Our view...

LG (formerly known as Lawrence Graham until its ridiculous rebrand in May 2007) is seen as a decent mid-sized corporate firm with an extremely well regarded real estate team. The department is one of the best in the City and boasts a client list including Legal & General, Sainsbury’s and Whitbread.

For a long time the firm was unencumbered by foreign offices, with the exception of a Monaco office (presumably the most sought after secondment in the City...) which it took over from Eversheds. But in the last few years the firm has shown a more expansionist side, opening a Dubai office in 2008 and entering into a Moscow joint venture in 2009.

For a firm so bound up with the real estate market, the credit crunch was bound to make waves. The corporate and real estate departments suffered during the recession and two rounds of redundancies saw the firm lose 13% of its staff. Added to this, partner profits fell and turnover dipped by 10%.

But the firm now seems to be staging a rather remarkable comeback. In 2009/10 LG posted one of the highest profit hikes, with partner profits increasing by 63% to £460k and revenue rising by 7.6% to £64.9m. Its success has been attributed to a slimmed down work force, a drop in the number of equity partners and a good showing from disputes and finance departments.

Assistants seem reasonably happy and like the fact that in addition to the property / corporate / litigation work that you would expect the firm to do there's a load of stuff that you wouldn't. It's the business when it comes to housing association work, and has a small but highly regarded private client team that advises the international super-rich.

LG won praise in the 2011 RollOnFriday Firm of the Year survey. It's stuffed with "very friendly unpretentious people", according to one associate. While another lawyer went all X Factor, trilling: "you are encouraged to be the best that you can be".

We did hear some grumbles about the hours, which seem to be on the steep side for a mid-sized firm, although hardly up at Magic Circle levels. Others bemoan the "lack of morale" and "people constantly leaving (with no replacements)". But worse still "there are no biscuits in the meeting rooms anymore".

Salaries are reasonable rather than generous. Those looking for a training contract should know that the firm isn't very impressed by candidates who are looking to work overseas or who have only done vac schemes with the Magic Circle.

Quite what the future holds remains to be seen. An attractive looking prospect perhaps for a firm on the lookout for a merger partner. Certainly one to watch…