believe a change was necessary and the adjustments will ensure that we continue to attract and retain the best staff.”
Ashurst — which offers 45 training spots each year — remunerates its trainees £44,000 in year one and £48,000 in year two.
Today’s news follows a strong set of financial figures for the firm. This week Ashurst revealed a 14% rise in turnover from £564 million to £641 million, while profit per equity partner (PEP) soared to £972,000 — a boost of 31% on last year’s result of £743,000.
Each participant will receive £100 to buy suitable clothing
Manchester
Kings Chambers has launched a new legal work experience initiative aimed at widening opportunities for Manchester’s disadvantaged youngsters.
‘Creating Connections’ is a collaboration between the Northern set and youth charity RECLAIM. It will give eight students from “working class” backgrounds the chance to “enhance their employability” by engaging with local law firms and businesses while on placement.
Six organisations have signed up to pilot the scheme and provide placements including the Manchester Civil Justice Centre, Brabners Solicitors, Potter Rees Dolan Solicitors. Kings Chambers will also be participating in the scheme — which runs across three days — with the final day culminating in a networking session and CV workshop hosted by the civil law set and featuring some of its barristers and a judge.
Kings Chambers, which was founded in Manchester but has since expanded to Leeds and Birmingham, has said it will set aside £100 for each student to enable them to buy suitable clothing for their roles. Non-legal placements will also be available at Allied London and Search Recruitment.
Nigel Poole QC, head of Kings Chambers, said:
“We’re delighted to be collaborating with RECLAIM and other business partners to launch the Creating Connections initiative with the aim of giving working class young people access to work experience opportunities and contacts in the professional and business sectors in Manchester. Each young person will have the opportunity to experience a range of professions to which they might not ordinarily have access.”
He added: “I very much hope that we can build on this initiative in years to come, so as to widen the opportunities for young people who may not have family or other connections with the professions.”
This follows a recent diversity report published by the Bar Standards Board (BSB) that revealed around one third (33%) of barristers (that responded to its survey) were privately educated and attended fee-paying schools. The report goes on to estimate that 15.5% of practising barristers attended private schools — more than double that of the United Kingdom as a whole (7%).
At the senior end, social mobility charity The Sutton Trust reported that almost two-thirds (65%) of top judges went to private school. It also flagged internships with previous research finding that they still have some of the lowest levels of open advertisement around, with personal contacts vital to securing placements. Forty-three per cent of middle-class graduates had undertaken an internship compared to just 31% from working class backgrounds.
Harvard law grad Barack Obama wins a whopping 30% of the UK public’s vote on who they would want as their ‘ideal’ legal representative. Whereas, Oxford man Tony Blair is voted the person that the public would least like to have as their lawyer.
The survey of over 500 people pinpointed the most popular choices for the ideal lawyer: alongside Obama, fellow Democrat, Hillary Clinton, as well as Nelson Mandela, scored highly.
The survey also looked into the ideal character traits of lawyers, and found that almost a quarter of people wanted their lawyers to be “confident and committed” and 18% expected them to be helpful and capable (only 18%??).
But when asked what lawyers are really like, respondents to the survey (that was commissioned by mmadigital, a digital marketing company for law firms) opted for “arrogant and obnoxious” (20%), “dishonest and sneaky” or “picky” and “finicky” (12% for all of those damning descriptions).
If lawyers are perceived to be as bad as this then no wonder that robots are preferred by around a third of respondents. But, strangely, they are preferred not because they would be any less dishonest or finicky but because they could be available 24/7 and would be more accurate and faster. Robots are not the answer for around half of respondents, however, who valued the “empathy” and “personality” that a real person brings to the party.
The survey’s conclusions over Obama and Blair chime with the views of both lawyers in the popular imagination. Barack Obama has retained a profile as an honourable chap, and his observations on the law remain considered:
In his autobiography, Dreams of My Father, he wrote: “The study of law can be disappointing at times, a matter of applying narrow rules and arcane procedure to an uncooperative reality … But that’s not all the law is. The law is also memory; the law also records a long-running conversation, a nation arguing with its conscience.”
Tony Blair, however, is perhaps more remembered for the laws that he brought in, such as the Human Rights Act and Freedom of Information laws (or the laws that were allegedly broken in the run-up to the Iraq War), as opposed to the lawyer he once was — let’s not forget that he did always say that his wife, former Matrix Chambers barrister Cherie Booth QC, was the better advocate.
Junior lawyer earnings could exceed £100,000 with bonuses, says firm
Simmons & Simmons has become the latest City player to up the base salaries of its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers.
It confirmed NQs will now receive a salary of £79,000, up 5% or £4,000 from a previous rate of £75,000. The firm, however, said “high performing” NQs in London could earn in excess of £100,000 with bonuses.
Focusing on base rates, Legal Cheek‘s Firms Most List shows Simmons’ new associates are now £1,000 better off than their opposite numbers at Mayer Brown.
Simmons, which takes on around 25 trainees annually, has also increased the salaries of its NQs in Bristol. They will now receive £52,000, an extra £1,000 or 2%.
Trainees in London receive £44,000 in year one, rising to £48,000 in year two, while their Bristol-based counterparts receive £38,000 and £39,000 respectively.
The pay uplift comes after the firm reported a 4% increase in its profit per equity partner (PEP) to £710,000 and a 6% bump in revenue to £347 million. Profit jumped by 9% to £119 million for the year ending 30 April 2019.
“This is the third consecutive year of strong financial performance for the firm and we are making good progress against our business plan,” managing partner Jeremy Hoyland said. “The year has been one of continued focus on client relationships and client service and how we can deliver smarter solutions for our clients.”
The environmental activist group Extinction Rebellion has parked a boat outside the main entrance of the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ).
Arriving outside the historic building this morning, the blue yacht bears the name of Polly Higgins, a Scottish-born barrister turned environmental lobbyist, who sadly passed away earlier this year.
The protest is just one of a number of demonstrations taking place this week across London, Cardiff, Leeds, Bristol and Glasgow. Calling for greater government action on the climate crisis, Extinction Rebellion has positioned large boats at each protest, emblazoned with the message “Act Now!”
— Extinction Rebellion UK (@XRebellionUK) July 15, 2019
At one point a protestor could be seen creating giant bubbles as she stood on the deck of the boat, while others performed yoga or meditated in the middle of the road, bringing traffic to a standstill.
“A beautiful armada of rebel boats is taking to the roads across key cities now,” the group wrote in one tweet. “It’s a pity it has come to this but amazing that citizens are standing up with courage, creativity and deep resolve.”
The boat’s arrival at the RCJ comes after the eco-group staged an 11-day protest in April that brought central London to a standstill.
Stonewall index celebrates businesses inclusion efforts
Six City law firms have secured places on this year’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) ‘Top Global Employers’ list.
Produced by the charity Stonewall, the annual list showcases the endeavours of multinational businesses who have gone above and beyond to create “inclusive workplaces” for LGBT staff. It is compiled using the charity’s ‘Global Workplace Equality Index’, a benchmarking tool which assesses entrants on a range of criteria including training, staff engagement and leadership.
Other top employers to make the cut include Accenture, Barclays, BP, GlaxoSmithKline, HSBC, RBS, SAP and Vodafone. The list was formally announced yesterday evening at a ceremony in London.
As well as bagging spots on this year’s list, HSF scooped the ‘Global Community Engagement Award’ for its work with local and regional LGBT and human rights groups, while Georgia Dawson, Asia managing partner at Freshfields, secured the ‘Global Senior Champion Award’ for her work helping forge partnerships with professional LGBT networks.
Commenting on her success, Dawson said: “It is a real honour to receive the Global Senior Champion Award from a respected organisation like Stonewall. The award actually reflects the work of a large number of colleagues who believe, as I do, that what we are doing as an organisation is vital because it engages a fundamental human right — equality.”
Ruth Hunt, chief executive of Stonewall added: “In recent years, there’s been great progress in lesbian, gay, bi and trans rights in many countries throughout the world. Yet despite this, the fight is far from over. There’s been a row back on the few protections LGBT people have and some countries are becoming increasingly repressive, with LGBT people facing widespread discrimination, violence and persecution. Multinational employers have a vital role to play in changing this.”
Taylor Wessing has upped the base salaries of its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers by a healthy 8% as the war over junior talent in the City intensifies.
The outfit confirmed its fresh-faced associates will see their salaries increase from £71,000 to £77,000, equating to an extra £6,000. The tech-focused firm did add, however, that NQs could take home up to £92,400 with bonuses.
“We have many talented people who are experts in their fields,” talent director, Wendy Tomlinson said. “They have all contributed to another year of record success and we’re pleased to make an investment in our salary review this year based on the progress and level of profitability we’ve achieved.”
The pay move comes less than a month after the outfit, which was crowned ‘Firm of the Year 2019’ after securing an impressive eight A*s in our Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, announced a 20% uplift in UK profit per equity partner (PEP) to £579,000 and a 12% jump in UK revenue growth to £145 million.
Lambeth not-for-profit goes to the wall with immediate effect
Lambeth Law Centre has closed down with immediate effect as it emerged that half of all not-for-profit legal advice providers have gone the same way since 2013.
The law centre’s trustees cited “financial pressures caused by legal aid cuts and increased operating costs” as behind the closure. A statement released overnight added that “having failed to secure emergency funding to keep the Law Centre going, we were left with no choice but to decide on closure”.
The law centre’s last published accounts had pointed to the “difficult and uncertain” environment for law centres generally, but also revealed that Lambeth had recently underpaid VAT and had to work out a payment plan with HMRC.
Established in 1981, Lambeth Law Centre provided advice on the likes of debt, welfare benefits, employment and housing in the inner London borough. Mark George QC, head of chambers at Garden Court North, said it was “a terrible day for the poor and disadvantaged you have served so well all these years”.
There had been rumours in the legal aid sector that Lambeth was in financial difficulties, with projects based at the centre flying the nest. The Public Interest Law Centre has been found a new home at another law centre, according to the Law Centres Network.
Nimrod Ben-Cnaan, the network’s head of policy and profile, said:
“Lambeth Law Centre has had a proud record of service to south Londoners priced out of justice. We are all very sad at its closure, which the Law Centres Network has worked hard to help it avoid. Its loss, due to adversity we all share, strengthens our movement’s resolve to fight on for social justice for our communities.”
Half the not-for-profit legal advice services in England and Wales have shut their doors over the past few years, according to the government’s own figures . In 2013/14 there were 94, but by 2019/20 only 47 remained.
Lambeth’s closure will nevertheless increase the pressure on politicians to act to salvage the legal aid sector. The Guardian reported yesterday that central funding for law centres through legal aid contracts has fallen from £12 million to £7 million.
Super-exam also tipped as pro-diversity by entrepreneur
The Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE) could lead to four times as many solicitors, Mark Edwards, senior vice-president of Rocket Lawyer, the online legal services provider, said at an innovation conference earlier this month.
Edwards argued before delegates at the conference that: “The vast majority of graduates on the [Legal Practice Course] don’t get training contracts and find themselves left on the shelf. That’s all going to change. They will be able to do paralegal work and supervise paralegal work in-house, in tech companies, in law firms, in retailers — wherever they are.”
Speaking at the Solicitors Regulation Authority’s (SRA) get together, he said: “In a few years’ time we’re going to see probably four times as many solicitors out there… Then suddenly we are going to be able to help all those people currently not able to access justice.”
If Edwards’ prediction is correct, what does that actually mean in numbers? According to SRA figures, 7,000 individuals were admitted to the roll from June 2018 to the same time in 2019. Though not all people on the roll practice as solicitors (practising certificate-holders are usually around two-thirds of those admitted), if Edwards is right, that’s 28,000 solicitors every year, an increase of 20% on current numbers (there are roughly 140,000 solicitors with practising certificates, according to the Law Society).
In the report in Legal Futures, Edwards is cited as arguing that the SQE is responsible for this “transformative” time in legal services but also mentions the impact of new rules that come in later this year which will allow would-be solicitors to be regulated “individually” as freelancers.
Clearly, he’s a big fan of the SRA: “I think it’s astonishing what the SRA are putting in place here — in an amazing way.”
Also speaking at the conference was Mary Bonsor, the legal entrepreneur who helped set up F-LEX, the online platform getting LPC students placements at law firms. She argued that the new SQE would: “really increase diversity”. Bonsor said: “At the moment… you have to put yourself through the LPC and be out of pocket at least £20,000, which frankly half the country wouldn’t be able to afford.”
But the likes of Edwards and Bonsor are at odds with many young lawyers who view the SQE as lowering standards and having a negative impact on social mobility. Just last month, the Law Society’s junior lawyers division (JLD) which represents approximately 70,000 LPC students, trainees and solicitors with up to five years’ post qualification experience, called on a committee of MPs to launch an inquiry into the decision to green-light the SQE.
Current JLD chair, Amy Clowrey, stated in an open letter to the Justice Committee: “[The] changes will lead to a decrease in the standard of assessment and experience necessary to qualify as a solicitor and ultimately a decline in the service provided to consumers (with a consequent deterioration in the reputation of the profession domestically and internationally)”.
Clowrey also raised concerns about a “negative social mobility impact” of the SQE as a result of the cost of taking the exam, likely to be around £3,000 to £4,500.
Speaking to Legal Cheek this afternoon, Clowrey said: “The JLD has been concerned, since the announcement of the development of the SQE, that the bottleneck currently faced by LPC graduates upon trying to secure the elusive training contract will shift to those seeking NQ positions. The JLD brought this issue to the attention of the SRA over 3 years ago.”
Potential earnings could exceed £100,000 with bonus
Baker McKenzie announced today a whopping 23% increase in its pay packet for newly qualified (NQ) solicitors to £95,000. The package includes a £90,000 base salary and a £5,000 signing-on bonus, a total uplift of almost a quarter from the previous level of £77,000.
There is also the potential to reap further rewards with a performance-related bonus that could, according to the firm: “[bring] their potential earnings to more than £100,000.” A spokesperson at the firm said:
“We are committed to remunerating our people fairly and competitively. Accordingly, we have raised our NQ package in line with the London market.”
The news brings Bakers’ NQ salaries roughly inline with magic circle firms. The total potential payout at Linklaters, for instance, is £100,000 (a combination of base salary and performance-related bonus). Ditto at Clifford Chance. Outside of the magic circle, Herbert Smith Freehills pays at a similar level (£105,000 if you include performance-related pay) to Bakers’ new heights.
This will be good news to many since, according to the most recentLegal Cheek Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, one of the main gripes at Bakers has been the NQ pay.
(@XRebellionUK) 
