The Legal Cheek View
Philly-born Dechert (pronounced deck-urt) has an exciting range of practice areas which marks it out from its more finance-focused US compatriots in London. The structure of the six-seat training contract enables trainees to sample the firm’s strengths in international and EU trade, as well as Dechert’s highly regarded white collar crime practice.
Global revenues have slowed this year after some record growth at the turn of the decade. Total revenues now sit at $1.29 billion (£1 billion) following a rise of 0.4%, whilst profit per equity partner fell slightly this year by 1% to $3.58 million (£2.79 million). Global chair Davdi Forti has said that interest rate sensitivity in transactional practice areas has been the main culprit for the stagnation, but this hasn’t stopped Dechert splashing the cash when it comes to pay. Trainees here earn a recently improved £55,000 and £61,000 in their first two years, rising to £165,000 upon qualification.
And that’s not all there is to shout about. Dechert’s recent move to the high spec, totally refurbed top three floors of 25 Cannon Street has gone down a hit with trainees. “Absolutely brilliant – we host client events on the rooftop, the whole office is spacious and newly refurbished — makes working from the office significantly better,” gushes one recruit. “Dechert can probably boast one of the best real estates among City law firms. The view is inspiring, overlooking St. Paul’s. Good co-working spaces, kitchens on each floor and ample free space for all rotating business professionals,” added another. The office was also chosen in part due to its environmental credentials and we’ve heard the move has coincided with attempts to “eliminate kitchen waste, minimise water usage and support environmentally conscious initiatives”.
What recruits were most excited about however was the firm’s in-house canteen — “The Dech”. Whilst the name might be uninspired, the meals on offer certainly aren’t. Insiders tell of a “great range” of “good food”, free goodies on Mondays and a fortnightly sushi stand which has been described as a “culinary highlight”. Trainees can’t get enough!
Further afield, Dechert has been consolidating, shuttering some of its smaller operations in Frankfurt, Chicago, Beijing and Hong Kong. The San Fran office, meanwhile, has been upsized as the firm looks to focus on its geographical strengths.
Work-wise, the firm continues to work on some big (big!) deals, most recently advising on a restructuring deal with courier giant Yodel. Trainees can expect to be thrown in on these types of deals early on as we’re told that Dechert rookies are “given far more responsibility than peers at other firms”. Working in “lean teams” means “increased responsibility”, as the firm only hands out around ten training contracts a year in the capital. For those select few, expect “good scope to get involved in drafting quite bespoke documents, and interesting areas of legal research on the cutting edge”. “We are rarely required to do mundane tasks. Generally, the work is interesting either because of the technical expertise required to understand the topic or the profile of the client,” one trainee summarised.
“A good mix of on-the-job training” coupled with “bespoke” induction sessions at the start of each seat goes some way to explaining the firm’s consistently strong performance in the training category of the Legal Cheek Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey. As one rookie puts it, “training is generally speaking excellent at Dechert. There are many associates and partners who go the extra mile to teach you and aid your development.” But in the typical style of a US law firm, there is more of a focus on the informal, on-the-job training. “Training is very hands-on rather than by way of lots of formal training sessions”, one insider reports, and “you are given as much responsibility as you can handle”. What’s more, thanks to the four-month, rather than the more usual six-month seats, trainees have to “be able to learn on-the-job quickly”. How structured the training is can depend on the seat. As one rookie puts it, “funds had many more sessions as it is more technical, say, compared to white collar crime” but nevertheless the consensus was that “generally supervision is very good and the opportunities to learn in a hands-on way are also very good”.
A notable selling point for students is the strong chance of doing an international secondment that the firm offers to its trainees. Destinations include the short hop across the Irish Sea to the firm’s Dublin office as well as more far-flung spots such as Dubai and Singapore. There’s also the odd client secondment, with rookies in years gone by spending time with a top venture capital outfit, and even jetting off to sunny Toulouse with the leading airline manufacturer Airbus.
Culture is one area where the firm scores especially highly this year. The comments from the trainees even border on the emotional, an unexpected trait in such high-flying lawyers! “There is an absolute culture of support among trainees. It is never competitive, and we are all very open about seeking support and celebrating each other’s successes. It is a real privilege to work alongside such people,” one mole tells Legal Cheek. “My intake has been described as ‘nauseatingly close’ by others in the firm, but we are incredibly supportive of one another and many of us are very close friends” reports another. As you can imagine, there’s a pretty good social scene going on at Dechert with regular firmwide events like the “summer and winter parties, biweekly drinks socials and firm-sponsored junior business development events”. There’s also a pub quiz which we’re assured is taken extremely seriously — “it has a huge budget and a trophy which gathers engraved plaques for the winning team” — who said lawyers were overly competitive?
As for the approachability of superiors, the trainees are mildly more cautious, but still give a glowing review: “Everyone is highly approachable and there is a culture of no question being a silly one to ask. Some partners are naturally more intimidating than others, but truly unapproachable individuals are outliers.” Another recruit offers this insight, “superiors have an “open-door” policy, but you have to learn when and what to ask. This is just natural as partners are usually incredibly busy. Having said this, most partners are very approachable both with personal and professional questions. At the firm, partner and grad. rec. partner mentors are also available to all trainees if we require further guidance (for example regarding our seat choices or longer-term prospects).”
But dry those eyes, because we’re moving onto a less emotive topic: work/ life balance. As an American firm, expectations of such a balance are inevitably lowered – and trainees will know what they’re signing up for. This is perhaps why one junior lawyer rather tastefully describes their work/life balance as being “limited” during the week. “Being a US law firm, the hours are quite tough in the busy teams. I generally do not log off before 11pm and I regularly work weekends” noted one, whilst another added, “ I need to be available most of the time, but colleagues generally respect your off-time and weekends. They are also very accommodating if you communicate transparently about your plans. There is no face-time culture at Dechert and we are mostly encouraged to leave after a certain time if we don’t have urgent work to finish.” Overall, this leaves trainees feeling relatively happy with their work/life balance. As one trainee sums up, “for a US firm, the work/life balance is eminently reasonable”. Not exactly the highest praise around, but when you’re earning £165k as an NQ, what do you expect?
Aside from this hefty salary, the perks don’t rate that highly with the trainees. The firm offers the usual health and dental care options, discounted gym membership, free fruit and even pecan pie on Thanksgiving — and that’s about it, according to the rookies. The “best” perk is the firm’s electric car scheme, according to one rookie, “but that is only available to associates”. Overall, the situation “could be better”.
One area the firm is certainly making inroads to improve is in legal tech. According to our sources, “The firm is trying to be at the forefront of tech — it has specialised committees and teams to implement tech solutions into the offering. The firm has relatively good hardware (6/10), nothing crazy, but most suitable for a lawyer’s daily purposes. Dechert is also very active in rolling out AI solutions to all offices and lawyers or business professionals of the firm (9/10 on software and AI). Lawyers are also involved in the tech software decision-making process, through committees and the firm’s innovation program.” It is “an area the firm could put more effort into,” one spy laments. The “bad and cheap Samsungs” offered by the firm are at least balanced by a “generous” BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy.
Dechert’s tech does at least hold up when working from home, which trainees can do on Mondays and Fridays. “Everyone fills out a form of the IT equipment they need, and the firm ships it to your house” — life made easy at Dechert!