The Legal Cheek View
Once the pre-eminent Ipswich law firm (and still a partner of the town’s famous football club), Birketts offers good quality work coupled with a great work/life balance, both in the City and across the East and Southwest of England.
The full-service firm has offices in Ipswich, Norwich, Cambridge, Chelmsford, London, Sevenoaks and, most recently, Bristol. Each year, Birketts takes around 40 trainees across its seven offices, nearly doubling its intake over the last three years. Recruits undertake seats in the firm’s four core practice areas: corporate and commercial, dispute resolution, property, and private client, each encompassing a broad spectrum of specialisms for both businesses and individuals.
Birketts is a firm on the ascendant. With a growing headcount of more than 150 partners and over 1,100 staff, its ambition to span “the Wash to the Severn” is firmly within reach. The most recent financial results show revenues soaring by 19% to £121 million, up from £101 million the year prior. Growth has been driven by a combination of organic expansion and strategic recruitment. Alongside a string of partner hires from firms including Simmons & Simmons, Osborne Clarke, Eversheds Sutherland and Cripps, the firm has also recently strengthened its senior leadership, appointing Barbara Hamilton-Bruce as its new Chief Operating Officer, taking over from Tim Sarson, who retires after 18 years at the helm of the firm’s operations.
Despite this remarkable growth, partners, associates and trainees alike say the firm has maintained its friendly atmosphere. “As cliché as it may sound, I think it would be seriously hard to find another law firm with a friendlier bunch of people,” says one happy recruit, praising the “supportive culture.”
Trainees are “genuine friends” who book holidays and weekends away together, while more senior lawyers are “really approachable people” who “don’t take themselves too seriously or think they are better than any of us.” Sharp-elbowed culture is simply a myth at Birketts. As one content recruit puts it: “I love my fellow trainees and I feel that we have bonded through a lot. We get on so well and I want them all to succeed. I never felt competitive with or against them. We always share information and opportunities with each other and they are always happy to answer questions.” A genuinely flat hierarchy and open-plan offices foster the feeling that superiors “really value the opinions and efforts of junior staff,” with supervisors described as “very open to questions, supportive and really good with feedback.”
International and client secondments may not be on offer, but trainees can travel between offices and the quality of training receives consistent praise: “Robust, rigorous, caring. Excellent supervisors and trainers who care about your development and want to see you thrive.” The training contract combines “interesting work and social events” with quarterly trainee sessions and plenty of informal on-the-job learning. While the experience varies between teams (corporate offers frequent black-letter law training, while real estate leans more towards market updates), most recruits are happy with what they’re getting: “Varied range of work and opportunities to exercise different skills. Many different departments to explore. Supervision on the whole has been good. The only thing that would make it a ten would be an improved seat rotation process, to better improve your chances of getting a range of contentious and non-contentious seats in the areas you see yourself qualifying into.”
Work/life balance is a major draw, both during and after the training contract. The office “pretty much clears out at 5:30pm” and there is no expectation to stay late or work weekends unless a particularly big deal demands it. Partners are known to tell recruits to “clock off and go have a good evening.” The trade-off is a starting salary of £31,000 to £34,000, rising to £51,500 to £70,000 on qualification depending on location. That falls well short of City pay packets, but remains respectable for regional legal life.
The work itself is “fascinating and complex, from brilliant and interesting clients.” London trainees boast of “London quality work without the London lifestyle,” while those in the regions appreciate seeing “large local clients and being heavily involved in transactions.” The firm works across a wide range of industries and practice areas, from local East Anglian highlights such as advising on the sale of Southwold Pier and supporting Anglia Ruskin University’s merger with Writtle University College, to global clients including nuclear engineering group Assystem and insurance private equity investor B.P. Marsh. On the pro bono side, Birketts has provided legal support for the launch of the world’s first fine dining restaurant staffed entirely by homeless people.
A socially conscious firm, Birketts donated £131,000 to charitable causes last year. Fundraising has included raising £20,000 through a five-a-side football tournament at Portman Road, home of Ipswich Town. The sport runs deep here: the firm recently renewed its elite partnership with Ipswich Town and has also become the official legal partner of Chelmsford City Football Club, securing exclusive legal sector rights in the process.
Trainees are generally pleased with the tasks they are given, though one recruit offers a measured take: “Naturally some work is more interesting than other work, but that does not mean it is less important. As a trainee, you are given tasks that can be dull, but they exist to develop your skills and understanding, ultimately letting you grow into more challenging work.”
Legal tech is not a strong suit, with some juniors reporting “buggy software” and “firmwide systems errors.” That said, there have been noticeable efforts to improve things, including a new tech steering group and tech champions who are “working hard on bringing everything up to date.” Remote working infrastructure fares better, with the firm providing a monitor, a contribution towards additional equipment, and IT support that is “really good.” Trainees are generally expected in the office every day, though some teams permit one day working from home per week.
Perks could be better, but the standard package includes private healthcare, a cycle-to-work scheme and subsidised gym membership, plus one paid volunteering day per year. Free fruit and decent coffee machines feature in some offices too.
Recruits have been lifted by recent refurbishments across nearly every Birketts office. While juniors acknowledge that “it’s still an office building,” the revamps have introduced spaces with “great natural light, standing desks, beautiful wooden desks, and ample meeting rooms and breakout spaces.” A visit to Chelmsford brings an added bonus: Tony, the office’s personal chef, sends out “a very varied and delicious daily menu” and even welcomes requests from lawyers for particular meals they fancy that week.