Legal Business

‘Why not me?’ – the law firms leading the way in the Social Mobility Employer Index

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Social mobility Browne JacobsonLinklaters

Browne Jacobson has topped the 2024 Social Mobility Employer Index with Slaughter and May, Linklaters, Lewis Silkin, Norton Rose Fulbright and Freshfields all ranking within the top 10.

In total, 25 law firms have made it into the Index’s top 75 employers, with other notable inclusions including Macfarlanes (13), Clifford Chance (14), CMS (17), Ashurst (20), DLA Piper (27), Pinsent Masons (33), and Simmons & Simmons (55).

Established by the Social Mobility Foundation in 2017, the Index is a benchmarking tool that celebrates organisations leading the way in creating inclusive workplaces accessible to individuals from all social backgrounds.

Browne Jacobson’s first place (which was shared with PwC UK) marks the fourth consecutive year it has placed in the top two. Caroline Green (pictured top), senior partner at Browne Jacobson, who leads on diversity, inclusion and wellbeing at the firm tells Legal Business she was ‘thrilled’ to top the table, adding, ‘you can’t win an accolade like this without lots of people contributing – it’s a whole firm effort’.

The firm, which shares best practice with a range of public and private sector clients, has received praise for an array of social mobility efforts. These include its school outreach programme, conducted at non-selective state schools, and its Fairer Access to Real Experience (FAIRE) programme which offers work experience opportunities to candidates from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

It also removed its minimum grade requirements of 2:1 and ABB in 2016 after Green reveals an internal survey showed that ‘some of our best solicitors didn’t have the qualifications that the profession was insisting on’.

Linklaters placed 6th in the Index this year, marking the second year running the firm has finished in the top ten and the eighth consecutive year it has featured in the Index.

Global head of corporate and ExCom champion for social mobility at Linklaters, Simon Branigan describes the ranking as a ‘testament to the work we are doing across social impact, recruitment and internally.’

‘We have a Social Mobility Network with people across the firm from all practices and all levels of seniority – they are engaged, active and incredibly passionate about what they do.’

The network, which shares best practices with large corporations and financial firms, runs a range of initiatives. Branigan highlights coffee drop-ins where senior partners share their stories as one that has made a big impact. He has his own story to tell, as the first member of his family to do A-Levels and then attend university, and has seen first-hand how powerful it can be for members of staff to hear it.

Linklaters’ social mobility initiatives also include a nationwide apprenticeship program for school leavers and social impact projects with a local school in a disadvantaged London ward. While the firm prioritises social mobility in its recruitment strategy, Branigan is passionate about taking proactive measures earlier on.

‘We aim to break down barriers as early as possible so that children can see the legal profession is within their reach and ask themselves: ‘Why not me? Why shouldn’t I be one of those lawyers at a firm like Linklaters?’

There is still work to be done: a report released by the SRA in July 2024 showed that 57% of lawyers come from a professional socio-economic background and that 21% of lawyers attended an independent/fee-paying school, far outstripping the national average of 7.5%.

However, the high representation of law firms on the Index is proof that the profession is taking the issue of social mobility seriously.

Branigan believes progress will continue to be made: ‘I’m optimistic. I see how seriously law firms take the issue – it’s not tokenism. I can see the passion with which law firms talk about this.’

Green is similarly hopeful: ‘You have to be optimistic with the number of law firms on the Index – it’s encouraging.’

tom.cox@legalease.co.uk

Efforts to improve social mobility in the legal profession will be among the many law firm initiatives recognised at the upcoming UK ESG Awards 2025 in London next year – for more details and how to submit, click here.

Legal Business

Consolidation continues as Browne Jacobson targets top 50 through Beale & Co talks

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Legal mergers Browne Jacobson

Midlands-based Browne Jacobson is in late-stage merger talks with London-based construction and insurance specialist Beale & Co to create a firm with eight offices and a turnover of £82m – putting the combined firm in the top 50 of the Legal Business 100.

In a joint statement, Iain Blatherwick, managing partner at Browne Jacobson, and Antony Smith, senior partner at Beale, said the combination, which would have over 1,000 staff and 137 partners, could offer clear strategic benefits.

Legal Business

H1 2015/16: Double-digit growth for TLT as Browne Jacobson praises London for revenue lift

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Financial results 2015/16 Browne JacobsonTLT
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Bristol-headquartered TLT has continued its strong growth into the first half of this financial year, posting double digit revenue growth of 14%, as Browne Jacobson has praised its London office for 7.5% revenue growth.

Revenue for the first six months of 2015/16 rose from around £31m to £35.3m and the firm said it expected turnover for the full-year to approach £70m.

Over the next three months TLT’s managing partner David Pester (pictured) will lead a series of briefings with partners and associate groups on a new strategy, to be ready for summer 2016. The current three-year strategy which was launched in 2012 has seen headcount grow by a third from 669 to 928. Last month the firm made six partner promotions, bringing total partner headcount to over 100.

The firm will also use an outside consultant and access wider market data in preparation for its new strategy.

The double-digit growth continues a string of strong financial performances in recent years, building on the 8% revenue increase for the full financial year 2014/15. In June the firm posted a revenue figure of £62.5m, which took the firm past £60m for the first time and meant revenue has grown by a total of 27% over three years.

Some of the revenue was ploughed into investments with the firm saying it spent £2m on IT with around a further £3m on infrastructure and people.

Significant client wins for the national firm in the year to 30 April include making it onto both Barclays and Sainsbury’s panels.

Meanwhile LB100 firm Browne Jacobson has praised its London office as it continued its strong financial performance for the first half of 2015/16 with revenue growth of 7.5%.

The first half lift in revenue from £28.6m to £30.8m builds on impressive results for the full year 2014/15 which saw revenues rise 17.2% to £58.9m, while profits per equity partner (PEP) soared by 24% to £412,000.

Chief operating officer Sarah Walker Smith said the firm continued to reap the benefits of investment in people and technology in recent years.

‘All our offices are performing well, particularly in London which is driving growth domestically and internationally in key areas such as the financial services, dispute resolution and international asset recovery arena.’

Managing partner Iain Blatherwick added growth was generated across the business with the corporate, public, health and education teams performing particularly well since the beginning of the year.

He added: ‘The pipeline of high quality work across the board remains strong and gives us a robust platform for the next six months which has traditionally been a stronger period for us.’

In January, Blatherwick was rewarded with a further three year term with the partnership unanimously re-electing him. As well as overseeing the firm’s rapid turnover growth, his tenure has included the opening of new offices in Manchester and Exeter, plus a new London office at 6 Bevis Marks.

Last year’s turnover figure represented the fifth year in a row in of record results for the firm and consolidated the strong growth shown in 2013/14 when the firm generated in revenue £50.2m – up 11.5% from £45m in 2012/13.

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Financials 2014/15: Browne Jacobson posts second year of double digit growth with 17% rise in turnover

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Financial results 2014/15 Browne Jacobson
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Browne Jacobson has, for the second year in a row, posted a rise in turnover of over 10% with the firm generating £58.9m in the 2014/15 financial year – up 17% from last year’s £50.2m

The 17% increase came from an increase in workload spread across the firm’s offices. Manchester saw the fastest growth with a 73% increase in workload, though was closely followed by London with 61% while Exeter recorded 40% and Birmingham and Nottingham also saw their work done rise by 12% and 11% respectively.

The extra revenues come as the firm surpassed the 100-partner mark this year. It latest promotions round made up seven new partners with five in Birmingham and a further two partners in Nottingham, taking the total to 103. Overall headcount stands at 787 employees who, due to a firmwide performance award scheme introduced in 2010, will recieve a 5.5% exceptional award.

Also this year, in January, current managing partner Iain Blatherwick was rewarded with a further three year term with the partnership unanimously re-electing him. As well as overseeing the firm’s rapid turnover growth, his tenure has included the opening of new offices in Manchester and Exeter, plus a new London office at 6 Bevis Marks.

Blatherwick, said: ‘We have had one of our strongest years ever, comfortably exceeding the targets we set ourselves at the start of the year. There have been many highlights during the year but unveiling our new London office, investment in Birmingham and becoming the first UK law firm to achieve a three star Investors in Customers rating particularly stand out as ones that we are immensely proud of. We thrive on delivering excellent client service and these three alone speak volumes about our commitment to delivering the highest quality legal service we can for our clients.’

The £58.9m represents the fifth year in a row in of record results for the firm and consolidates the strong growth shown in 2013/14 when it generated £50.2m – up 11.5% from £45m in 2012/13.

michael.west@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Partner promotions: Weightmans makes an all-female round as BLM cuts its to six and Browne Jacobson’s partnership passes 100

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Partnership promotions BLMBrowne JacobsonWeightmans
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This week saw Weightmans carry out its first all-female promotions round, making four women up to partner level, while BLM made up six in a reduced round from 2014 and Browne Jacobson promoted seven new partners taking its total partnership to 104.

Weightmans’s round also saw the firm use its Alternative Business Structure for a second year to promote non-legal employees to a Fixed Share Membership (FSM). The firm promoted HR director Sam Airey to FSM, following the first promotion of a business services employee last year, with marketing director Sarah-Jane Howitt.

The three other promotions at the firm were in commercial insurance, corporate finance and corporate dispute resolution. Commenting on the all-female promotions, Airey said: ‘Weightmans prides itself on its people-focused culture and encourages a healthy work life balance. As HR Director, I am delighted and excited about these promotions as it sends a positive message throughout the firm, that we recognise the importance of flexible working.’

In what saw the firm surpass the 100-partner mark, Browne Jacobson made the majority of its promotions in its Birmingham office, which saw five of the seven while a further two partners were made up in Nottingham. The promotions were spread evenly among practices with each partner specialising in a different area.

Meanwhile, as well as the six partner promotions, BLM made 27 associate promotions across five of the firm’s business streams, with 12 in claims solutions, 10 in large loss and technical, three in speciality and financial lines, seven in healthcare and commercial, and one in the firm’s Ireland business stream.

The partner round was much reduced from last year when BLM made up 24 partners after having recently finalised its merger with HBM Sayers.

The list of partner promotions in full is as follows:

Weightmans

Sam Airey, Liverpool, HR Director

Patricia Grinyer, Liverpool, corporate finance

Navdip Wilson, Leicester, commercial insurance and local government

Carole Spiller, Manchester, corporate dispute resolution

Browne Jacobson

Richard Freeth, Birmingham, education

Emma Hopkinson, Birmingham, banking

Mike Jackson, Birmingham, corporate

Lisa McGinn, Birmingham, property

Tim Rayner, Birmingham, property Litigation

Michael Sadler, Nottingham, construction

Lucy Worwood, Nottingham, tax

BLM

Caroline Haydock

Kelly Matthews

Karen Redmore

Matthew Perkins

Sarah Murray-Smith

Jane Littlewood

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk

Legal Business

Unanimous approval: Blatherwick gets another three-year term at Browne Jacobson

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Browne Jacobson has opted to stick with current managing partner Iain Blatherwick with the firm’s 96-strong partnership unanimously re-electing him for a further three years from 1 May 2015.

Since Blatherwick took over in 2009, he has overseen the Nottingham-based firm’s turnover rise to £50.2m for the financial year 2013/14 – a 52% increase from over a five-year period. His tenure has also seen the opening of new offices in Manchester and Exeter, plus a new London office at 6 Bevis Marks.

The expansion has seen the firm’s overall headcount increase by more than fifty per cent to over 800 spread across the firm’s five offices in Nottingham, Birmingham, Manchester, Exeter and London. There has also been a spate of new client wins including Morrisons, The Trustee of the liquidation of Bernard L Madoff Investment Securities LLC, The Independent Parliamentary Standards Association, NHS England and The Crown Commercial Service.

Speaking to Legal Business, Blatherwick said that more of the same was on the agenda going forward: ‘We settled the strategy last year so we are continuing the focus on insurance, on our private sector, on health and our public sector, trying to make the most of where those overlap. We are absolutely focused on the quality of work, and the relationships we can develop with our clients around the quality of the people we’ve got. Working alongside our clients and being part of their team is when we think we are at our best.

‘The new office in London was a statement of intent around the quality agenda that we’re on. All five offices are important to us but we didn’t think our previous London office quite gave the impression that we wanted to for the business that we are. We have done some recruitment into London recently and we have an opportunity there because of our profile in particular areas. It is definitely part of the plan for the future but each of the other offices have a key part to play in that as well. We are on track for double digit growth again this year. We are doing well.’

Commenting on Iain’s appointment, Derek Bambury, senior partner added: ‘Browne Jacobson has been transformed under Iain’s strong leadership. Whilst there are many people who have contributed to that success it is fair to say that Iain has been one of the prominent forces behind the consistent and highly successful growth realised by the firm.’

kathryn.mccann@legalease.co.uk