Our view...

Jones Day dramatically increased its share of the London market in February 2003 by taking over Gouldens - a traditional mid-sized City firm known for its high profits and stellar salaries. Despite initial wobbles, it is one of the most profitable, as well as one of the largest, law firms in the world. Every year, seemingly without fail, JD top the charts for M&A, a function not only of its sheer size, but its quality too.

The London office has been having a very busy time of it, with clients including British Land, Orange and a host of private equity and hedge funds. On the litigation side the firm successfully defended the SFO’s biggest investigation to date when it represented pharmaceutical company Goldshield, a case which had run for a number of years.

As with all City firms it remains to be seen whether the credit crunch will impact on the rate of deal flow. But the firm reckons its international presence has make it pretty recession proof, and it currently has no plans to cut its extremely healthy rates of pay. Or jobs – as one assistant comments, “the managing partner has assured us there will be no redundancies and, with the exception of the branded umbrellas, there have been no cut backs”. But since that time, the managing partner has jumped ship (taking a well-respected departmental head with him) and there have been whispers of redundancies - although we're told it "absolutely did not deserve the slating it got".

Prospective trainees will be glad to hear that the firm is currently paying its new initiates the highest starting salaries in the City - £39,000 to start, rising every six months to hit £50,000 by the time you qualify (although the £70k NQ salary is a bit more run-of-the-mill).

The money's not the only difference here. Uniquely, the firm runs a non-rotational training system, where trainees are expected to seek out their own work rather than being assigned to a partner in any particular department. Whilst this certainly eliminates the chances of your being stuck in a slow department for six months, the firm readily agrees that it might not be suitable for wallflowers. There are some grumbles that “you sometimes have to seek out supervision”, but most insiders rate it, praising the benefits of being in their own office, having some control over their workload and “doing a wide variety of work and getting to know people in the firm very quickly”. And the “new lawyer trip to Washington is brilliant!” (one inhabitant of RoF Towers can vouch for that). Although it's worth noting that, despite 32 international offices, there's no chance of a seat abroad. Well, it doesn't have seats, after all.

The firm also gets points for its flat management structure – “there's no hierarchy, associates are very much encouraged to develop their own practice/contacts etc.” There are the usual grumbles about long hours, but if you want to take home this sort of wedge you have to expect to burn the midnight oil occasionally. Chargeable targets are officially a reasonable 1500-1700 hours a year, but insiders say that 2000 is probably more like it.

Downsides on top of the hours include the loos which “back up” and “need to be torn down and rebuilt” and “the walls between the offices which are paper thin, so I get to overhear every con call the partner next to me makes and he gets to hear all my gossip / bitching and moaning / calls to the gas company etc." As with many a UK office of a big global firm, there are complaints about central management, with one lawyer notince "you can't even get a USB stick without approval". Another complained that management was "immensely secretive".

Aside from this there doesn’t seem to be much wrong. The firm consistently comes near the top of our annual Firm of the Year Survey, and dozens of lawyers write in to praise the firm's friendly atmosphere, extremely sociable employees and approachable partners who are "very supportive of individual endeavour". Apart from the Heads of Departments, who are apparently “all sociopaths”.

The firm pitches itself as a realistic competitor to the Magic Circle (well, maybe), but with the added bonus of working in a smaller office with greater partnership potential. If you go there expecting to work for a profitable international giant rather than a quirky independent boutique, you should be well rewarded. As one assistant notes, “big US firm benefits with an English manner and feel”.

For more information on Jones Day click here