CMS Cameron McKenna (London)

Our view...

Camerons managed to turn the corner in the last few boom years - and as a result of its expansion into Eastern Europe looks set to buck the market in the present downturn. In response to current market conditions the firm has decided to relaunch its insurance practice as a dispute resolution group, focusing on credit crunch litigation.
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Turnover for 2007/2008 was up a whopping 19% on the previous year. Equity partners are pulling in an average of £650,000: compared with £385,000 in 2004. And newly qualified lawyers, after suffering the indignity of having their salaries cut to £48,000, are now on a very healthy £66,000. The relatively easy hours mean: as one associate comments, “great pay / hours ratio, even if neither on their own is particularly brilliant”.
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It wasn't always thus: whilst everyone else was busy making money four years ago the firm was making redundancies and closing offices to try and rectify falling profits. But the bottom line was lifted by Camerons managing to secure the lucrative job of helping BP dispose of billions of pounds-worth of unwanted assets in the North Sea. Further good news came when the firm was appointed by Taylor Woodrow as its property adviser for London and Bristol acquisitions. Other deals of note included the PFI deal between Metronet and London Underground, and a £4bn JV between Mowlem and Kellogg Brown & Root.
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Camerons has abandoned an element of performance related pay for partners in favour of pure lockstep, waving goodbye to its practice of sharing out around 5% of profits amongst star partners every year. The firm claims performance-based pay was divisive and costly to administer, and unmodified lockstep certainly fits in with the egalitarian partnership ethos. There were concerns that top performers who could have been better rewarded elsewhere would have jumped ship, but so far these seem to have come to nothing. And they're unlikely to jump ship now: the firm's strong focus on Central and Eastern Europe should help hedge it against a slower UK market.
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It's not all beer and skittles. If you're a woman, you might also like to know that only 10% of the firm's partnership is female, compared with an average amongst leading firms of 18%. And only one of the 11 associates promoted to partnership in May 2008 was a woman. Any which way you look at it, that's pretty shabby.
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Also, Camerons fall somewhat between two stools: it's not big enough to enjoy the reputation and profits of the Magic Circle or the chasing pack. And whilst insiders report that "the majority of staff are genuinely nice people", and that the firm is "very proactive with keeping its staff satisfied" it can't offer the collegiality of smaller corporate firms like Travers Smith.

And its office is “unbelievably shabby”; “Mitre House is slowly falling down”; “it’s rubbish – things keep breaking – and we’re stuck here until the lease expires in 2013”. There is also discontent over the breakfast meetings, where for some reason you get a tray of "shots" of fruit juice. “You need to down about 6 to get a decent drink, and then you look pretty weird with a load of empty shot glasses in front of you at 9 in the morning”. Still, perhaps this is compensated for by the champagne trolleys on Friday afternoons…
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The firm wins big points for doing all it can to keep its lawyers employed, although things are harder on support staff: “They outsourced the postroom and IT depts and "re-strucutred" the finance department. Basically if you’re support staff you’re stuffed.”
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Still, it (just) made the top five of our Firm of the Year, and with clients like BNP Paribas and Nomura the work is good quality, pay is good, and there's even a bonus scheme which had an extra £1million pumped into it this year.

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