Shoo-ting for the top
Shoosmiths doubled in size between 2002 and 2008, and it now has offices as far north as Manchester and as far south as Fareham. The firm, previously known mainly for debt recovery and personal injury services, is now functioning as a full-service operation. Corporate, litigation, employment and property departments are present and correct in all the main bases, and compete strongly in their regions. We'd advise a trip to the Chambers UK website to get a better idea of the firm's strengths in specific areas of the country.
A recessionary dip came in 2009 and 2010, with turnover taking a considerable knock. Redundancies and voluntary pay cuts for both associates and support staff followed. Cautionary measures such as these were not unique to Shoosmiths during this period, although you may have heard that the firm did meet with (slightly unfair) criticism after deciding to defer 2009 trainees without compensation. This particular storm has since blown over, with sources at the firm intimating that “deferralgate” may have been more of a molehill than a mountain. Nevertheless, trainees are all too aware of what the firm has survived. Due to reduced intakes and workload, many of those we spoke to had undertaken split seats, and some raised the fact that there is no longer much opportunity to travel to other offices to maximise the seat choices available to them.
“We've all learnt things from the recession,” said firm-wide training principal Matthew Kenwood, “and we're looking forwards not back.” Following some complaints about lack of communication, chief exec Claire Rowe and managing partner Andrew Tubbs now take a quarterly tour of every office, “updating us on figures and giving pats on backs.” Although overall turnover dropped for the third year running in 2010/11, revenue in the corporate department grew 9%, while the commercial department grew 8% and real estate 5%. Overall profits were up too, for the second year running. The firm put the overall decrease down to declining income from Access Legal. What's that? Well, since 2010, the firm's volume legal services teams have been separated from its commercial teams, with the spin-off service 'Access Legal from Shoosmiths' handling the firm's conveyancing, personal injury, and wills and probate work.
Furthermore, an imminent brand review is “really going to change the way we're presenting ourselves.” Shoosmiths' current tagline – 'Old fashioned manners, telling it straight and absolutely no stuffiness' – seems suddenly less applicable when dealing with an international client base and competing for work with firms in Manchester and Birmingham.
Round the houses
Training contracts are offered in Northampton, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Birmingham, Reading, Fareham and Manchester. With only a half-hour car journey between them, Milton Keynes and the Northampton headquarters count as one office for trainees. The London office acts as a meeting point for clients in the capital ("we still have to address the fact that we don't have a large office there,” say trainees), and Basingstoke is a machine for high-turnaround personal injury claims.
Due to the deferrals, we encountered a smaller trainee group at Shoosmiths than in previous years. At the time of our calls, there were seven in Birmingham, six in Milton Keynes/Northampton, five in Fareham, four in Nottingham, four in Reading and one in Manchester. After meeting in The Lakes (Northampton's pastorally titled but actually business park-located office) at the beginning of their two years, trainees in different offices “don't really see each other after that,” although “it's always a laugh” when they meet up again at further training events and occasional nights out.
Northampton and Milton Keynes
Finance litigation and debt recovery (aka lender services) may not sound the sexiest of areas but it's big news in Northampton and team head Waine Mannix has overseen its expansion northwards. Trainees gushed about “the fantastically interesting types of work” available. It's all about reclaiming debts and managing consumer finance, and the recession's toll on people's mortgage repayments means that work is flowing thick and fast. Trainees also loved the insurance litigation and regulatory seat, which covers insurance litigation, health and safety law, personal injury defence work and, increasingly, white-collar “corporate manslaughter” crime. It's a seat which offers much court time. Northampton also offers a private client seat, but trainees will journey up to Milton Keynes for any commercial options.
Milton Keynes offers seats in commercial property; property litigation; commercial; commercial litigation; IP; pensions; and employment. IP is “about 60% litigation” and very cutting-edge. “Social media infringement on Facebook and YouTube is becoming increasingly prevalent.” The MK team recently acted for H&M, Amazon and (makers of Polly Pocket, Hot Wheels and Barbie) Mattel, on infringement matters. Recently refurbished, the MK office “used to be very cluttered” but is now “on the cusp of glamour.” The small, tight-knit office has numerous eateries and drinkeries around it, but – due to the fact that no one seems to want to live in Milton Keynes proper – has a commuter vibe.
Reading, Nottingham, Birmingham
The seat choices in Reading are commercial; commercial litigation; banking; corporate; IP; tax; employment; property; and property litigation. The property team takes on some large commercial deals for the likes of Hewlett-Packard, Harley Davidson and HMV, and trainees also “take on around 30 of our own files,” thriving in an environment where they could “learn to work independently and speak to clients on a daily basis." With employees shooting off to catch trains at the end of the day, the Reading office may not have much of a nightlife; however, during the day themed lunches and Come Dine With Me-style cake bakes “that took six months to run because there are so many employees” make up for this.
Nottingham is a young office – “no one's over 35” – and it has a reputation for a party-hard atmosphere come Friday, or indeed Thursday or even Wednesday. “Everyone's up for banter,” said one trainee, “and we all have a similar dry sense of humour.” Five full seats are available here – corporate, commercial, employment, property and property litigation, while trainees in commercial may be able to pick up competition work too. The commercial team is “perhaps the busiest at the moment.” The team has recently acted for British Gas, the University of Nottingham and Thomas Cook, advising on the latter's IT infrastructure programme, which aims to consolidate the sourcing of various service management capabilities across the whole travel company. "It's great to be with a firm who's trusted with that kind of work.” Trainees do have admin tasks to complete, but agreed that they are “a chore but a necessary evil,” and that “you get involved in real work early on.” “I felt like I was really contributing rather than acting as a glorified secretary,” said one, “and the work made my brain hurt a lot.”
Birmingham's “young professional feel” makes it a competitor with Nottingham for hippest office. Aside from the standard commercial options, trainees here can also choose from social housing, planning, insolvency/restructuring and lender services seats. West Midlands corporate clients include Birmingham Council, while the commercial litigation team acts for Thorntons and Next, and has “an extremely high level of work at the moment.” Trainees in this seat “get to run files under £5,000” and attend mediations and hearings. The team takes on really varied matters: one case involved defending Debenhams against a multimillion-pound racial discrimination claim brought by a customer; in another, it defended Roadchef against a claimed breach of a facilities management contract.
Fareham, Manchester and the rest...
The Fareham office (known within the firm as the Solent office), offers seats in commercial; commercial litigation; employment; corporate; property/planning; and, uniquely for Shoosmiths, marine. Employment is a good seat for getting plenty of responsibility. The team gets frequent referrals from US heavyweights Skadden, and handles employment issues both for its clients and the law firm itself. With an office marooned on a business park, socials tend to be geared round networking events, or “long lunches on Fridays.”
The Manchester office is a “big focus for growth,” according to Matthew Kenwood. “We'll hope that all five practice groups will be represented as soon as possible in Manchester,” he added. Taking just one trainee in 2010, there have been two recruited for both 2011 and 2012.
Shoosmiths offers a variety of six-month client secondments to commercial and banking clients. With stints offered with Thomas Cook, Experian and Home Retail Group among others it's not surprising that secondments are popular. “It's a really useful experience,” said one trainee of going in-house. “There's not a supervisor in every meeting so you learn to have the courage of your convictions. Occasionally you have to be – not blasé– but accepting of a high level of risk as it's important to get the deal done quickly. But mainly it's having the confidence to tell more senior non-legal people what to do.”
Given that Shoosmiths has so many offices, we can only really offer a broad overview of the firm in these pages. You can read about the seats and offices in more detail on our website.
Shoo've got a friend
“If this firm was a person I'd want to be its best friend,” said a Midlands trainee. Aww! “It sounds so cheesy, but everybody does smile as they pass each other in the corridors. There's no stuffiness.” Matthew Kenwood says Shoosmiths is looking for “confident but collaborative” trainees. Our sources themselves say their confidence is of a “subtle” kind: no overbearing types here, please. Although some of our sources upped sticks and moved to a new part of the country to begin their training contracts, most were local to the area in which they were training. We also noted a really broad mix of university backgrounds.
Shoosmiths is a firm which traditionally “sold itself on a work/life balance,” and although not approaching City levels, several trainees said working hours have grown longer, while their remuneration has stayed the same. Trainee pay starts at £24,000, with £25,000 for second-years. This has “alienated people,” thought some, and it was claimed that some employees “have bided their time through the recession,” and are now jumping ship. For a firm that has learnt some major lessons over the past few years, communication may still be an issue. Trainees felt that the initial jobs list that was released in 2011 “didn't have enough to keep everybody happy,” provoking “some sharp intakes of breath.” Following this, various other departments made business cases and more positions appeared. Consequently, retention rates were strong this year, with nine out of 12 qualifiers sticking with Shoosmiths.
And finally...
It has been a tough couple of years for Shoosmiths, but it is well on the way to recovery now, and “the quality of work and quality of clients continue to improve.”