Where’s Percival?
As has been the case with many firms, the past couple of years have brought challenges for this Leicester, Northampton, Norwich and Milton Keynes-based business, but it maintains its traditional strengths in areas like corporate, litigation and employment while branching out into new practices. It recently launched a family law group in Leicester with the hire of Harvey Ingram partner Jane Cowley, who will also spearhead growth of the firm’s private client presence in the East Midlands offices. In 2008 the loss of the bulk of its Milton Keynes office when 30 lawyers defected to Denton Wilde Sapte (now SNR Denton) was definitely a blow. HP’s presence in that city is now reduced to a small residential and conveyancing practice with no training scheme. However, in March 2010 it announced the establishment of a small London office dedicated to insolvency and corporate recovery, expected to open in late 2010. Partner Nick Oliver’s team is still tiny, but who knows, maybe some day trainees will be able to work in the capital.
HP is weathering the double-whammy of the recession plus reduced fee income from Milton Keynes fairly well. In the midst of it all, it picked up some high-profile bankruptcy litigation, including one of The Lawyer’s ‘Top 10 cases for 2010’, defending the administrators and the purchasers of a law firm that went into pre-packaged administration against claims that the firm was undervalued when it was sold.
HP wins a great deal of public sector instructions, including assisting HM Revenue & Customs on MTIC (Missing Trader Intra Community) cases – a kind of VAT fraud that costs the government billions every year. Is that what Nick Clegg was referring to in those TV debates, we wonder? The firm also attracts business from national and international companies looking to buy legal services below City prices. Considering the firm has big-name clients like Welcome Break, Nampak, Shanks and The British Racing Drivers Club, the formula appears to be working. With high-quality clients and exciting opportunities on offer, trainees told us the firm makes good on the promise of what HR Officer Katy Pattle describes as “London-quality work with the lifestyle and time outside work that you wouldn’t get in London.”
Meeting in the Midlands
HP’s two fairly independent limbs operate wholly separate recruitment schemes. Prospective applicants choose either the East Midlands arm (Leicester and Northampton) or the Norwich office. East Midlands trainees rotate through four six-month seats, with a choice between commercial property; commercial litigation; company commercial; employment; private client and family law (only available in Leicester). The sole requirement is a contentious seat in either litigation or employment.
Most Midlands trainees spend time in both Leicester and Northampton before committing to one or other upon qualification. Our sources were grateful to experience what each had to offer, though occasionally people need to make inconvenient moves. Second-years have priority in seat allocation and “it can be a real bugbear for first-years to get posted to Leicester when your family’s in Northampton” while “the exciting seats get taken by second-years.” Ultimately “it comes down to whether they can accommodate you and the business need.” But most agreed: “They do their best to give you what you want.”
A seat in company commercial involves a range of corporate work including share and asset sales for big clients, many of whom are in the automotive or financial sectors. Trainees “get an awful lot of responsibility” that goes beyond due diligence to “drafting contracts” and “all the ancillary documents.” One newbie told us: “Quite often the partner will take you to a meeting with the clients to hear instructions and then you’ll get to prepare the first draft.” In the popular employment seat, newbies tackle contentious and advisory work. They pay their dues with administrative tasks like preparing bundles for tribunals, but “also take witness statements and draft responses to claims.” One lucky person got to craft a company’s policy on immigration, while another was “given a small claim to handle from beginning to end, including negotiating the settlement.” Employment brings some of the longest hours, “but by City standards they’re quite good,” with ten to eleven-hour days normally the maximum.
Commercial litigation trainees work with a host of Midlands-based and some multinational clients including waste management companies, clothing manufacturers and the aforementioned Welcome Break. Sources reported substantive tasks like “liaising with partners at other law firms” and even conducting smaller hearings in judges’ chambers and applications at the High Court. “I’ve done work I would never have had the opportunity to do at my level at other firms,” one happy source boasted. “While my peers have been in the backroom, I’ve had direct contact with our biggest clients.”
All our interviewees stressed that “the level of responsibility” and the “supportive environment” set HP apart. “One of the best things is that the partners are approachable” and “you get really good feedback.” We heard over and over that “students should know they can get excellent-quality work outside London.” Trainees were also eager to tell us that the hours are not quite so strenuous as we have previously reported. “For all the talk about the hours, it really isn’t bad,” one said. Others reported that, in the poorer economy, “I’ve rarely stayed later than 6.30pm.” Not bad considering the “salary is definitely higher in comparison to other local firms.”
A tale of two firms
Norwich and East Midlands trainees see little of each other. Said one: “It feels completely separate; we’re effectively two different firms.” As befits their East Anglian location, the agricultural estates and private client teams are each ranked well in Chambers UK. “We get old-school landed gentry types who wear hunting clothes,” a Norfolk source explained. But the office is also recognised for litigation, banking and finance, and employment. Seats are available to trainees in commercial litigation; agricultural and estates/tax planning; corporate; commercial property; and the increasingly busy insolvency department. One source enjoyed “working with clients in businesses I grew up with.”
Corporate restructuring and insolvency has become a major focus since the recession, and the Norwich team’s expertise earns a top Chambers UK rating in East Anglia. The CIAR (Civil Interventions and Asset Recovery) department serves several government creditor clients, including the Insolvency Service, for which it conducts directors’ disqualifications work, and HM Revenue & Customs, which the firm advised on an application to place Southend United FC into administration.
Northampton is “the traditional base from which Howes Percival grew.” This “cosier and quieter” office is located in an older building complete with “chandeliers, fancy meeting rooms and portraits on the wall.” While the Northampton office is “at the nicer end of a charming market town,” the Leicester office is in a business park. Leicester “has more of a buzz about it” and serves some of the firm’s bigger commercial clients. It is “very much seen as the slick, city office,” which some newbies say makes it feel “more driven and hierarchical.” Leicester also offers trainees more social opportunities in a wider selection of bars, restaurants and nightclubs. Plus the “shops are open until 8pm,” an important distinction from Northampton’s five o’clock. While the Midlands trainees will refer to Norwich as being “out in the sticks,” its own trainees praise it for being “more laid-back” and like that “you can’t walk through town without seeing someone you know.” Plus it’s pretty nice that on a typical day the office empties by 6pm.
Communication between the offices has been a challenge, sources said, though interaction has improved of late. The fissure between the Midlands and Norwich offices was most acutely felt when Midlands trainees found out about Norwich’s plans to open a London office through an article in The Lawyer. It was exciting news, but “we knew nothing about it” because “there was no official announcement.” One irritated source said: “It was kind of unprofessional because a client mentioned it and I didn’t even know about it.” While not as overt as that communication failure, even Leicester and Northampton do not operate as closely as they could, trainees said. Management is “trying to unify the firm” through department-wide meetings and “in the past year there’s been a noticeable emphasis on the offices working together.” While Leicester and Northampton tend to have separate clients, “we will sometimes refer work to each other.”
Trainees also called for more transparency from the top. “There is sometimes the feeling that it’s cloak and dagger and the partners don’t let trainees or even fee earners know what’s going on.” For example, “quite often they’ll appoint a new solicitor or someone will resign and people will not find out about it except via office gossip.” Naturally, one thing second-year trainees were really eager to learn was whether or not they would be taken on as NQs. In the end, four of 2010's seven qualifiers stayed.
Moving on
Many trainees had chosen HP specifically because they wanted to live near family and “the location was one of the main attractions.” Other than this, it was hard to pinpoint an HP type, save that they are “straightforward” and “without any airs.” For applicants, regional ties “aren’t a requirement but they do help.” “You must show that you genuinely want to work in a regional firm,” one source advised. “I know people from my LPC who applied to regional firms as a back-up to London firms. The people who are here really do want to be here.” Others explained that “work-life balance is one of the main reasons you choose the regions.” And as one sage source noted: “London firms sell themselves with a good salary and good clients without letting on that you have to work really long hours.”
The social scene prompted mixed reviews. Leicester sounds more active than the other two, with Friday night drinks fairly regular even if the party is tempered by the fact that “most people have to drive home.” In Northampton and Norwich, “people tend to go home straight after work” so there is more of a lunch culture helped by the fact that the offices are in town centres rather than on business parks. In terms of sports, there’s a squash ladder, football tournaments and table tennis. Some blame a lack of closeness among trainees on the multi-location training scheme. “I think our bond's weakened,” one source concluded. HP encourages bonding through firmwide events like the AGM and summer trainee party – usually a barbecue followed by “a night out in town.”
And how is morale generally? “We went through a period when Milton Keynes went and then came the recession redundancies” so “morale was naturally a bit low.” Our interviewees were hopeful for the future though. “After Milton Keynes, there was work to be done to improve the firm’s status,” one mused, “but I think that’s been done.” Trainees were happy with their choice. “The firm does what it says on the tin,” one commented. “It’s a regional firm with a very strong client base. It’s what I expected and what I wanted.” Another agreed: “I get exposure to good clients without working the long hours I would in London. It’s exactly what I thought it would be.”
And finally...
If you want quality work without London stress and you’ve got the East Midlands or Norfolk in your blood, or in your mind, HP could be a perfect match.
Note: Howes Percival did not feature in the most recent edition of the Student Guide. The following article was researched and written in July 2010.