Norton Rose (London)

Our view...

By any accounts Norton Rose is a decent big City firm. Although whether it's as decent as it likes to think is a slightly moot point. Profits may be about the same as Ashurst, but they've got to be split between 195 partners rather than 150. Profits per equity partner are less than the magic circle, the chasing pack, and a whole raft of smaller firms - SJ Berwin, Berwin Leighton Paisner, Clyde & Co etc.

But this may be set to change. 2002 saw Norton Rose introduce its "headlights" programme, setting out the five key areas in which it would focus: Financial Institutions, International Corporate Finance, Energy and Infrastructure, Transport, and Technology. The idea was that all the firm's lawyers, whether in corporate, litigation, finance, real estate etc. would develop an indepth understanding of these sectors. It sounds a bit like marketing nonsense to us, but clients seem to like it and it's been paying dividends. On the energy side the firm recently worked on a listing for Drax Power, on the tech side it does a lot of corporate work for Siemens, and it has won panel places at SocGen, BNP and BP.

Profits might not be as high as they should be, but they're heading in the right direction and the firm stresses that it's looking to expand. So this should mean strong partnership prospects for ambitious assistants - the firm made up a whopping 23 partners in 2006, 13 of them in London. That's the same as Clifford Chance managed. Norton Rose has also brought in an "of counsel" role as an alternative career structure to partnership - eight senior assistants were appointed in 2006.

For such a big firm we've heard that it's a friendly place, with trainees and new assistants reporting that they are warmly welcomed and very quickly get into the swing of things. The general view is that it is a big City firm that is pleasant to work at, with good work and none of the hothouse culture found in some of its competitors. Obviously the banking and asset finance groups are very busy, and long hours are required, but even here the atmosphere is decent enough. Pay is good, and a bonus kicks in once you bill in excess of 1,500 hours. This starts at 2.5%, and rises to 30% for those who bill more than 2,500 hours. Although if that's you, all you'll be fit to spend it on is psychiatric care.

The firm says that it takes work/life balance very seriously. There are pastoral schemes in place for assistants and mentoring programmes for trainees, and several support staff, assistants and partners take advantage of part time or flexible working schemes. Unusually for a big firm, it's possible for a part time assistant to be promoted straight to the partnership.

On the downside, trainees say that there's not as much hands on experience in departments outside of property and litigation, but such is the lot of all large firms working on billion pound deals. And criticism of NR's traditionally shabby offices has been convincingly laid to rest following the firm's move in summer 2007 to smart, purpose built, riverside premises - "designed by Lord Foster" no less. Ooohhh!

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