Trading places
Founded in 1885, Bond Pearce has well-established offices in Bristol, Southampton and Plymouth, and this century opened new ones further afield in London and Aberdeen. Having managed to limit its drop in turnover to 2% in 2009/10, it now wants to enter the UK's top 30 firms by revenue. The firm already works for lots of big names, including the BBC, Virgin, Carlsberg, B&Q, The Crown Estate, English Heritage, The Post Office, npower and several high street banks. It acts for 17 FTSE 100 clients and 16 FTSE 350 clients, which it claims is more than any other law firm outside London. It was one of three firms that survived Royal Mail’s recent pruning of its commercial legal panel, and recently won a bid to be added to Sainsbury’s panel as well.
Bond Pearce is nationally ranked by Chambers UK for professional negligence and local government work, and is highly ranked for the South and South West regions in all sorts of areas, including banking, competition, construction, corporate, debt recovery, dispute resolution, employment, environment… and that’s just the first five letters of the alphabet. The firm is “sector-focused,” and concentrates especially on energy, retail, insurance, real estate, and hospitality and leisure clients. Part of its growth plan is to represent existing clients in more practice areas.
Some departments, such as banking, work closely across offices and have regular meetings, in person or via video link, while others have little contact with their equivalent teams in other locations. Trainees told us “there are no geographical barriers in terms of work” and they felt free to call up someone in another office if they were the best person to speak to, but most said they generally dealt with people in their own building. “We’re encouraged to be connected – I think we’re just lazy!” was one source’s assessment. The trainees themselves are recruited in fairly equal numbers to Bristol, Southampton or Plymouth, and have the chance to spend a seat in Aberdeen or London.
Risky business
At Bond Pearce, there is a huge range of departments to visit, but there are only ever as many seats made available as there are trainees. So, for example, Plymouth currently has nine trainees, so at each rotation, nine places within departments are opened up. All departments make a business case for having a trainee, and “since they only put trainees in departments where they’re needed, they really use you.”
Insurance is one of the firm’s key areas, with professional risks being one of the training contract’s most popular stop-offs. The team acts for insurance companies whose professional clients can be surveyors, solicitors, barristers or architects with negligence claims brought against them. “It’s like having two clients. We have to make sure the insurer is happy, and also think about the person they’re insuring.” A seat in this fascinating area provides a good introduction to the litigation process. Another “very busy but very interesting” insurance seat is ‘subrogated insurance’, in which trainees have been to court and mediation meetings.
In fact, nearly half of Bond Pearce’s work is contentious. Commercial litigation clients include Screwfix (in Bristol), Virgin (Southampton), Plymouth Albion RFC (Plymouth), plus others that span multiple offices. The work in this department is a mix of dealing with claims and advising clients on potential issues before they arise, including those stemming from EU law. “Clients ring up and say, ‘We���ve just had this complaint come in – what should we do about it?’ or ‘We’re thinking of stocking this product. What are the consequences?’” Trainees in this seat experience a mix of research and client-facing work such as taking witness statements. They also handle small cases by themselves – a typical example might be a client being sued over alleged health and safety breaches.
Energy is another specialism of the firm, and there are a number of seats in which trainees will see a lot of work coming from this sector. Trainees in planning, for example, had worked for green energy companies whose planning permission for wind farms was refused. The non-contentious side of the seat involved advising on consultation processes, environmental assessment and applications. The construction team also spends a lot of time on energy work. It advised on the setting up of a prototype tidal energy device for a company called, suitably enough, Tidal Energy Ltd. It also acted for Ecotricity on the construction of the UK’s first-ever ‘solar array park’, in Lincolnshire. It has also been involved in setting up B&Q’s new headquarters and expanding Carlsberg’s Northampton brewery. And we at the Student Guide appreciate the firm’s help in making the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly tube lines run. Trainees can also take a seat in ‘oil and gas’, either in their home office or in Aberdeen.
Clients in the banking department include HSBC, Barclays, Santander and the Post Office. The department has also reviewed the finances for a project for an Omani power plant and is working for the London Borough of Greenwich on the £35m financing of energy projects that are part of the regeneration of the Greenwich Peninsula. The financial services group, meanwhile, provides regulatory compliance advice, which means interpreting the rules and giving “client-focused, business-y advice” to companies such as Virgin on “what the rule is and how to get there in the cheapest way possible without breaking the law.” The team also represents clients who have got it wrong.
Trainees may also find themselves in the IP or IT teams. The latter advised thetrainline.com on the development and distribution of its mobile applications, and English Heritage on the procurement of their IT support. Recent projects in IP include working for Royal Mail on issues related to using a picture of Harry Potter on a stamp. The other seats available are property, corporate and, in Plymouth only, regulatory.
Buddying up
Overall, trainees felt they had received a lot of responsibility. “I think in London firms trainees are often purely support, but here they’ll happily put you in front of the client as soon as they think you’re confident enough,” opined one source. It was agreed that supervisors had provided good training and were excellent at giving day-to-day support and feedback. A trainee forum is held every six months, and each office has a trainee co-ordinator available for the discussion of confidential issues. There is also a buddy system, in which trainees are paired up with a second-year trainee or NQ solicitor who has usually recently completed the same seat. Formal mid and end of seat reviews involve a fair bit of preparation. Before meeting with their supervisors trainees fill out a lengthy form, describing how they have met each point of the firm’s two-page definition of a trainee’s role and setting themselves objectives accordingly.
There are also various secondments available with some of the firm’s major clients, including B&Q, a high-profile retailer and a television production company. At the time of our calls, half the second years were on secondment. Our sources who had been on one recommended the experience, saying: “You really feel part of their business and can enhance your commercial awareness. Since other people don’t really understand the trainee’s position in the hierarchical structure, they treat you just like a lawyer.”
Kitchen nightmare?
The “light and airy” Bristol office occupies the top four floors of an eight-storey glass building at Temple Quay, within spitting distance of Temple Meads station. It’s the biggest office and feels “a bit more formal” than the others. It’s close enough to the shops to pop out at lunch, and trainees also recommended the nearby farmers market, particularly the doughnuts they sell on Wednesdays. Their favourite pub is the Cornubia but they often find themselves in the Wetherspoons next to the station instead. Trainees sit in “pods,” semi-enclosed spaces for two or three, usually alongside their supervisor. There is a breakout area with vending machines where “you’ll always find someone you know having lunch at one o’clock.” A little dinner-party competition called ‘Come Dine with a Trainee’ was ongoing when we conducted our interviews. We were hoping to hear comical stories of senior partners arriving just as the embarrassing flatmate’s pet pig escapes and eats all the stew (this invariably happens when the boss comes to dinner – we’ve seen sitcoms). Alas, the meals were trainee-only, so that didn’t happen.
The exterior of the Plymouth office is “a complete eyesore,” but it gets better once you’re inside thanks to the sea views and a recent refurb. It’s on the Hoe, a ten-minute walk to the town centre. Trainees admitted that social events had been lacking lately, partly due to the smaller size of the office and the number of commuters among the staff, but we hear concerted efforts are being made to revive the sports and social committee. There are Saturday events where employees are open to bring partners and families, such as a walk on Dartmoor. However, we were assured that there were a fair few party animals among the legal assistants, so trainees who would rather dance on a Friday than walk on a Saturday shouldn’t encounter any problems.
In Southampton lawyers sit in pods around the edge of the glass office, while the secretaries are in the middle. Once again, the office is next to the train station, and is also close to the main shopping centre and the wine bars of Bedford Place. On Thursdays or Fridays trainees head to either the classy church-turned-bar Joe Daflo’s or the Wetherspoons down the road, “depending on whether it’s payday or not,” before moving on to Bedford Place. “There is no social hierarchy” and trainees, partners and secretaries regularly go to the nearby Pizza Express together. Some trainees burn off beer and pizza with football matches they’ve organised against clients.
There are few firm-wide social events since the legendary Christmas party fell victim to the recession, but trainees from the various offices do meet up reasonably regularly for drinks in Bristol.
It’s not about the money
Our sources unanimously agreed that “there isn’t one sort of Bond Pearce trainee.” We heard there were people from a wide range of backgrounds, including a number who were older than the average trainee with previous careers, as well as others straight from law school or with a few years’ experience in law-related areas. Some got the job through paralegalling at the firm. We heard that people here are “not as pompous or lawyer-ish as a lot of the lawyers – and applicants – you meet at recruitment fairs. You feel like everyone’s a real person,” although a few of our sources did comment that the firm’s top-30 ambitions are perhaps starting to change the laid-back atmosphere.
Salaries are nothing to shout about, but it didn’t seem to have made any of our trainee sources regret their decision to choose Bond Pearce. “I know there are other firms in Bristol who offer higher salaries, but they definitely don’t have the same culture,” said one, and another joked, “I’m happy to be here earning my pittance.” One interviewee couldn’t even remember what his salary was, which suggests (as you’ll agree if you’re a student and constantly checking your bank balance) that it’s definitely a liveable wage. We can confirm that at last check, first years picked up £24,000.
The work-life balance was a reason many trainees chose Bond Pearce, and the hours reflect this. Official hours are 9am to 5pm, with most trainees averaging only slightly more than this. Of course, there may be a few late nights at busy times or if you’re waiting for a call from Hong Kong, but “you don’t have to stay just for people to see your face.” We also heard that the firm gave one trainee with particular personal commitments permission to work a four-day week, and allowed another to complete his training contact part-time over three years.
And finally...
Retention rates have been high for the last few years, but we sensed some nerves in 2011, as second-years worried that there wouldn’t be jobs available in the areas they wanted. In the end, nine out of 12 stayed on after qualification.