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Our view...
Bird & Bird was the UK's first TMT
specialist, and hence its fortunes were inevitably tied to the
performance of the technology market. Back in the dot.com boom of 2001
it was the fastest growing major law firm in the country. The tech
crash put heavy pressure on the firm's profits, but rather than
withdrawing into its nest B&B embarked on a dramatic period of
expansion. The recovery of the tech market - and the firm's expansion
into more mainstream corporate and finance work - has resulted in a
very strong performance. Profits for 2005 -2006 were up a stonking
20% to £413,000 per partner. Turnover rose from £80m to £96.5m.
The firm's reputation was forged by
its stellar IP practice and it continues to operate at the cutting
edge of the field, fighting it out with likes of Bristows and Taylor
Wessing for the best cases. The firm is also amongst the market
leaders for telecoms, IT and life sciences deals.
B&B tends to focus more on the technology and telecoms
aspects of the TMT market. That said, it does have a flourishing
sports practice with a mixed bag of clients ranging from the Football
Association to World Wrestling Entertainment, and has smaller but
well-respected sponsorship and film finance departments.
The most noticeable feature of the
firm's progress over the last few years has been its ambitious
international expansion. Over the 2005/2006 financial year the firm
opened up offices in Frankfurt, Lyon, Madrid and Rome. Total offices
now run to an impressive 14 - and the partners are still cleaning
up, despite the inevitable cost of this expansion.
The firm's growth has meant that
it has been as busy hunting lawyers as it has been acquiring office
space. Recently it bagged new partners in Hong Kong and Paris,
nicked a star Freshfields partner in Italy and picked up some trophy
hires in London - most notably the head of sports law at Hammonds
and the head of IP at Eversheds.
Lower down the foodchain, it seems
to be a great place to train. Insiders report interesting
departments and a healthy work-life balance. Pretty much all of its
trainees are retained on qualification, and
the firm's "Investors in
People" accreditation suggests that it takes its responsibilities to
its staff seriously.
In the last recession the firm avoided redundancies and made the
cuts elsewhere. More than can be said for its competitors such as Olswang or
Osbourne Clarke.
So what's the downside? Well, rates
of pay don't come close to those of the
Magic Circle. Although
they've recently improved, and the possibility of pulling in a bonus
of up to 30% of salary helps to bridge the gap. The firm may have
made up eight partners in 2006, but only one of them was in the
London office - so your chances of getting a slice of those profits
are pretty much zero. And it desperately needs to crank up its
efforts at diversity. Back in 2006 all of its trainees were white,
only 1.25% of
its London associates was Asian, and not one of them was black, mixed
race or Chinese. The firm stresses that it's now taking this
extremely seriously and that matters have improved.
Assuming this is genuinely the
case, then if you're after a good general firm with an IP leaning
and a more civilised view to hours we reckon that you'd do well here.
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