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Our view...
Olswang is undeniably
the sexiest firm in the City, combining a high-profile media (and new media) practice
with a succesful corporate department. Success has come at a certain
price - the firm has moved on from the brash media boutique of the
1990s to adopt a more mature imagine and working style - but it's also
brought in a greater variety of eye-catching work.
Its
smart new offices in Holborn (with Sky TV in reception and obligatory
Starbucks) hint at a youthful firm with little City baggage to drag it
down. Perhaps this is why Magic Circle lawyers used to sniff at
Olswang's corporate work, until they realised the young pretender was
there to stay. With profits and turnover up again in 2005 Olswang is, if
anything, increasing its share of the market.
Part of the success can be put down
to its decision to embrace the resurgent property market by stealing
an officeful of former DJ Freeman lawyers. As well as a means of
branching out from the firm's core TMT sector specialism, this new
strength has allowed them to act on deals such as the sale of the
Warner Village cinema circuit. However, we did get the impression the
firm was perhaps overly keen to promote its new talents when we
received a press release entitled 'Olswang advises on biggest property
deal in Slough for two years'.
Despite similar meritorious
projects, media remains the firm's stronghold. A sample of recent
deals include advising M&C Saatchi on its recent £67m AIM flotation,
acting on Top-Up TV (the bolt-on Freeview service arising from the
ashes of ITV Digital) and helping O2 set up a virtual mobile network
in partnership with Tesco. They're also pretty hot at defamation
(they're the firm Stuart Rose chose for his potential libel spat with
Goldman Sachs) and have a growing reputation on the sports field,
having advised Fifa on the sale of its media rights to the 2010 World
Cup.
Despite recently losing a couple of
high-profile partners, Olswang also remains unrivalled at film and TV
production, with clients such as the BBC, Channel 4, DreamWorks and
HBO. Recent deals have included advising on BSkyB's carriage of MTV
and Nickelodeon, and the production and distribution of 'Calendar
Girls'. And as an added bonus, assistants report that the whole firm
is frequently invited along to a free screening of the films it
has worked on.
However, it's not all fizzy
pop and popcorn - assistants at Olswang do work very hard. Targets
are not given to individuals, they are given to groups. You might
wonder if this is a touch invidious - if you take a longer lunch than
you should, or leave the office before your workmates then you have
to deal with the guilt of letting your mates down. Perhaps so, but
people working at the firm enthused about how well the lawyers and
support staff got along with each other. And if you do feel hard done
by, there's always the prospect of one of those departmental ski
weekends on the horizon.
We did hear a couple of grumbles about
the firm's 'short term' recruitment and retention policy. These were
borne out by 2004's rather average trainee retention figures -
once again almost 40% of them got the chop. This can't have been
helped by a slow TMT market - competitors Bird & Bird and Taylor
Wessing didn't do much better - but there is a larger issue to be
addressed here if the firm wants to continue to attract the best
lawyers. The fact that the firm kept all its qualifiers on in 2005 may indicate
that it's beginning to change.
Whatever, Olswang is a
great place for those looking for a first class grounding in new media law.
Olswang's position is strong, and all the signs for the future are good. If this is your area, if you are ambitious, hard working and have a strong personality, then you can do no better.
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