Current affairs
Irwin Mitchell has massively expanded in the last 25 years or so into a truly national firm of over 1,000 spread over its offices in Sheffield, Birmingham, Glasgow, Leeds, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Bristol. It also has offices in Madrid and Málaga. It has long been known for its personal injury (PI) and clinical negligence practices (both considered among the best in the country by Chambers UK), but it is also very strong in a range of areas, many of them contentious, such as debt recovery, product liability, fraud and private client. There is a focus on growing the business side of the firm, as indicated by moves such as the recent hire of a large team of real estate lawyers from SJ Berwin.
“Despite having been in existence for 100 years, the firm still feels very vibrant and eager to adapt,” one of our sources said. Indeed, as the implementation of the Legal Services Act approaches, IM has confirmed it is to become one of the first firms to embrace 'Tesco law' and “turn what could be seen as a threat into an opportunity” by becoming an Alternative Business Structure and thereby enabling outside investment. It's early days, but the implications could be massive – make sure you keep up to date with this story as it develops.
The Sheffield, London and Birmingham offices each have a trainee count of around 15, while Newcastle, Manchester and Leeds have between six and ten. The relatively new Bristol office currently only has one trainee, but we're told the intake here will probably grow. Unusually, prospective trainees apply for 'streams' – a 'personal' one focusing on private client-y seats (including personal injury, clin neg, family and Court of Protection) and a 'business' one focusing more on commercial work. The personal stream takes more trainees than the business stream, and the Newcastle and Bristol offices currently only offer the personal one. It isn't possible to change stream, so applicants should be sure of the area they want to work in. “If you're not sure where you want to qualify, it would be better to have more variety, but I knew what I wanted to do and I've enjoyed being able to build up more experience in that area,” said one source.
The other idiosyncrasy of IM's training contract is the seat structure: trainees experience three seats of four months followed by one twelve-month seat. The idea is that trainees complete the last seat in a department they've already experienced, making the transition to 'qualified lawyer' status that much smoother. Different offices have different seats available, and offices with fewer trainees may not offer much choice – there's a full list of what you can do where right here. When it comes to the final seat, the firm is very accommodating, so there isn't much chance of trainees being forced into qualifying into a practice area they aren't interested in, although we did hear of a few moving location in order to get their 'long' seat (and NQ position, if retained) in their preferred department. Otherwise, most trainees stay in one office for the duration of their training contract, with the exception of a few personal-stream trainees who are asked to go to Sheffield or Manchester for a special seat in costs to learn about business development issues like billing and winning clients. Our sources hadn't been too keen on the idea of this seat, but those who had completed it admitted to finding it useful: “I'm seen as the cost guru in every team that I go to – even the partners ask for my thoughts!”
Humble PI?
The PI practice is thriving, and we heard there are plenty of qualification opportunities. If anything, the recession has helped the personal injury practice, because “when people need money they suddenly remember things that happened to them!” The practice is "market-leading, so people who have applied and got in are really passionate about PI and helping people. If I wanted to make the most money I'd go to corporate, but I like that I can get really involved in people's lives,” one trainee said. “That makes me want to work harder than if I were doing a commercial transaction I didn't feel anything for.”
Trainees are involved in valuing claims as well as looking at liability. The seat offers huge amounts of client contact, with trainees meeting with clients and witnesses and taking statements, as well as looking over medical records to decide whether they are useful for the case, drafting instructions to counsel, instructing experts to prepare reports and drafting pleadings at court. There are also opportunities to go to court and do some advocacy. In all, one trainee estimated she spent 30% of her time outside the office during this seat. Trainees are also responsible for taking new enquiries, which involves getting information from members of the public who think they might have a case. A strong stomach is sometimes required to digest all this PI, since “clients sometimes e-mail you weird pictures of their injuries, which isn't great if you're about to eat your lunch!”
The medical law and patient rights seat deals with medical malpractice claims, including a lot of birth injuries, while the neurotrauma/serious injury team handles mainly brain and spinal injuries. Because of the firm's place in the market it deals with many of the highest-value cases, which can be “a bit of an eye-opener.” Trainees here are unlikely to see a case through from start to finish because they're usually lengthy – “you don't know the full extent of a brain injury until three years after it happens.” By contrast, in the asbestos-related disease seat, “clients usually only have nine to 12 months to live once they've been diagnosed, so things have to move quickly. You have to be quite strong, since it's often really sad. They're usually brilliant people.” The international travel litigation seat tends to see lower-value but varied claims stemming from accidents and illness abroad, be it road accidents, salmonella-infested hotel food or shark attacks.
Back to business
“Sometimes the business side of the firm is overlooked because of the high profile PI enjoys, but it's actually of a really good standard,” trainees in the business and private client stream told us. Our judgement, and that of Chambers UK, is that PI/clin neg is still the strongest part of the firm by some distance. IM's best showings for the likes of corporate and real estate come in Yorkshire, where it is ranked alongside local, rather than national, rivals. This isn't to say that business-stream trainees won't get a good training, and they certainly have a wide range of seats to choose from, including insolvency, commercial litigation, commercial property, corporate and employment.
Commercial litigation is “a very busy department, and a really good challenge.” Trainees agreed that the hours are longer than many other seats but that there were great training opportunities because they were able to take on a lot of responsibility and had opportunities to go to court. Typical matters include partnership disputes and professional negligence matters, varying in value from thousands to millions. The firm also recently worked on a falling out between a then-Premier League football club and its former chairman.
Trainees in the employment seat also had a lot of contact with clients, who were either businesses or individuals and again there are plenty of chances to go to court. Non-contentious seats include 'commercial and public sector', and commercial property. The former is a research-heavy seat since it is to do with heavily regulated areas like charities and the FSA. Involving “quite technical stuff,” it's a good choice for those who enjoyed law school, as “a lot of the questions are like exam questions you get on the LPC!” In property, where clients include Thorntons, HSBC and Sheffield Hallam University, trainees often work “quite closely” with the corporate department. They all seem to know their way around the Land Registry website by the end of the seat as well.
IM's a BFG
IM has several large offices, and trainees feel they operate more or less independently of each other, although the (open plan) layout and decor is pretty much the same everywhere – right down to the coffee pots, apparently. The Sheffield office has a canteen that also doubles as a venue for charity quiz nights and the like. The other offices have kitchens, trolley service and brightly coloured breakout areas with vending and drinks machines.
Trainees in most offices tend to socialise amongst themselves quite a lot, and there are sports teams and departmental events everywhere, but the fullness of the social calendar varies between offices. In Sheffield, “there are quite a lot of social activities which have been going on for a long time and are really useful for getting people across all levels together,” and the Birmingham and Manchester lot are particularly involved in the local trainee solicitors' groups, but those in London were under the impression that their friends at other City firms had a lot more fun. Trainees did enjoy being able to socialise with other trainees at their induction and PSC sessions, which all take place in Sheffield. They are also strongly encouraged to take part in networking and client entertainment events. “I was surprised by the amount of business development I've been involved in – being a trainee here isn't just about ticking off everything on the SRA list: you're there as part of the team.”
IM is a “big friendly giant,” according to one interviewee. “Everyone's dead friendly. You can't really tell who's a partner and who's a trainee,” another agreed. “We'll eat, drink and be merry during client entertainment, and then we'll knuckle down and work really hard back in the office,” said one in the business stream, while another from personal confirmed: “It's laid-back in the sense that it's friendly, but people do work really hard – we do take fighting for our clients really seriously.” Our sources felt that “there aren't really any flashy people. Partners have nice cars because they're company cars and they have to put the right image forward, not because they're particularly flashy themselves.”
The hours are good – 8am to 6pm seemed to be average, and “nobody thinks it's weird if you leave at 5pm.” If trainees are in until 8pm, it's considered a late night, and we hear they don't get a BlackBerry to carry around at weekends until they're a few rungs further up the ladder. Correspondingly, the pay is “not that great. If you want that champagne culture where you work really long hours and are financially rewarded for that, IM probably isn't for you.” Personal-stream trainees felt that “the salary is competitive for PI, but not overall – if we were in a business team that was as highly regarded as our PI team is, we'd be paid a lot more.” On the other hand, many trainees felt they “preferred the work/life balance to getting a really competitive salary,” and were more than happy with remuneration that is “enough to live on and still buy shoes.”
Recruiters are apparently “less focused on academic credentials and more on your drive as an individual. You've got to be prepared to throw yourself into everything – work, business development and social events.” Trainees come from everywhere “from Oxbridge to former polys,” and several of our sources had ended up at IM after having spent some time paralegalling at the firm. Applicants with previous careers are welcomed. Apparently, “in PI anyone with a medical background is a walking god,” while in the business and private client stream “it's important to be able to adapt to areas you're not too familiar with, since all the seats are in entirely different areas.” “I'd advise people applying to make the most of the experiences on their CV – the firm is looking at the whole picture, not just your education,” was one trainee's top tip.
And finally...
This down-to-earth firm offers good training in specific practice areas and would be a good choice for applicants who are already confident they know the area in which they want to practise. In 2011, a total of 28 out of 32 second-years stayed on at IM upon qualification.