Clyde & Co (London)
Our view...
At the time of writing, the paint was barely dry on new Clyde & Co. That's the merged firm of Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert. CCBLG 2.0. As the name suggests, years of history vanished when Clydes - an international shipping behemoth - subsumed BLG, a firm which had gone through some stormy weather (BLG's turnover fell 6% to £80.8m last year), and was happy to take refuge in the Clyde's dry harbour. And vanished beneath the waves. "Merger"? Well, maybe...
We originally predicted that the merger would see Clydes zoom further up the financial rankings, and potential revenues should be over £300m. But Mystic RoF also said that "
Clydes is likely to be very much in the driving
seat."
As this is all new, it's hard to get a handle on how it's working out
for everyone involved - especially the BLG-ers. The ex-firm's
management had certainly been thrusting young bucks, snapping up the
cream of the Halliwells insurance practice. but had also lost partners
to...Clyde & Co. So perhaps the takeover was just a lovely big happy
reunion. Let's wait for the waves to subside...
Clydes, along with Holman Fenwick & Willan and Ince & Co, was traditionally one of the three great shipping firms in the City. This wasn't necessarily a good thing: collision work has been declining thanks to better maritime regulation and training, and protection and indemnity clubs are, well, clubbing together to drive their lawyers' rates down as well as bringing more work in-house. As European expertise in the field increases, more work is also going to Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, whose rates are generally cheaper than in the UK.
In view of these changes Clydes decided to diversify and expand. And so far it seems to have made a huge success of it. Turnover been rising since 2005 - credit crunch or not - and the firm's 2010-11 results showed that turnover was up 10% on the previous year, at £212m. The firm now has a total of 164 partners and profits per equity partner of £605,000 last year - that's nearly £80,000 more than Holman Fenwick & Willan.
Clydes currently has a strong international presence with 24 offices worldwide - having recently added New Jersey and Saudi Arabia to the list - and it makes a big play of its international presence. Which is perhaps unsurprising given that 42% of the firm's revenue is generated outside the UK. And this trend is likely to continue as the firm has just announced that it will be merging with Canada's Nicholl Paskell-Mede September 2011.
A good spread of international offices means that there are opportunities for trainees to spend their second or third seats overseas - in Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore or, err, Piraeus. We know where we'd rather go. The firm also has a Guildford office that famously pays London rates. Rather less famously it also expects its lawyers to work London hours, but given the lower living costs which normally come with provincial offices this still sounds like a pretty good deal.
Shipping is still important, but insurance and reinsurance and now aviation are also very strong sectors. It's now a proper full service law firm, with the profits and overseas offices to match. Clydes' corporate and commercial practice now makes up almost 30% of its worldwide turnover. This explains why its assistants reckon they work harder than at the other, traditional shipping firms - but with targets at a fairly gentle 1430 hours it still compares very favourably with the bigger City outfits.
The main reason for this is that unlike most City firms, the majority of Clydes' work is still litigation rather than corporate. Inevitably this sort of practice doesn't require the level of all-nighters you'll experience at more transaction-led firms, and it's great news if you fancy ending up as a litigator. But possibly not the first choice if you want to specialise in M&A .
Assistants seem to enjoy their work, the “
very friendly atmosphere with no stay late culture” and the fact that it's clearly an ambitious, business-like firm. Although the go-getting, slightly aggressive atmosphere probably wouldn't suit shrinking violets, the offices are “
falling apart around our ears”- but are set to be replaced with swanky new Aldgate offices this August - and there are grumbles about what are perceived to be “
terrible partnership prospects for women”.
And the firm fared badly in RollOnFriday's Firm of the Year survey, propping up the latter half of the table just above potential merger partner Beachcroft. The low placing may be partly be explained by the fact that salaries are reasonable rather than spectacular. But many will think that the shorter hours compensate for this.
Grumble aside this is “
a great place to work with nurturing and encouraging partners and a great team of assistants who look out for each other”. Allied with an expanding overseas network, rapidly rising profits and reasonably civilised hours it's a solid choice.
For more information on Clyde & Co
click here