Revving up
Officially, Clarke Willmott has its headquarters in Birmingham, and yet this is actually one of its smallest offices. Its biggest is in Bristol, and next in the size stakes comes Taunton, where the firm was founded way back in 1898. There’s also an office in Southampton and tiny outposts in London and Manchester. Due to its high-street roots in Taunton, CW has traditionally had a South Western private client persona, but its arrival in several UK cities and subsequent commercial successes now mark it out as something more. Having at least doubled in size and turnover since 2000, the firm is ambitious and proud of it. It is a top-65 law firm, with 67 partners, almost 500 personnel and a turnover of £40.8m.
Along the way, mergers have supplemented organic growth. A 2002 tie-up with Southampton firm Ensor Byfield boosted CW’s reputation for sports-related law. More recently, the 2010 merger with Bristol-based David Gist Solicitors “has met with a lot of positivity” and is set to strengthen the PI and clinical negligence divisions.
CW has won some major clients. In real estate litigation, its customers include Oddbins, Burger King and various high-street banks. It manages debt recovery cases for the London Borough of Harrow, the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Transport, and its sports clients include Bristol City and West Bromwich Albion Football Clubs, UK Sport, the Greyhound Board of Great Britain, the British Olympic Association and various tennis, rugby and cricket associations. Lawyers also gave IP rights advice to Silverstone F1GP and – wait for it – the Stig.
Following the client’s lead
CW offers a range of legal services but claims not to be oriented towards any particular specialism: as it says on its website, ‘we’re just client led’. Certain client sectors have a degree of dominance: agriculture, real estate and construction, renewable energy, retail, sport, private client and international clients. The firm assists its overseas clients on corporate and commercial issues, business immigration, employment and property matters. Particular emphasis is placed on Australia, Brazil, Portugal, China, the Indian Subcontinent, Poland and North America. This approach makes use of some dual-qualified and/or bilingual lawyers and recognises the rise of the BRIC nations. Our trainees had largely domestic experiences; however, these international desks signify a forward-looking partnership.
Except for London and the newly opened Manchester office, all offices have trainees: usually about four in Southampton, four in Taunton, six in Bristol and five in Birmingham. New trainees are allocated their first seat, but are subsequently able to state their preferences. Securing a desired seat takes skill and a little luck, and one trainee’s advice was this: “Don’t wait for handouts; if you want to work in a team go talk to them.” Another’s was to not “waste time harassing HR.” The different seats’ popularity varies year on year, but litigation is always sought after. The litigation department focuses on commercial and financial disputes and CW litigators deal with the firm’s “crown jewel clients.” Trainees tell us that it’s easy to “feel like part of the team” and that their experiences are more “research and drafting-based” than limited to administrative tasks. Frequent court visits, including to the High Court, are a real plus, and there are also opportunities to interact with clients, both on the phone and in person. Most of the cases are large, but trainees may be able to run smaller ones on their own. The firm handles plenty of claims relating to the financial services sector, including fraud and pensions mis-selling. Claims against Equitable Life have been a key area of work and this issue led to CW partner Robert Morfee being interviewed on the BBC show Working Lunch. For more on Equitable Life, see our bonus feature.
The corporate seat in Bristol is hugely popular as it incorporates some sports matters. The team is supportive and the supervisor always close at hand. A trainee will get stuck into due diligence and document management, and some smaller files are entrusted entirely to their care. But be warned: the workload can be “feast or famine,” so you might be really busy or twiddling your thumbs. This can play havoc with your social life, but that’s the nature of corporate transactional practice. If you grow tomatoes (gardening is the new rock ’n’ roll by the way) then you’ll be familiar with Miracle Gro. CW represented a UK subsidiary of this New York-based business when it acquired another British horticulture business last year. This deal put CW lawyers opposite Eversheds. On others they have squared up to Allen & Overy, Freshfields, Jones Day, Trowers & Hamlins in the Middle East, Field Fisher Waterhouse and Osborne Clarke.
During a recession, insolvency lawyers move to centre stage. CW’s insolvency team is divided into two sections to handle administrations and bankruptcies. A seat in this part of the firm exposes the trainee to both contentious and non-contentious matters, and there is plenty of crossover work with the corporate, property, litigation, and even family teams. A common first seat, new trainees learn a lot about other areas of the law quite quickly while also improving their drafting skills and being introduced to the courts. Partners are said to be very encouraging and keen that trainees speak directly to clients. “It’s nice to feel trusted,” said one source.
Homes, hearts and minds
Property is another good first seat. The team has some big clients including national house builders, local authorities and housing associations, British Waterways and wine retailer Nicolas. Bristol City Football Club sought advice on its proposed £90m stadium relocation from Ashton Gate to Ashton Vale and its involvement in Bristol’s successful application to be a host city as part of England’s 2018 World Cup bid. It’s not all sexy sports sector deals though: CW is a master of the humble residential conveyance and a large number of its staff are employed on this type of work across its offices. Property trainees sort through deeds, draft leases, register land or rights over land, prepare licences for alterations to buildings and liaise with clients. Even when trainees haven’t chosen this seat, they typically find it “really useful, as property rears its ugly head in everything.” Deals are also more interesting by virtue of the fact that some have an immediate impact on the trainees’ own surroundings. A construction seat involves plenty of research, reviewing contracts, drafting letters and preparing for court hearings plus a dollop of marketing activities. The department also runs a helpline giving free advice on construction topics. According to some sources, “it doesn’t lend itself so well as a trainee seat” due to the large cases and trainees not being given much autonomy; others thought it was good “to be thrown in at the deep end.”
The private client department is a strong suit in Taunton, where it accounts for around a quarter of the office’s work. Trainees assist seniors and are also given some of their own files. Tasks include drafting wills, writing letters, administrating probate, lifetime tax planning and research assignments on larger taxable estates and disputes. Given the location, the work often relates to agricultural assets and this requires experienced private client lawyers to also be well versed in business law. Other seats are available with the busy catastrophic injury team, which is excellent for hands-on experience and “a good one for seeing a litigation matter from start to finish.” The clinical negligence team has somewhat similar work, and here a source had really enjoyed their exposure to serious cases relating to brain injuries. In these more ‘human interest’ departments – as in others – our CW sources felt they were given a wide variety of work and a good mix of responsibility and support.
A Clarke’s life
The distance between most of the CW offices is considerable, so there isn’t a massively close rapport between them. Trainees generally stay put in the office they start in. That said, there is regular trainee interchange between Bristol and Taunton, although trainees in Taunton “shouldn’t expect to get their first-choice seat in Bristol.” It also depends on the seats you want: Southampton is very litigation-based; Bristol is particularly strong on commercial property and personal injury; and Taunton does a great deal of private client and agriculture work. There is no family department in Southampton and not much of one in Birmingham, so trainees need to go to Taunton or Bristol if it’s of interest.
The hours are generally good and “there’s not a stay-late-for-the-sake-of-it culture.” Most trainees leave around 6pm, and 7.30pm is considered late. The general atmosphere at the offices is professional: “Relaxed but not too relaxed, and not stuffy.” Seniors are “very generous with their time,” and larger teams, especially, are ready to give trainees the help they need. With only two guys out of 16 trainees in 2010, the gender balance has been somewhat wonky. This is anything but intentional and the demographics become more balanced among more senior lawyers. It’s “not a female-dominated firm,” a source insisted. Indeed not: the partnership is just 22% female, not that this is low – it’s towards the higher end of the average range for larger UK firms.
The offices are described as “lovely,” with the Bristol one taking the cake. Overlooking the river and Castle Park, with a huge atrium, it is “the envy of most people who work in Bristol.” The office also has its own café, called Berry Blue, where you can enjoy “amazing breakfasts.” The Birmingham office is in the city centre, and the Taunton office is in a green, leafy area with lots of parking and within easy reach of the motorway. The Southampton office is on a business park in Hedge End, near to the motorway and a large retail park.
Every month, on ‘First Fridays of Fun’ (FFF), staff can enjoy drinks after work on the partners’ tab. Every now and then this also means casual dress. In each office a social committee organises quiz nights and outings to different bars. Each office also hosts a summer barbecue and a Christmas party (Bristol staff went to the Brasserie Blanc last year), but the distance between offices prevents firm-wide partying. When they start, trainees take training together at the Bristol office, but after this they “don’t really see each other.” The social life in Taunton is made harder by the fact that many people drive there. Bristol trainees attend Junior Lawyers Division events, and the smaller Birmingham and Southampton offices’ trainees also socialise with young lawyers from other firms in their respective cities. There is “quite a lot you can do but not a lot organised for you,” a source explained. Anyone with a passion for sport can indulge it with netball, softball, cricket or football, often playing against other professional services firms.
Dig out that vuvuzela?
CW hasn’t been immune to the worldwide economic downturn, and there were some redundancies, among both fee earners and secretaries. The firm is currently outsourcing typing work to South Africa, but some trainees found this inefficient and mourned the loss of local secretarial support, which is now “down to the bare bones.” There were some staff on four-day weeks last year to avoid job cuts, but hours had returned to normal by the time we interviewed at the firm. During the darkest days of the credit crunch, the firm also suggested job-sharing and sabbaticals and trainees cited this as an example of management’s ability to “think creatively.” There were no trainee deferrals, and three NQs who were not offered permanent jobs on qualification last year were kept on as legal assistants. All three were subsequently offered permanent positions at the firm. In the run up to 2010 qualification, the second-years we spoke to were “not being naïve about being offered jobs” and keeping their options open. In the end, seven of 11 trainees were kept on across all the offices in various departments.
And finally...
Big clients and big ambition – this mid-sized firm is aiming high. For regional private client and increasingly national and international business law this is a good bet.
Note: Clarke Willmott did not feature in the most recent edition of the Student Guide. This feature was researched in May 2010.