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Our view....
TLT is still a baby of a firm - it
was formed by a merger between Trumps and Lawrence Tuckets in 2000 and
only acquired a London office in April 2005 when it merged with
boutique firm Lawrence Jones. But in a few short years it has become
one of the most profitable outfits in the region.
Profits per equity partner for
2005/2006 hit £300,000, up from £210,000 the year before. Compare this
with the £252,000 posted by the more established Clarke Willmott, and
the relatively woeful £180,000 at Bond Pearce. It's still short of the
profits posted by Bristol's two grandest firms, Burges Salmon
(£363,000) and Osborne Clarke (£425,000), but it looks like delivering
on its ambition to be the number three firm in Bristol - a desire
which looked pretty fanciful only a year ago.
The firm has five practice areas:
real estate, commercial services, employment, banking and lender
services and private business. Traditionally it capitalised on the
fact that other regional firms didn't tend to have much of a regional
focus, and it has picked up good work from smaller, regional based
companies such as Avon Rubber Group and Aardman Animations. Now that
it's made more of a name for itself the proportion of finance and
corporate work it does for bigger ticket clients - Barclays, Lloyds,
Punch Taverns etc. - is increasing, and there's a commensurate rise in
its profits.
Assistants say that your experience
at the firm will depend on the sort of deals on which you're working.
On the upside, if you work for more local clients you'll be allowed
off the leash, given early responsibility and lots of client contact
and put in reasonable hours. On the downside, you can find yourself
working hard on the more minor aspects of a deal for Barclays whilst
lawyers at City firms bag the more interesting stuff.
But with that in mind, the firm does more than most to try and ensure that staff
have a decent work/life balance. Many of its lawyers work flexible
hours or share jobs, and it's clearly a chummy place to work (the firm
made it into the Sunday Times 100 best companies to work for list in
2005).
The firm also makes a big play of
how everyone has a part to play in its growth, and it really does seem
to be a more egalitarian environment than most law
firms. Everyone is asked to become involved in business development
activities, the offices are open plan, everyone dresses down and the
requirements for making partner are sufficiently transparent to be published on the firm's intranet.
TLT has the ability and desire to
expand - managing partner David Pester has stated his aim of taking
the firm into the top 50. There are good prospects for ambitious
assistants and the money for those who make equity is excellent. One
to watch.
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