Ever-decreasing circles 

In the course of your careers research, you may have come across the term ‘silver circle’, the collective name for a group of London corporate firms slightly below the magic circle but ahead of the rest in terms of profitability and quality of work. No one has ever really disputed Ashurst’s place right behind the magic circle. It’s a UK top 20 firm, whether the criteria you’re going by is size, or revenue, or profitability; and its core corporate and finance departments are real powerhouses that work on deals that would not look out of place at magic circle firms. For example, it advised five major banks on the financing of RBS’s 80.1% sale of WorldPay; Apax Partners on the $830m acquisition of a majority interest in antivirus software company Sophos; and on a $2.6bn hostile takeover bid for Dana Petroleum.

Ashurst is happy to be described as an international, rather than a global, firm. Recruitment partner David Carter expanded on this for us: “We are still growing and have not suffered in the recession, but with the backdrop of faltering economics in Western Europe, we need to be visible in the regions of economic growth. We’ve set up offices in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong" [in 2005, 2008 and 2009 respectively]. The firm flirted with two different US firms around the turn of the millennium, before deciding that a merger partner might cramp its ‘genteel’ style and opening its own offices in New York and Washington. Mid-recession, it brought in a team of finance lawyers from New York firm McKee Nelson, while it also wins referral work from American allies (on the basis that it doesn’t have a major US presence). To get a slice of the lucrative South American pie, it is clearly thinking about its position in the States.

In addition to the five overseas offices already mentioned, you’ll also find the Ashurst nameplate screwed on to buildings in eight European cities, plus Singapore and Tokyo.

Bank to basics 

Two of the four seats are spent in corporate and international finance, the latter of which comprises SDG, loan markets and real estate finance. This is compulsory, but Ashurst trainees aren’t complaining, having known what they had signed up for. The firm makes a noticeable effort to place trainees in their seats of choice when they can. “My two optional choices were taken into account very strongly and I got them both. If you really make it clear from day one what you want, then it will be taken on board,” explained one second-year.

Finance first. Ashurst’s long-standing relationships with investment banks has proved fruitful in the post-credit crunch years. Key clients include all the big names: Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Barclays, Santander and many more. Additionally, the firm advised the Icelandic government on compensation arrangements for savers in Icesave, a national bank of Iceland. Trainees in international finance reported a “hands-on” role within the “incredibly friendly” group. It really lives up to its name – our sources reported handling work arriving from Ashurst’s Frankfurt, Paris, Madrid and Singapore outposts. “You often find yourself a key point of contact between different offices,” revealed one. “You get to know your clients quite well and build up a relationship. I also collected comments from overseas counsel on overseas documents.” Within the department are several subteams, which sometimes provide more responsibility. In the “very highly regarded” loan markets team, for example, one source reported “more involvement in the direct drafting of ancillary documents and things.” In debt capital markets, the work “can be fast-paced – sometimes you only have a three-hour deadline to turn something around,” a source revealed. “But you do get smaller chunks of work rather than big ones, so they always know your pace of work.”

The corporate department has seen a significant increase in M&A work following the recovery of the credit markets. Despite enjoying a reputation as being somewhat intense, trainees in the seat reported being well managed – “even if you’re with a partner, a junior associate will supervise.” If we did hear quite a few reports of due diligence tasks and data room management for our sources, “by no means do you spend six months photocopying,” trainees clarified.

Hell for leather 

Many of Ashurst’s litigation clients are financial institutions (for example, it acted for RBS defending a claim brought by a Taiwanese shipping company, claiming debt exceeding $200m), while some come in through other departments – real estate and employment contain strong contentious practices. Juniors must be prepared for plenty of bundling – but in the words of one, “seeing your stuff going out to clients negates that.” Other tasks are research-based: “You’re given free rein to manage that yourself, but any drafting you do is under an awful lot of supervision.” Hours can be long for short periods – say two weeks at a times – but as one trainee said, “I always felt my late nights were appreciated.” Another had their stint on a particularly high-value arbitration rewarded – they got to spend time at the case hearing “and see my work in action.” Another matter handled by the dispute resolution team included a case on behalf of Deloitte, all to do with a group litigation brought by purchasers of furniture from the now-defunct Land of Leather in January 2009 (they claimed a chemical used to prevent mould growth caused allergic skin reactions).

The popular competition department suits academic types who may feel slightly frustrated with the “ceiling of responsibility” in other seats. Trainees “can’t rate the department highly enough,” and indeed the group, now 18-strong, expanded during the recession. Big-name clients include Intel, Morrisons and National Express, and the department acted on two “flagship litigation matters” in 2011. The first was for Imperial Tobacco, in their appeal against an OFT fine of £225m for price-fixing. The second was Virgin Media and BSkyB’s tussle with Ofcom: the two teamed up in an attempt to overturn a decision that would force Sky to wholesale two of its sports channels to pay TV rivals ­on terms set by Ofcom. Trainees enthused about the “more complex stuff” they saw in this seat, “drafting from scratch and getting lots of legal research.” Work often consists of looking at Office of Fair Trade decisions and weighing up arguments: “If they previously cleared a similar type of merger, then you can go ahead. If one business is taking over another business, then your supervisor will have arguments for why it doesn’t pose competition concerns. Associates have to know about lots of different sectors – some are supermarket specialists, for example.” In cases like that, trainees might find themselves browsing Google Maps to look for rival stores in the area.

Homewreckers 

Ashurst offers a handful of client secondments (mainly to banks) in addition to a similar number of international secondments: Paris, Brussels, Frankfurt, Madrid, Milan, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo were all on the table at the time of our calls. Those who’d spent time away praised the “considerable level of involvement” they were given – due to smaller overseas offices, they will often be the sole trainee there. Trainees also have the option to take one of their mandatory finance or corporate seats internationally.

Other seats include real estate, tax, employment, incentives and pensions (EIP), but the only one we’ll talk about in more detail is ETI (energy, transport and infrastructure), because it really is top-class. The team is currently working on the largest transport infrastructure development in the world, London’s very own Crossrail. We suppose that means Ashurst is indirectly responsible for razing Chambers and Partners’ attractive (from the outside) office on Long Lane to the ground – we had to move house to make way for Farringdon station’s new ticket hall. It is also working on a $6.5bn highway project in western Turkey, on a $7bn metro project in Kuwait, on the Addenbrookes Hospital PFI project in Cambridge, and on all sorts of energy projects, be they oil, gas, coal, wind or solar power-related. Ashurst also has a good number of clients in the waste sector (waste disposal contractors, water treatment plants, etc). “My supervisor did transport work,” one trainee informed us, “but we’re told that we’re not strictly our supervisor’s trainee. We don’t have to specialise in what they do, and we get capacity e-mails from all over the department.”

Across the firm, informal feedback from supervisors is frequent and helpful – “they don’t ever give someone a piece of work and stay quiet about it,” was one person’s experience. Likewise, the formal ‘360 degree review’ system is helpful although “it can be long-winded.”

Not so soft 

Many of its trainees say the sort of people who come to Ashurst “could have gone to magic circle firms if they wanted, by virtue of education and personality, but have made the distinct choice not to.” They praised it as “a fair, fun and progressive place to work” and many had been drawn to the firm precisely because of its pleasant reputation and personable population. Recruitment partner David Carter, however, was hasty to dispel any idea that Ashurst might somehow be all sunshine and roses and long weekend lie-ins. “People wrongly see us as a softer option to the magic circle,” he said. “We do have a great reputation for being a nice firm, but in the quality of work that we do, we have the same mindset as the magic circle. We respect and love our culture but it’s not our raison d’être. It’s a by-product of very interesting clients and challenging deals.” You’ve just read about trainees’ experiences of the main departments above – does it really sound so different from life at the magic circle?

But it is definitely true that Ashurst has a jolly good reputation, and it’s strong in certain universities in particular. Word about the firm always seems to travel around the Oxbridge crowd, and there’s currently a strong trainee showing from Bristol, too.

Our sources described their peers as “adventurous,” “enthusiastic” and “well rounded,” and maintained that they are a diverse crowd. “A couple of us are from second careers, and there are a couple of eccentrics! Some would rather listen to Rihanna and some would rather go to Glyndebourne,” was the view of one. Most pursue active lives outside of Ashurst’s occasionally punishing hours. The full range of sports teams are all present and correct, as well as frequent firm-organised events, for example monthly 4pm tea and cakes for litigators. Sociability varies between intakes, but many attend regular Friday drinks and house parties. Finally, Ashurst’s pro bono programme is worthy of note – it is one of the few British firms that allows trainees to get experience helping out on Death Row appeals.

And finally... 

“We’re always acting opposite the magic circle, so I feel at the top of my game,” said one source. This year, 47 out of 50 second-years were allowed to stay at the top of theirs, being retained as NQs.