Sea of change
Clydes is the champion of heavy litigation. Flying high in the Chambers UK aviation rankings since its 2005 merger with UK specialists Beaumont & Son, the firm also maintains its traditional strength in shipping, advising on major piracy incidents, shipwrecks and high-seas collisions. With 25 offices worldwide, it is certainly well placed to do so in every corner of the globe. Naturally connected to these sectors are the fields of insurance, trade and energy, and Clydes excels in all of these on behalf of its multinational clients.
The firm’s international reach now stretches from London to San Francisco via Dar es Salaam and Hong Kong. Revenue was up 4% to £192m in 2009/10, with 42% of that amount generated beyond the UK. The firm is keen to capitalise on the growing network of offices. Member of the firm's managing board Ben Knowles elaborated: “The strategy is to be the ‘go to’ firm for complex cross-border international matters in our key sectors. The biggest push at the moment is in the energy sector.” Trainees tell us the firm is “completely open to any opportunity” and will “expand in any direction it thinks would be profitable.” Their words proved true in 2011, when Clydes announced that it would be entering into a merger with Barlow Lyde & Gilbert. Interestingly, the Barlow Lyde & Gilbert name will vanish entirely and the new firm will continue to trade as Clyde & Co, suggesting that Clydes was in the stronger position when merger discussions took place. Commentators in the legal press have suggested that while the two firms were in similar positions ten years ago, BLG stagnated while Clydes forged ahead. Nevertheless, this is a truly massive deal, bringing together two of the biggest players in the insurance market, and Clydes has gained some top lawyers. Interestingly, two other insurance giants, Davies Arnold Cooper and Beachcroft, are also merging, so the insurance market has really been shaken up in 2011. Make sure you do a bit more reading around this subject: some informed questioning about it may well go down well at interview with firms that work in this field
Getting back to the point – which was expansion, in case you've forgotten – in the past few years Clydes has also settled in New York (2006) and New Jersey (2010), servicing stateside insurance clients. It also forged an alliance with Indian firm ALMT Legal in 2009.
Clydes offers a mixture of transactional and contentious seats across its core sectors. It also offers recruits experience in real estate, employment and corporate/commercial. A stint in the firm’s Guildford office is non-negotiable, although not everyone will be allocated a seat there. While this has led to moans in the past, trainees often find that they quite like the calmer atmosphere of Surrey, and some know “right from the off” that they’re GU through and through.
Calamity covered
“Insurance and shipping are the darlings of the firm,” and most trainees will spend at least one seat in one of “many insurance teams.” General insurance litigators “act for underwriters on large losses [when] trains crash into each other or things catch fire.” Trainees attend trials and arbitrations, take witness statements and conduct research. Reinsurance work can be really complex and so it’s little wonder that those who go on to qualify here are described as “a pretty studious bunch.” Elsewhere, “sexy” political risk matters can cover wars, coups d’état and riots, although the run-of-the-mill work is international investment treaties, nationalisations and expropriations. Claims are often worth in excess of $100m and the clients are huge multinational insurers. “You play a trainee role,” said one of our sources, “putting bundles together, dealing with all the expert reports – big admin tasks.”
Declaring a love of insurance is probably the fastest way to kill the average dinner party conversation, so perhaps that’s why there’s “an awful lot of client entertaining” – like minds and all that. Trainees socialise with their counterparts in the insurance market (“it’s good fun and good business”), although sadly they don’t usually get to attend the big-ticket events. For now, the insurance team occupies space in the Corn Exchange, just around the corner from the rest of the firm on Eastcheap. Trainees observed that “everything appears more efficient in the insurance department; that plays down into the way that they work – you have to be very organised.” In 2011, Clydes will move everyone together in a single, larger office.
Seats in marine and international trade cover a range of practice areas from shipping to commodities. Shipping is split between tort-based ‘wet’ work (collisions, salvage, piracy, etc. – also a focus of the Guildford office), and contract-based ‘dry’ work (cargo disputes, time charters, voyage charters, etc.). One of the many wet cases we could mention is the May 2010 sinking of cargo ship ‘Bright Century’ following a crash with the ‘Sea Success’ in foggy conditions approximately 23 miles east of China’s Shandong Peninsula. Clydes is advising on cargo claims.
A “good variety” of work awaits London shipping recruits: “Lots of charter-party disputes, cases involving fires on ships, late delivery of vessels, non-delivery of vessels…” for everything from fancy yachts to hulking cargo ships. The firm employs master mariners for emergency response missions to investigate maritime collisions. Trainees don’t take to the high seas themselves; instead they spend their time liaising with experts and drafting initial letters of claim, opinions and instructions to counsel. Shipping trainees are “thrown in at the deep end,” and we’ve heard that it’s “quite full-on between 9am and 6.30pm,” but afterwards the shipping crew are “good fun to have a drink with – and that happens quite a lot!”
Commodities lawyers deal with the global trade of fungibles such as coal, cereals, gold, oil and gas, but also futures, derivatives and, lately, carbon trading. Confused? Don’t worry, Clydes runs comprehensive induction programmes and offers continued training during these seats. That said, we’ve heard of a partner welcoming one trainee with “here’s the files, [go] run them,” so you’re expected to find your feet quickly. There’s typically crate loads of “non-payment of goods cases.” Clydes advises traders including Glencore International, a large supplier of raw materials to industry. These experienced traders do most of the negotiation themselves, but if unsuccessful they get Clydes in to handle litigation, or more likely to arbitrate the dispute. Trainees in this seat liaise with clients and get stuck in with research and drafting correspondence.
Get your passport
Despite all the litigation talk, Clydes’ corporate/commercial practice counts for almost 30% of its worldwide turnover. “We have a growing transactional practice,” one trainee explained; “people are coming here more and more for that sort of thing.” Corporate work spans the firm’s core client sectors as well as the real estate and life sciences industries. Our trainee sources had worked with a Jersey-based investment house; on a big deal in the Congo; and on the setting up of Middle Eastern charities. Trainees take on proof-reading and straightforward drafting tasks, and liaise with clients. “I was in charge of verification on a deal,” one source told us; “I had to go through an admission document line by line with the CEO of an investment bank.” This high level of responsibility was a theme that ran through our interviews with trainees. “They’ll give you as much responsibility as they think you can take – it’s a Clydes thing,” one said. The hours are “fairly civilised” and the attitude is “you work hard during the day and go home in good time.” One trainee told us: “I’ve never had to do an all-nighter,” but towards the end of a deal “I stopped making social plans during the week.”
The aviation finance team acts for banks and airlines including Emirates, Air France, Credit Suisse and JPMorgan on the financing and leasing of aircraft, from small private jets to A380s. Trainees may find themselves “dealing with counsel every day on multi-jurisdictional matters,” or taking responsibility for smaller transactions under supervision. Sadly, however, there’s no avoiding “quite a lot of post-transaction bibling.” One of the most popular seats is aviation litigation. If you weren’t afraid of flying before this seat then you certainly will be after. Propellers hang on the walls in this department, which specialises in disasters. Take any major helicopter or plane crash and the odds are that Clydes lawyers have picked up some of the pieces. “Generally speaking, we act for insurers on cargo losses, some personal injury and crashes,” one hardened trainee explained. Trainees run their own small files and work directly with partners and associates on the major cases. Recently the firm advised on claims arising from the loss of Air France flight 447, which crashed into the Atlantic en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris in June 2009. Despite its focus on disaster, aviation lit is apparently quite a sociable team that organises “lots of lunches with major insurance clients.”
Clydes also has an employment group and notable mid-market real estate practice. Employment trainees have the “opportunity for advocacy,” making applications in county courts. The department has “a lot of retail clients” and trainees can often be found “drafting employee handbooks and contractual variations.” In real estate there’s the usual landlord and tenant matters, but also large developments and investments such as the £115m acquisition of property just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace by a Hong Kong purchaser.
We haven’t yet mentioned Clydes’ prowess in the Middle East. It was one of the first to set up offices in the region and prizes local talent highly. The firm recently represented the government of Yemen in a multimillion-dollar international arbitration over the termination of oil production and distribution rights in the country. See our bonus features for more on the Clydes' activity in the region. Some trainees are able to jet off to an overseas seat. The potential locations are: Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Piraeus, and then (less frequently) Hong Kong, Shanghai and Singapore. No news as yet on the firm’s Dar es Salaam office, acquired after Clydes’ takeover of lawyers from specialist construction firm Shadbolt. Advice on handling overseas seats can be found on the firm’s intranet or in Clyde-o-scope (a trainee/HR joint venture publication, and a pun we wish we’d thought of first). Our sources tell us you just have to “turn up at the airport and the rest sorts itself out.” One happy trainee enthused: “I got a car and the apartment had tennis courts and a swimming pool.” Very nice, although it’s “only at the weekends” that trainees find the time to use these perks. Client secondments are also available for trainees who want to stay on home soil.
Welcome to the Hotel California
London lawyers generally go for Friday drinks at the aptly named Ship pub, where it’s “expected that the partners will buy the drinks.” In Guildford, Clydes’ lawyers commandeer the nearby Tup or head to the livelier King’s Head in town. Our sources confessed that “you probably don’t go out so much in Guildford as London,” since many people drive to work or have family commitments. Nevertheless, trainees have a special budget to organise drinks as and when, and departmental parties bring everyone together. On a far grander scale is the “fabulous” firm-wide Christmas party, last year hosted in a huge decorated marquee on London’s Embankment. “It’s a swish sit-down dinner with lashings of wine, entertainment and dancing.” The firm also cooks up a summer party and barbecue to which future joiners are invited. Football, cricket, rugby, netball and rounders are on the sporting roster for outdoorsy types, while for the indoorsy types there are things like pub quizzes in Guildford and karaoke in London.
Trainees are attracted to Clydes for its international reach and reputation for litigation. Most of our contacts had “some kind of international aspect” to their CV. The firm’s website claims: ‘Ask any of [our] lawyers what characterises the firm and they will answer entrepreneurialism’, and when questioned, our sources certainly talked up the official line, with one observing that “if you find a niche, you’re allowed to develop it.” Another noted that some partners cultivate “personal little fiefdoms.” Trainees think confidence is a must-have attribute, as is a willingness to handle responsibility, but it’s “quite a laid-back firm by most standards.” One trainee confided that in his department, “the team are almost like a bunch of old friends.” Ben Knowles put a slightly more sinister twist on it, joking: “We’re looking for future partners at the firm. It’s a bit like Hotel California– you can never leave!” In 2010, a very healthy 23 of the 25 qualifying trainees decided that this wouldn’t be such a bad thing and accepted jobs.
And finally...
Sources within the firm observe that there’s “not one cohesive culture, but that’s part of the charm!” At Clyde & Co you’ll find an eclectic and interesting bunch of lawyers doing excellent international work.