Farrer & Co

Travelling through time

According to the comprehensive timeline on its website, Farrer has been open for business since at least 1701. The first member of the Farrer family – Mr Oliver Farrer – became sole partner in 1769. The following year his brother James joined him in practice, and from then on until 1999, one and usually several Farrers have been partners. Unbelievably there are still members of the family at the firm today. The firm is justifiably proud of its history. And so it should be, when it includes such tasty morsels as an 18th century divorce involving an attempted duel in Hyde Park, and representation of literary legend Charles Dickens.

When it comes to interesting cases, things are no different today. Farrer recently helped England win its bid to stage the 2015 Rugby World Cup. In the words of Chief Operating Officer Ben Bennett: “If you want work with lots of zeros at the end then go elsewhere, but if you want interesting work, interesting clients and the company of interesting people then Farrer is the place for you.” The most recent financials aren’t half bad either, with turnover topping £40m – a 9% increase on 2008. The firm also managed to retain all ten of its qualifiers in 2009.

Farrer has called 66 Lincoln’s Inn Fields home since 1790. The building was originally designed by Sir Christopher Wren, and trainees love it, as do the tourists who regularly gather to snap its elegant frontage. Its location in a square “away from the frenetic corporate environment” and “at the epicentre of legal life” appeals to many. Gushed one trainee: “We have one of the oldest legal systems in the world and here I am right in the middle of it.” In 2009 the offices underwent a refurb that was “a little overdue.” Far from the standard law firm refit – modern art and glass walls – this was merely a neatening up to “make it a little more contemporary.” An open-plan layout, “so conducive to modern working life,” has been designed to create more space, but the meeting rooms remain largely unchanged, ensuring their delicate stucco ceilings and chandeliers can continue to wow clients for years to come.

If all this talk of antiquity has you grabbing your iPhone to call the fuddy-duddy police, now would be a good time to note that there is so much more to Farrer than a topnotch pedigree and the workplace equivalent of a stately home. Just take a look at its clientele – alongside traditional clients (members of the royal family, for example) it represents entrepreneurs (“Russian oligarchs and Swiss bankers”) as well as newspapers including The Sun, The Sunday Times, News of the World and The Daily Mail. Trainees assure us that Farrer’s “outward reputation is far more conservative and traditional than what you actually find once you’re here,” and many ached for the firm to topple its old-fashioned, staid image. And yet, at the same time, trainees love Farrer’s eccentricities and don’t “ever want to lose the general ethos of the firm.”

Taste the rainbow

A glance at the rankings in Chambers UK should tell you one thing about this firm – it is very good at lots of things, both commercial and private client-oriented. To complement this, a six-seat training scheme allows newbies to sample a good spread of legal practice. It is “brilliant to have such a broad experience,” say trainees. “Four months is plenty of time to know whether you like a seat, and plenty of time to know whether you hate it!” The practice areas on offer are divided into four streams: private client (domestic and international) and charities; commercial (which includes corporate, employment and IP/commercial seats); property (commercial, residential and estates, and private); and litigation, where trainees have a choice of the recently merged media and disputes seat or family law. A trainee’s fifth seat is viewed as a “wild card,” allowing them an additional go in one of the streams, which is useful “in case you missed out on your favourite the first time round.” For their final seat they return to their hoped-for qualification department.

Seat allocation works well. Trainees have regular meetings with the graduate recruitment manager and training partner, both of whom “try their damnedest to ensure everyone is satisfied.” The HR manager meets with them part way through each seat to “check up on us and see how we are doing.” The training partner meets them at the end of each seat to find out what they did and didn’t like. Apparently he takes his job “incredibly seriously.”

Farrer recruits some highly intelligent folk. “Across the board people are over-achievers, although generally modest about it.” Everyone we spoke to also seemed to display a special ‘fit’ with the firm. “This place grabs you and you immediately know it is where you really want to be,” said one. Another agreed that “when you first come to Farrer you know quite early on if it fits you or not.” This is not to say everyone is the same; indeed our sources gave the impression that recruiters “try to take a balance of trainees who will have different interests and characteristics that will fit them into different teams.”

An oil and a will that ended well

When you ask trainees about private client seats, it’s obvious that they appreciate the “breadth of clients” serviced by the department. Whether your interest lies in art and heritage property or the juxtaposition of English law with foreign law, there’s something to engage. In 2009 a deal was completed whereby the Duke of Sutherland transferred ownership of Titian’s painting of Diana and Actaeon to the National Galleries in London and Edinburgh for £50m. In another case the firm obtained a court order to make a will for an elderly recluse living in the USA after he lost the capacity to deal with his own affairs. Due to inherit a Cornish estate, had he died without making a will, a cousin would have landed the estate rather than the individual’s immediate family. For a newbie it can be an eye-opener to see how they could one day “become a client’s trusted adviser,” not just their lawyer. Some trainees in the ‘domestic’ seat even “arranged and attended clients’ funerals.” Those in the ‘international’ seat, meanwhile, had a lot of “nit-picky trust and tax issues” to get their heads around, but generally enjoyed the “intellectual workout.”

Tales of quirky cases are many. One particularly interesting example was a contested trust case where the assets were held in England but “problems had come about because of the way Shari’a law conflicts with our national law, and the courts had no idea how a particular inheritance should be divided up – they all said something different.” The excitement for one trainee involved “one tiny thing that needed to be sorted before going to trial.” The trainee rushed to get paperwork signed by a partner and then literally ran through the Gothic corridors of the High Court to put the papers in the barrister’s hand two minutes after the hearing should have begun. “The barrister very coolly sauntered into the courtroom and got us the judgement we were looking for.”

Farrer’s charities team is one of the best. A recent case involved a major multi-jurisdictional merger that transformed Help the Aged and four national Age Concern organisations into four new charities – Age UK, Age Scotland, Age Northern Ireland and Age Cymru. Farrer also acts for nearly all of the national museums in England, as well as a growing number of clients in the higher education sector. Trainees talked of the “broad umbrella of work” covered in this seat – property, employment and trusts issues, for example, as well as a large amount of corporate advice. The scope of the team’s activities usually comes as a pleasant surprise.

Healthy progression

Commercial services may not be what Farrer is best known for but that isn’t to say they’re unimportant to the firm; indeed, trainees say it is an “up-and-coming” part of the business. They complimented the commercial teams for their commitment to “teaching and training” and said: “It was incredible how accommodating they were.” For example: “A partner arranged one-on-one tutorials for me. It’s been great to have a sense that they want to invest in you.” Farrer works closely with private banks such as Coutts, and the sort of people who use these banks often have business interests to manage. At times, trainees end up carrying out complex research, and for one this was ideal. “I loved spending four hours or so poring over a problem and coming away at the end of the day really feeling as though I had got my head around it.” Among the clients are a Qatari sovereign wealth fund, the Ping Pong restaurant chain (currently expanding operations in Dubai, Brazil, the USA and Thailand), the family trustees of the multimillion-pound James Villa businesses and M.C.C. (which sought advice on the latest Lord’s debenture issue). The deals might be classified as lower midmarket, but usually this makes them very accessible to trainees still learning the ropes.

The busy employment team represents both employees and employers. “We were negotiating for lots of bankers who are being made redundant,” revealed one source. There can be a huge level of responsibility in this seat and plenty of attendance at client meetings and tribunals. “After the initial meeting I would be the one the client called, and by the end it would be me advising them,” reported one source, while another chuckled about a time when negotiating a compromise agreement. “The other side had provided a qualified lawyer and she was quite annoyed that she was negotiating with a trainee!”

The contentious family and media seats are popular, albeit for very different reasons. As in the private client seat, family department trainees are “constantly on the phone to clients, almost being a counsellor and helping them through hideous times, while also trying to practise the law.” As well as divorces, cases can involve prenuptial agreements, child abductions and residency issues. It is “big money” that binds all the cases together; some even involve well-known personalities, in which case it is sometimes necessary to bring the media team on board.

We get the impression you’re either made for the media team or you’re not. High-profile cases and a cracker of a client list ensure the team a place in the spotlight. Remember the notorious Max Mosley case in 2008? Farrer represented the newspaper on that. The firm rightly garners a lot of praise in this field, but several trainees warned that it can be “hard to get exposure to brain work” in this seat and much of the time can be taken up with bundling, photocopying and paginating. Having said this, Farrer’s stable of regional newspaper clients means there are smaller claims on which trainees can get their hands inky. As well as representing newspapers and magazines, trainees say that “it’s really exciting to go up against a national paper and stop them from publishing something.” Some sources spoke of “sitting in on interviews with big-name journalists on a regular basis” and others mentioned “great perks” such as media parties. “A bunch went to the British press awards,” revealed a gleeful source. Recent hot cases include the defence of newspapers from claimants like Kylie’s old squeeze Olivier Martinez, Mohammed George (Gus in EastEnders), Sienna Miller and Ashley Cole.

High times and hangovers

“We are eccentric and proud of it,” announced one interviewee. Naturally we wanted to know more. Excellent wines and traditional ales at client events, rumours of a secret royal vault somewhere beneath the building – the firm certainly delivers on character, and don’t let’s get started on some of the more interesting partners! Yes, some are quite posh, but don’t make the mistake of assuming that this is a firm of blue bloods. Once you get beyond the client areas it is more high brow than high society, and what connects people is talent, charm and subtle ambition, not old school ties.

Farrer’s very healthy social scene includes Christmas and summer parties, a much-anticipated trainee revue being a popular element of the former. An annual pub quiz is packed out, and we hear that at one departmental jolly a partner proved that am dram was not the preserve of the younger generation: “He got down on his knees while singing karaoke to the Rolling Stones,” chortled a source. Informal socialising is also a big part of the culture, and there’s a regular Friday gathering at The White Horse, a tiny old pub off the beaten track. It’s not all about supping with colleagues, as the members of the firm’s sports teams will vouch. An annual cricket weekend is held at a client’s estate, and the girls sometimes get together for netball. “Sports make up a lot of the social scene,” said one source, while another described how they often left the office to the sounds of “someone practising an instrument in a meeting room” or the dulcet tones of the office choir.

And finally...

While Farrer trainees loved telling us about the firm’s quirks, the staunchest praise was reserved for the calibre of work and the broad spread of practice areas available to them at a time when they most wanted to experience the colour and variety of the law.