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Our view...
BLP has proved to be one of the City's
true success stories. The firm is the product of the merger in 2001
between Berwin Leighton and Paisner, in the hope of becoming more
competitive by pooling the two legacy
firms' corporate teams. Few would now argue that it wasn't a success.
In the four years since the merger, turnover has rocketed and the
firm has broken through the £500k PPP barrier. Profits rose a staggering 74% in
just two years.
Though it was not always thus. BLP
finalised the merger just as the economy was taking a tumble. The following
year brought all sorts of woes. 30 staff were
made redundant, six partners were "managed out", several
others were de-equitised, and those who remained saw their profits
fall by 20%. The firm was judged too reliant on its real estate
practice to bother the more established mid-market corporate players.
Since then there has been a seemingly endless run of lateral hires to
the partnership - thirteen in 2004 followed by another 11 in
2005, including DLA's former
corporate head and a senior Clifford Chance partner as its new head
of real estate. And it's still hiring, so business must be good.
The firm has considerably bolstered its corporate and
funds practices and has begun to attract some very high quality
corporate work, including the £250 million
takeover of Pizza Express,
Apeejay Surrendra’s £80m acquisition of Typhoo Tea, the £110m MBO of Chorion and a string of deals for Experian.
It's also does a lot of AIM work.
However, real
estate remains the firm's strongest suit, and the department is regularly seen
on some of the biggest deals - Canary Wharf recently turned to BLP
for its acquisition of some property in the City, and the firm advised Merrill
Lynch on a £280 million real estate acquisition. The firm's planning group is
regarded as one of the best in the country.
Its
London office is now all under one roof by London Bridge. It's nice not to have to traipse to Docklands for a view of the
Thames, although rumours that the firm was going to moor a yacht
alongside for client meetings sadly proved to be exaggerated. Still,
the cool new restaurant (complete with Sky TV equipped
chill-out area) has been a hit. International expansion is taking
place but slowly - until recently content
to be very much London dominated, BLP has entered into
exclusive alliances with US, Italian and German firms.
Young lawyers also feel that the firm shows real commitment to their
training and development, to the extent that they now have a firm-exclusive LPC at the College of Law. It even went as far as to sign up England rugby ace
Lawrence Dallaglio to develop a programme of 'physical and mental
fitness" Unfortunately Lawrence retired from international rugby
straight after signing on the dotted line, but we're sure that just
gives him more time to take the trainees to spin classes.
The firm also wins praise for
making serious efforts to resolve the issue of lack of prospects that bedevills
all City assistants. In February 2006 it announced that it would be introducing
a role between senior associate and junior partner, allowing lawyers to combine
fee-earning work with an element of management responsibility in return for a
six figure salary. It's intended to be a viable alternative to partnership, and
is compatible with working flexible hours. It's too early to tell whether it
will work or not, but at least it's having a proper crack at it and the partners
have all bought into the concept.
What seems certain is that if you
reach BLP determined to have a good time and get the most out of it, then this firm has
plenty to offer.
Managing partner Neville Eisenberg has admitted that his assistants
had "worked like hell" to get last year's impressive
results, but with top quality
work and a competitive bonus package we didn't hear that many of them
complaining.
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Leighton Paisner
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