The direction of diversification
“Originally we were primarily a structured finance office,” HR director Jerry Gallagher told us, commenting on the evolution of the London office that has taken place in the recession, but “now we have a much broader practice in London.” This department, Sidley's speciality, is still the most sizeable in the firm's London base, but unsurprisingly the influx of work to the team has decreased since the economic downturn. Is this such a terrible thing for those at Sidley? Not necessarily, and especially not for the trainees we spoke to. In fact, they were all rather upbeat about it: “In terms of training, the recession has been a good thing, as it has forced the other teams to develop and become independent. As a trainee you get exposed to a variation of work that is not just linked to international finance – this process is still happening, and the training contract will continue to get broader.” Among the areas that have been bolstered are insolvency, capital markets, regulatory, insurance and disputes: “Those are the areas that are certainly recruiting for associate positions at the moment,” Gallagher revealed. What this means for trainees is a training contract that no longer requires a compulsory six to twelve-month stay in the International Finance Group (IFG), and a wider range of departments to choose from. As one trainee summarised, Sidley is moving “in the direction of diversification.”
Our sources were attracted to the idea of working “for a smaller London firm with a massive international network behind it,” providing them with “interesting work and global clients.” Since the merger of Chicago's Sidley & Austin with New York's Brown & Wood in May 2001, the firm has opened in Geneva, Brussels, Frankfurt and Sydney, adding to non-US offices that already existed in Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo and Singapore.
And, of course, London. Founded in 1974, the City office near the Bank of England has been one of the firm's most successful international outposts, and is the largest in Europe. Originally established as a US law practice, it has been practising English law since 1994 and the vast majority of its lawyers are now UK-qualified. As already stated, the IFG is still predominant, and is demonstrating signs of recovery: it is hiring again for the first time since the recession, after a slight rise in London revenue in 2010/11, from $75.4m to $75.9m. In addition to this group, there are a collection of teams that both draw in work independently and support the financial focus of the office: tax, corporate, capital markets, insurance, dispute resolution, regulatory, real estate, competition, employment, IP and commercial.
Haggling for a good deal
The first seat is allocated to trainees with no consultation, but for subsequent rotations an informal meeting with the HR team gives them the chance to express what they would like their next destination to be. Second-year trainees generally get priority. While a small trainee intake makes it “easier for HR to slot us into where we want to be,” sometimes – given that most teams take on one trainee at a time – “it becomes difficult when your friend wants to do the same thing as you.” Overall, trainees were happy with the process, however. As for overseas seats, trainees can currently opt to spend six months in Brussels, but with European expansion on the horizon, there was optimism that in the future more international seats will be available.
Although a seat in the IFG is no longer compulsory, it is nonetheless still “likely,” and trainees will encounter work across the department's three teams: general international finance, derivatives and property. Despite the drop-off in securitisation work during the recession, trainees found that the department has “got busier and busier” as time has gone on, and were given work that ranged from “mundane proof-reading and due diligence to really interesting work such as drafting security agreements and negotiating them.” Negotiating can be the most fun part of the job, as well as the most challenging: “As a trainee you don't want to back down! This isn't your typical day-to-day haggling: you have your reasons for not wanting certain terms in the agreement and you want to get a good result when you're working for someone senior.” Working on a securitisation also involves checking that amendments have been added to agreements and also checking up on previous ones to identify potential risk factors. Those in the property group had worked on “property restructuring deals across many jurisdictions” and had the opportunity to run their own files. Trainees repeatedly underscored the complexity of the seat, and commented that a lot of it is “over the head of a first-year trainee,” but praised their supervisors, who are “great, and always take the time to explain.”
The capital markets team has recently been bolstered by the hire of former Clifford Chance partner Stephen Roith, and has maintained a client list which includes some of the world's biggest banks, such as JPMorgan. The work in this department certainly has an international flavour, and the group often works with Sidley's offices in Hong Kong, Sydney and New York on transactions for Asian, Australian and US clients. Sources commented on a nice mix of work, but cautioned: “You have to know what you are getting yourself into – expect a lot of billable hours.” All our interviewees knew what to expect and had enjoyed the challenge.
In funds, trainees noted that “you have to keep your eye on the ball,” as there have been a lot of developments in this area over the past couple of years. Trainees found that they didn't have as much responsibility here as they did in other seats, but “that's probably because a lot of the work is conducted at a high level.”
The corporate department receives a steady flow of M&A work – mainly from US corporate clients with exotic names such as Cognizant Technology Solutions, MassMutual and Allscripts-MiSys Healthcare Solutions – most of which is cross-border in nature. Trainees informed us that the team has “been working to full capacity and has had to turn work down.” At the time of our calls, most of our sources had been working on “post-closing formalities” such as drafting completion agendas. Trainees can split a seat in corporate with either employment or tax.
Employment is a good seat to do in conjunction with corporate, as matters do tend to be “corporate support-type issues,” such as the transfer of employees when two companies merge. Contentious cases featuring employees who claim to have been victimised or abused are “a lot more interesting, as they tend to be advisory and therefore demand far more research – those are the cases that you can be involved from the beginning until the end.” Trainees detailed exciting unfair dismissal cases where all kinds of “dodgy stuff” was uncovered, resulting in “cases referred to the police and the breakdown of negotiations.” Trainees found the work in the tax department “technical and so complex – a refined skill, as it were,” and were required to conduct research into specific tax legislation, with the aim of producing a memo for their supervisor. One trainee underscored the usefulness of spending some time in tax: “It complements every area of law. Whether you're working on due diligence, a finance transaction or an insolvency issue, you have to have some understanding of tax – nearly everything we do at Sidley has an tax implication.” Other potential seat options include competition, dispute resolution, insolvency, insurance and regulatory.
Curiouser and curiouser
“A distinctive culture? I would say that the only distinctive thing about the culture is that it is more conservative than other firms,” announced one trainee. We were surprised by that comment at first, because we had heard from other trainees about relaxed dress codes and chino-adorned partners, but our source put it into perspective: “By that I mean that there is a higher expectation in terms of the general demeanour and behaviour of the trainees. It's the result of having a smaller trainee intake. When you work so closely with senior members of the firm you do fall in line with the way in which they behave.” Others corroborated this, underscoring their level of contact with partners as a reason for their contentment with the training contract. Trainees also noticed that many successful candidates “are slightly older, 25-plus usually, and have been in some other area of work previously.”
How 'American' is the office? “Well, there are no American flags in the office if that's what you're implying,” remarked one trainee. “I feel that it's more like a City firm with a Sidley Austin name. We don't feel like a satellite outpost in London.” Gallagher agreed with this assessment, adding that “the London office has really developed its own identity. The number of US lawyers in the office is now less than 10% of the total, and that's because there has been more of a focus on home-grown trainees progressing through the ranks.” Indeed, 2011 saw the first promotion to partner of one of the office's original trainees, while all seven qualifiers were kept on as NQs.
“There are only seven trainees in our intake, so we're all good friends and socialise a lot,” affirmed one interviewee, telling us about group lunches in the canteen and regular drinks in nearby watering-holes The Old Doctor Butler's Head and Davy's (which is located in the basement of the building). There isn't a trainee budget, and interviewees had a few gripes about “the absence of formal events paid for by the firm;” however, it was conceded that when the firm does lay on an event, it “pushes the boat out for it,” and there was a fantastic Halloween party that saw the whole office transformed into scenes from Alice in Wonderland. “It's a family event, so people bring their partners and children and have a great time.” Christmas parties at Merchant Taylors" Hall and summer barbecues on the office's rooftop terrace are also social highlights of the year.
And finally...
“We are a small office, but we feel the work we do is comparable to the magic circle and we are hitting with the big hitters all the time.”