A regional magnet
The origin of this Tunbridge Wells stalwart’s success is its sterling private client practice, which caters for ultra-wealthy individuals, including those based in the local region but also plenty of non-doms. The commercial practice, meanwhile, has subcontracted work from top City firm Hogan Lovells for a number of years, managing to do it at a cheaper rate. This ‘Mexican Wave’, as it’s called, has boosted Cripps’ reputation and brought in new clients.
Property law is crucial to the firm, and counts many of the firm’s biggest clients. Divided into three groups – dealing with portfolio property, public sector matters and development – the department acts for the likes of British Land, the Home Office, Prudential Assurance, Crossrail, John Lewis and the Wates Group. Managing partner Jonathan Denny says: “We have 12 focus sectors in total and six of these can be found within commercial property.” They include institutions, retail, central government, development, affordable housing and infrastructure projects. This broad sweep of property-related services ultimately feeds work to other practice areas.
Trainees complete six seats of four months. Most favoured this system: “The whole point of a training contract is to just get a flavour of lots of different practice areas: once you qualify you can spend as much time as you like in a specific department.” Before the training contract begins, incoming trainees attend an induction day, where they listen to a series of talks about the various departments before listing their preferences. “Everyone usually gets what they want, and they are flexible if you want to change,” explained a trainee. Requests to alter seat choice can be made during appraisals and are considered depending on available spaces. It is likely that trainees will complete at least one or two seats in a property-related area of practice, especially portfolio property, as this team can take on four trainees at any one time. Overall, a mix of private client and commercial work is the norm.
Beneath the surface
In commercial property, “a dominant area for Cripps,” trainees carry out work for large – in some cases multinational – companies. One big client is HS1, the organisation that owns the Channel Tunnel Rail Link, for which trainees “dealt with acquiring what’s usually classed as the subsoil – which is the area underneath people’s land – in order to prepare for the building of a railway.” The drafting of leases and making applications to the Land Registry are essential activities for this type of work. There is “a bit less client contact” in this seat, but plenty in the portfolio property one, which offers the chance to work for both landlords and tenants, and trainees had “really enjoyed the negotiation side of it.”
Buying and selling freehold and leasehold properties is the name of the game in the “fast-paced and busy” residential conveyancing team. “You have to do quite a lot of admin – that is only a part of it, but you need to do it in order to understand the full process from start to finish.” Trainees were able to run their own files – “you essentially become the point of contact” with estate agents and other solicitors.
Get aggressive with tax planning
The private client department consists of wealth preservation, wills and probate matters. There are the “bread-and-butter” pieces of work, such as drafting standard wills and lasting powers of attorney, but there is also the opportunity to work on large estates. One of our sources was particularly pleased with the work they had done to get some aggressive tax planning completed on a tight deadline – “there was pressure to get it done before the Budget date, but it gave the work a very exciting element.” Many trainees noted the ‘softer’ skills that they had to pick up, describing meeting people with not long to live as “initially very hard – you find yourself dealing with vulnerable people so you have to be particularly careful.”
“Emotions run equally high” in the work of the family department. In this fast-paced seat, trainees were often able to go to court with counsel and represent the firm – an opportunity that was met with much enthusiasm.
The other available seats are an eclectic mix. Trainees found employment to be more of an “observational seat – you want to get more stuck in, but you don’t have the experience to be able to provide advice. The situations that crop up are never just black or white, so you spend your time trying to absorb everything that is going on around you.” Commercial dispute resolution provides client contact with a lot of smaller private companies and individuals. The department has a nice line in partnership and shareholder disputes. For example, it advised the partners of an insolvent law firm, and the minority shareholders of a Kent-based group of companies who were looking to achieve a multimillion-pound demerger. The corporate team has grown steadily throughout 2010, and has advised on several purchases of businesses in administration. Then there’s the likes of seats such as wealth preservation; specialist dispute resolution; private client litigation; planning; construction; and inward investment, which is all about advising overseas clients with investment property in the UK. And if you just can’t get enough real estate, then there’s property dispute resolution as well.
Laying down your roots
“I think that Cripps is misunderstood,” said one source. “People think that we’re ye olde Royal Tunbridge Wells, that we’re stuck-up or rigid. Actually our personality is relaxed, progressive and forward-thinking – we’ve got an old heritage with a modern approach.” A recent website rebrand (the first in ten years) looks pretty snazzy as far as we’re concerned. “Some asked why we were spending money on that at a time when no one else was,” said managing partner Jonathan Denny. “I thought that it made a bit of a statement about the confidence this firm has in its future – we are optimistic, we envisage a good future, and that was the message that I wanted to put out.”
“I only really knew about Cripps because I lived nearby,” commented one trainee, “but its reputation is becoming more and more widely known – it’s something we’ve been working on.” Many of our interviewees, though by no means all, had attended the Guildford College of Law, where Cripps is a familiar name. What was common among all our interviewees was that they knew exactly what they wanted: “a large regional firm,” where they would receive “more one-on-one training” than large City outfits would be able to offer. Another common thread was a sense of commitment to the South East region and the intention of settling there. “When applying to Cripps you should demonstrate a good knowledge of the area and show that you have ties to it and to the firm,” advised one trainee – “make it clear that you want to be here for the long term.”
“It’s Tunbridge Wells, so we make our own fun,” a second-year told us. “As it’s a regional firm, a lot of people move here specifically for the job,” another source added, “so people are keen to establish new friendships and attend social events.” This means consistent Friday night get-togethers at the wine bar of choice, Sankeys. Plenty of “trendy pubs and bars” are sprinkled nearby, because thankfully Cripps is located in a prime spot, smack-bang in the middle of Tunbridge Wells and just across the road from the main pedestrianised shopping zone. The summer ball is organised by second-year trainees, while end-of-quarter drinks give trainees a chance to “know what the rest of the firm is up to.”
And finally...
Cripps attracts a crowd happy to settle in Tunbridge Wells, and provides them with a pleasantly varied training contract, albeit with plenty of property work. Seven out of the eight second-year qualifiers stayed on in 2011.