Firm of the Year: Linklaters "brutal", Irwin Mitchell "confiscates mobiles"

Hundreds of lawyers have already completed the RollOnFriday Firm of the Year 2014 survey, and as the entries flood in early contenders are emerging for both the Firm of the Year title and the feared Golden Turd.

Lawyers at Jones Day seem especially happy with their lot. The firm is "simply put, a fantastic place to work" with
"Excellent exposure from day 1." And while "hours can be long" it's "made a lot easier by everyone mucking in" with "jokes and good humour all round." One associate says it only loses the title every year "because its biscuits are a bit crap."

Two-time champ and reigning Firm of the Year Ince & Co isn't giving up without a fight. A trainee notes that "everyone is friendly", a senior associate boasts that there is "no billable hours target" and one non-fee-earner ~~in the marketing department~~ suggests the shipping specialist "is more than a law firm, or job. Ince is a community."

Sadly last year's Golden Turd winner Irwin Mitchell is still bobbing about in the bowl. Inmates describe an office like a North Korean re-education camp where "sickness is not tolerated", the internet is "heavily restricted" and the best thing is "walking out the door after collecting your mobile phone (because you can't keep your mobiles with you)". However "the receptionists are lovely."

Staff are monitored closely but hygienically at Irwin Mitchell

Meanwhile the Magic Circle firms are jostling for supremacy amongst themselves with no clear winner so far. There are "top deals" at Slaughter and May, but also "nutter partners" and a "permanent smell of drains in the foyer". Linklaters is praised for a "collegiate" and "gay-friendly" working environment, but also slammed for "secrecy" and a "brutal" partnertship. Allen & Overy is also credited for stocking "genuinely nice" people, although a beasted NQ says the work-to-pay ratio is so poor "I'm surprised Primark hasn't instructed us yet."

There's still plenty of time to engrave your firm's name on the glittery stool of doom, or help it win the Firm of the Year trophy. Spill the beans, good and bad, here.

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Comments

The mood at Irwin Mitchell at present is shocking, Christmas party tonight is only thing to look at forward to, I doubt that the golden turd will be going else.

By the way the receptionists are lovely...

It must be like being back at school working for Irwin Mitchell but it doesn't surprise me. The problem is that for now that Irwin's have the Sheffield legal market more or less sewn up at the moment, It would be interesting to see what happened if another big hitter came into town and paid the staff a bit more. The partners must be laughing their heads off at how they've managed to pay their staff peanuts. Awful, awful firm.

I don't know why people have such views about IM. Having worked there for many years and read this tosh, I don't recognise any of it. Easy to trash a Northern PI-based firm, isn't it?

I worked for IM many years ago. I hated every minute of my time there and the current comments very much reflect how I felt about the place. Shame nothing has changed.

I worked at both IM and Dickie Dees.

Just so there is no doubt. IM was much much better than DD.

As for Bond Dickinson; a leopard doesn't change its spots

Irwin Mitchell has done nothing over the last twelve months to counteract winning last year's golden turd. The sheer arrogance of the partners makes me wonder whether in fact the award is one of which they are proud.

To the guy defending Irwin Mitchell above, I don't care where they are based, I simply remember a culture of fear where school leavers are bled to death on the minimum wage to cream big profits for insurance partners, but let us know what hallowed fantasy land you were living in, sounds fantastic

As for IM the issues are not restricted to the 'mothership'' in Sheffield. I worked briefly at another office not a million miles from the seat of power. I would not have believed the way staff were treated had I not seen it for myself. A cursory look at staff turnover would confirm a problem.

When will Irwin Mitchell learn? The Leeds office has struggled for years, the Birmingham office cleared out half of its staff last year and the Manchester office seems to have walked out en masse. It won't be easy to fix either as all of the recruitment agents hate dealing with them. The firm is becoming a bit of a laughing stock.

Nice to see even the IM person commenting on here confirms that IM is just a "northern PI firm". Enough said.

There are quite a few partners at irwins who will tell you how much they loathe it, once theyve had a drink or two.

Is this the same firm IM firm i work at?
If you think IM is bad you want to try some of the "City" firms

Is it worth our marketing team voting now IM will win the Golden Turd?

I couldn't agree more with what is being said about IM. As someone who's worked in the London office for a while now, I've noticed that things are getting worse and worse and no one is doing anything about it. You can ask almost anyone why they work there and the answer they give you is that it pays the bills. That's it. The turnover of staff is very high and it's not a surprise given the fact that no one appreciates what you do. If you meet your targets, you're told that you need to reach an even higher target etc. No words of appreciation, leave alone a bonus or a decent pay rise. No career progression in many of the teams either. However, recently they introduced new biscuits which are very nice. Prior to this there were no biscuits at all.