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Our view....
After a few years of
defections and money worries Simmons seems to have turned the corner.
Over the past five years revenues have increased by an average of 12%
year on year. Equity partners are now averaging comfortably more than
half a million a year, and turnover for 2007 hit £250 million.
Simmons' traditional
problem has been that it was rarely principal adviser to top
companies and found it
difficult to cream off the best work as a result. Although it has
plenty of major clients such as Barclays, Shell and JP Morgan, when
the big deal comes along it is consistently overlooked. Three years
ago the firm underwent a strategic review with the aim, amongst other
things, of addressing this and focussing on the type of client for
whom it wanted to act. It is now concentrating on four key sectors:
financial institutions, life sciences, TMT and Energy and
Infrastructure. The ambition is that whilst it can't compete with the
biggest firms on everything, it should be in the running on any deal
that falls within these areas.
Given the rise in profits
this has clearly started to pay dividends. It's fair to say that the
firm's financial performance lags behind some of its competitors -
equity partners at Ashurst can trouser nearly twice as much. But the
breadth of the firm's practice means that it should be hedged against
any downturn, whilst other firms who've focussed exclusively on big
ticket corporate work find that they have a lot of salaries to pay
and precious little work coming through the door.
Simmons also benefits from a stellar
reputation in some niche areas of the market. Its employment team is
without a doubt the best in the City, with anyone who's anyone
gracing the client books. It's also one of the best firms for IP and
life sciences work, acting for clients such as GlaxoSmithKline and
Bacardi. The IT team has got the Indian outsourcing market pretty
much sewn up, the projects group is excellent, and litigation has
been consistently busy and profitable - most recently acting on the
bank charges dispute.
It even seems
to be making progress in its achilles heal of international
expansion. The last couple of years has seen the firm merge with its
Portuguese best friend and open offices in
Germany, Holland, Japan, Italy, Dubai, Beijing and Russia.
On top of that, Simmons is widely
considered one of the more laid back firms at which to work and its got pretty swanky offices at City Point (complete with Damien Hirst
art and a neon sign saying "trust me" outside the lecture hall).
Assistants are unanimous in their praise, commenting that "the work is
really interesting and big ticket, and the hours are relatively
civilised", and "everyone has a friendly and approachable attitude".
Mind you, these comments were made before the firm announced it was
raising its billing targets from 1500 to 1700 hours, which may have
strained a couple of those famous Simmons' smiles. Though at least
assistants get a £10k bonus if they exceed these targets.
Associate attrition in
London is around 18% - not the worst in the City, but hardly great. No
doubt it would have been lower if the firm had got round to
introducing the flexible working programme for all its lawyers that
was championed by former senior partner
Janet Gaymer. Still, at least the ruthlessness with which the firm
culled partners back in 2004 (11 were booted out and another five
jumped ship) should mean that ambitious assistants who don't mind
putting in the hours will have decent prospects of making the
letterhead.
 For
more information on graduate recruitment at Simmons & Simmons click
here
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