The Legal Cheek View
Meet the firm at Legal Cheek’s upcoming November UK Virtual Law Fair on Tuesday 19 November 2024
Liverpool’s largest global law firm has developed strong footholds in areas including healthcare, real estate and banking, as well as continuing to grow its highly rated shipping practice.
First established as a maritime law specialist in 1810, Hill Dickinson now boasts an expansive offering of over 1000 lawyers and business staff across London, Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle and, its most recent addition, Birmingham. Overseas, the firm has bases in Monaco, Piraeus and Singapore and has also launched a hub in Limassol to add its growing international presence. Back in Blighty, the firm has been on a poaching spree, expanding its Newcastle office with a seven-strong marine team from Clyde & Co, bolstering its new Birmingham shop with corporate and real estate lawyers from Irwin Mitchell, and snapping up partners from the likes of Davis Polk and Winckworth Sherwood to bulk out its London offering. The firm has also upsized to a brand new office in Leeds after outgrowing its digs there only seven years after moving in.
As you already might’ve guessed, the firm has put up some good numbers this year financially. A 9% rise in revenues has seen the firm’s topline grow to £141 million in its sixth year of consecutive growth. Net profit meanwhile has exceeded £50 million and, whilst the firm doesn’t disclose its profit per equity partner (PEP) the latest available results show its highest earning partner draws over £1 million each year. All three of the firm’s divisions — business services, healthcare and marine — hit their targets with business services having a particularly standout year, generating close to £70 million.
The mood within Hill Dickinson is pretty good, with the firm again scoring well in the Legal Cheek Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey 2024-25. Expect to be working with “some of the most down-to-earth, approachable, friendly and outgoing peers” and partners who are “very willing to offer insight into the work they do and eager to get you involved.” As one source enthuses, “There is a really supportive trainee network at Hill Dickinson. You know that you can reach out to any trainee and they will make time to answer any of your questions.” The firmwide open-door policy leaves newbies feeling comfortable approaching partners and higher ups with questions or just general chat. As one junior tells us, “You can have the same relaxed conversations with the CEO as you would with a paralegal. No one is off-limits.”
Firm newbies benefit from the firm’s thorough trainee development programme, which brings together trainees from different UK offices every four months to take modules on a range of topics including communication techniques and receiving feedback. Teams also provide practice area specific training including monthly seminars from industry figures.
This focus on development also extends to other qualification pathways. “The firm has a good record of promoting paralegals to trainees,” one insider tells us, “which really shows how keen the firm is to grow internal talent and help everyone keep progressing.” There’s also a “trainee away day” each year to strengthen bonds and lots of social events on offer, such as evening painting sessions, scavenger hunts, pizza days and payday drinks, alongside a fortnightly drinks trolley in London.
This flexibility and supportive culture make Hill Dickinson’s work/life balance “perfect”: “Credit where credit’s due, the firm generally has an excellent work life balance” notes one trainee, “besides corporate of course, who get their vitamin D from window-refracted sunlight.” Another spy offered this: “Hill Dickinson really supports flexible working hours, for example, I am allowed to leave to get a more off-peak train and am entrusted to fit my work in around this which I really appreciate.” This relaxed approach was felt across the board, with another insider telling us there is “no culture of presenteeism: as long as the work gets done, partners are happy for you to leave at a decent time to make commitments during the week.” A usual day isn’t far off a 9-5, with trainees reporting heading home at around 6pm/6:30pm in London. In the regions, another well rested junior adds: “It is very rare that I leave later than 5:40 pm.”
When you are undergoing a more intense period of work, it’s normally pretty interesting stuff. “Individual teams and supervisors are excellent at involving trainees in high quality work, a feature that is consistent across all the teams I have worked in,” says one spy. Another remarked “the teams get trainees involved in as wide a range of tasks as possible, to give us varied experience within each seat. This includes involvement in high-profile and complex matters.” Trainees report being given associate-level work from day one with one telling us: “My supervisor allows me to run matters on my own (with supervision) which has given me the opportunity to complete mandates from start to finish. My supervisor also doesn’t believe in giving trainees admin tasks so everything I have been involved in has been real legal work.”
All this translates into some good scores for Hill Dickinson’s training programme, which boasts internal training sessions by professional support lawyers and regular sessions with the learning and development team. Informally, solicitors at all levels are said to “take the time to explain tasks and the relevancy of the task in the context of the matter as a whole. They also provide detailed feedback and are always very supportive.”
Trainees are expected in the office at least four days a week, which has provoked a range of responses. Some crave “more flexibility,” whilst others find it “really beneficial to both training experience and relationships within the firm”. A £200 budget to spend on home office equipment is appreciated nonetheless, though as one trainee pointed out the new office attendance requirement means “it doesn’t get used much.”
The consensus is that the legal tech “could do with some work,” however we have heard that there is a plan in place to improve this. One source said that a “new laptop rollout has helped, but generally, systems such as finance and time recording are all lacking in efficiency.” Work phones are also reportedly an issue, where most firms provide as standard the ‘bring your own device’ policy seems an awkward way to save money,” explains one insider.
Perks include private healthcare, a £250 gym subsidy, cycle to work scheme, and a day off for your birthday. Not quite the highs of some City firms but as one sage trainee says “we don’t have many perks, but you do get the weekends!”
Reviews on the office spaces vary quite drastically across the country. The Leeds team’s brand new energy efficient space in Wellington Place has gone down a treat whilst rookies in the London office love their location in Broadgate Tower right by the delicacies of Spitalfields. The Liverpool HQ has a well-rated new “social space” which has become the go-to place for trainee lunches and catch-ups, though none of the offices have a canteen. At the other end of the spectrum, we’re told that “Charles Dickens would feel at home” in the firm’s Manchester abode, with recruits there reportedly feeling like they’re “working in a 70s police station”. Luckily, Manc juniors will soon be moving to Gary Neville’s “fancy haunt in 2025”, as part of the footballer’s £400 million St Michael’s development.
On the upside, there are some decent international secondments up for grabs. Destinations include Singapore, Hong Kong, Greece and Monaco, though they are relatively rare with one hopeful jet-setter saying “it would be good if Hill Dickinson did have more international secondment opportunities.” There are also some good client secondments too — to the NHS and easyJet, among others.