Clyde & Co

Such growth can be turbulent, but Clydes’ financials indicate that so far it seems to be working. In the second full financial year since it merged with BLM, the firm’s global revenues are up 10% to £845 million. Profits increased 3% to £174.4 million as did profit per equity partner (PEP) by 4.4% to £739,000. Matthew Kelsall, Clyde & Co’s CEO, attributed the boost to strong client demand across the firm’s various sectors and geographies. The firm expanded its team by adding 32 partners through strategic lateral hires and internal promotions, and recently formalised a global regulatory and investigations practice group. It also established an AI working group that spans all of its sector focuses, likely to address the increasing client demand in this growing field.

For trainees, the obvious benefit of all of this has historically been lots of secondment options, with Hong Kong, Dubai and Dar es Salaam being popular destinations in the past. However, insiders reveal that this has changed over the past few years. Trainees are more likely to bag a client secondment, with a few rookies heading to big names like AXA and Zurich Insurance Group, although trainees warn that these are competitive.

Luckily, the work in house is top tier, particularly in Clyde & Co’s core areas of insurance, transport, energy, infrastructure and trade & commodities, where the firm deals with all the biggest clients such as Aviva, AXA and Zurich. But these aren’t the only sectors where exciting work is found. Those in corporate could find themselves working with the fast-food chain Leon to raise funds for its overseas expansion, whilst juniors in international arbitration can advise an African state on sovereign immunity disputes. And this calibre of clientele stretches further than just London, with the regulatory team in Manchester advising big name clients such as NatWest. More recently, the firm’s London-based aviation team advised SITA, the leading technology provider for the air transport industry on an acquisition of airline operations control centre services.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Clydes is now so big that the differences between departments can be similarly huge. Work is known to, at best, get trainees involved in “extremely large-scale and stimulating matters where you have real world impact on the direction of the matters” and, at worst, be in a seat where “watching the clock is stimulating”.

“In smaller departments, trainees get to take on associate-level work. In bigger departments, you get involved in huge cases, but correspondingly, only get to do menial or very administrative tasks. However, it is good exposure either way,” one trainee tells us. Training is equally variable, with some rookies finding it to be “supervisor dependant”. “Actual training hasn’t been plentiful but plenty of opportunity to learn on the job and supervisors/other associates are always happy to explain and answer questions, meaning I feel I have learnt a lot in a short space of time”, one spy explains. Another points out that there is inevitably better training in teams with a stronger office attendance, while one rookie cautions that there are some niche insurance seats which do not hire, creating greater competition for NQ roles within popular seats. We are told that trainees have access to “a lot of online training through a portal” and that the firm is always open to training suggestions.

Despite all the growth, the firm seems to have managed to retain its culture with a “very tightly knit” trainee cohort that regularly organises fun socials. The early careers team receive a special shout-out for doing “a great job of selecting the right candidates for the cohort all of whom mesh very well together and support one another”.

The “exceptionally intelligent” partners also embody this supportive and friendly vibe. Almost all trainee respondents describe their superiors as “approachable” and “understanding”, despite the odd few being “too busy” to have time for newbies. One trainee leaves this solid review: “Every partner is always willing to help out trainees, from all offices. I have been able to have great chats with partners in London, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, Toronto, New York etc, which embodies Clyde’s great culture which stretches internationally. Cannot fault the firm at all in this area.” Another quips: “I’ve made jokes at the expense of every partner I’ve ever worked for and they’ve laughed (without being forced to laugh by the employment tribunal).” The PI team gets a particular shout-out in the 2024-25 Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, with “a lot of the teams being very non-hierarchical”.

Like all firms with multiple UK offices, there are some mild tensions between the regions and the mothership. In Clydes’ case this is exacerbated somewhat by its glamorous blue glass London home in the St Botolph Building, with “really good lasagne” in the canteen, although there are murmurings of rising prices and faltering tastiness (“too bland or salty”) in recent times. The firm’s non-London rookies complain of the lack of a canteen in the Manchester office, exacerbated by a “pretty terrible” coffee machine. One survey respondent grumbles: “The coffee machine has an option for ‘iced latte’ — they don’t tell you it comes without ice. ‘Here, have a room temperature coffee’.”

News on the social front is more positive. “The social life as a trainee can be very active with frequent events, drinks trolleys and informal outings after work. Highlights include karaoke and a black-tie boat party on the Thames”, reports one insider. Chocolate making and ‘sip and paint’ were recently put on by the firm, with Insurance Financial and Professional Disputes (IFPD) coming up as the most social practice group. Most other departments are said to do socials “once or twice a month”. The Manchester social committee also receives special praise for putting on “really good events”.

The work/life balance is pretty good. As one insider summarises: “I feel that I cannot complain too much. I have had to cancel evening plans and work weekends to meet deadlines for a few weeks but this is not the norm and I usually finish work at around 6 or 7. Clydes does not encourage anyone to work late or weekends and encourages you to pursue your hobbies outside of work as these make you a more rounded person and a more relatable lawyer.” Another adds that even when working late, they “don’t necessarily mind it as the work is so interesting”, and the general consensus is that trainees are trusted to manage their own hours. The trade-off, however, is a lower salary compared to City levels.

“Work/life balance really does tend to depend on the seat, and despite Clyde & Co claiming it provides a lower salary than others in the market due to a better work/ life balance offered, this isn’t always true. 8pm finishes are normal [in London], with some days stretching much longer,” says one rookie.

There can again be wide variations between teams and offices. While staying until 6pm “is classed as staying late” in the Manchester insurance team, this is certainly not the case in the London deal teams — and some feel that remuneration should rise to reflect this.

Some consolation is found in the few perks the firm offers, which includes a gym subsidy (or £350 wellbeing allowance), cycle to work, private medical, and a new generous parental leave scheme with 26 weeks full-paid leave regardless of gender or parental role, but this hasn’t fully assuaged wage envy and some would like the free food and coffee that’s on offer elsewhere. There are also gripes about benefits between the post-merger BLM and Clydes staff not yet having been aligned, leading to the former apparently missing out on BUPA healthcare and the wellbeing allowance.

As for the reality of working from home, look no further than this description: “Working from home is team-dependent so differs throughout the firm. Trainees are expected to be in the office four days a week which can lead to you being in the office on your own if the rest of the team are given greater flexibility. Some teams have team office days to circumvent this and ensure the whole team is in the office two days per week (or more depending on the team). Other teams seem to acknowledge work/life balance, the effects of a long commute etc more and allow trainees more flexibility by not enforcing the four days in the office allowing greater working from home.” As far as equipment, trainees receive a monitor, laptop, phone, keyboard, chair and money to go towards a desk.

Clyde & Co continues to invest in tech. Like many firms, there is a bit of a disconnect between the outward facing stuff — Clydes has “an innovative consultancy service which provides clients with fully integrated legal and technical advice and services to help them realise the growing potential of smart contracts” — and the internal IT on offer to its lawyers. “The firm has a Data Lab but they could make it clearer what this does and how it helps us,” one confused rookie confides. Glitchy document review platforms and old laptops are amongst the common internal complaints as are “not ideal” case management systems which require “a lot of manual entries”.