Our view..

White & Case’s London office is one of the most venerable in the City, having been around since 1971. So it's safe to say that it looks set, along with competitors Shearman & Sterling and Weil Gotshal, to be here for good. After a decade of rapid expansion, the firm now employs over 380 lawyers in the UK. No small fish, this one. Internationally, too, W&C is in the top ten of US firms - and near the top half of that.

And its lawyers are extremely well paid. The first seat trainee salary is the highest in the City at £41k. It's matched by fellow US big spenders Jones Day and Weil Gotshal & Manges, but is a chunk more wedge than the Magic Circle and flies from £72k at NQ to the best part of £150,000 for a lawyer with five years PQE. Add to this top quality international work, a bonus that kicks in once associates beat their target of 1,750 chargeable hours and a guaranteed overseas seat for trainees and it looks like a cracking deal.

Inevitably it’s not all beer and skittles: in the recession years up to 2011 the firm culled 15% – 20% of its global partnership together with some 200 associates and 200 support staff. But insiders gave the London office points for having been “very transparent about what’s going on” and noted that it had been "handled pretty well". Not that that's much comfort to those who lost their jobs. Nevertheless, things have since picked up for the firm. The partners have enjoyed a 15% increase in PEP for the 2011/12 period, and there has been a respectable 86% NQ retention rate in March 2013 (13 out of 14 trainees).

The workload is tough - we're told that in certain departments "leaving before 8 is frowned upon". But they’re not universally brutal (given the dough), there are "remarkably few psychopaths" and there is a “good team spirit among associates”. Although apparently "the political divisions within the firm make the middle east look cohesive". The office is described as having a "really relaxed atmosphere", even if the IT support is a bit shonky. The firm makes a big play of taking diversity very seriously – even if it's still “not an easy place to be a senior lawyer and a woman”. The Broad Street offices are very swish (albeit with extremely slow and "unpredictable" lifts), there are plenty of opportunities for extra-curricular drinking and historically some of the best biscuits in the City (although the rest of the nibbles leave a bit to be desired).

For more information on White & Case click here.