The Legal Cheek View
Beginning life in sunny Los Angeles in 1951, Paul Hastings quickly made a name for itself over the pond for its litigious and employment law practices. It opened the doors to its London office in 1997 — where the work is more centred around leveraged finance and private equity — and hasn’t looked back since, more than doubling its headcount and revenue in the City over the past five years.
The firm’s London growth is symptomatic of its wider success, with revenue and profit per equity partner (PEP) up for the fourth year in a row. Global revenues now total $2.2 billion (£1.62 billion), skyrocketing 23% from last year. Profit per equity partner (PEP) enjoyed an equally impressive surge of 22%, up from $5.4 million (£3.9 million) to $6.7 million (£4.9 million) this year — despite PH growing its equity partnership by 2% to 166 lawyers.
In fact, the firm might be suffering from its own success, as PH’s UK headquarters has grown so much over the past few years, it has had to take even more office space in the flashy City 100 Bishopsgate skyscraper. Rookies now roam the top three floors, where we’re told the “views are incredible”! For good reason too, as rookies find that “this makes somewhat of a difference considering the amount of time spent in the office.”
As you might’ve guessed, London is the firm’s largest non-US office, playing host to more than 30 partners and over 100 lawyers, and it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon. Over 12 partners have been hired in the big smoke over the past 12 months, with many of these being poached from top competitors in the City such as White & Case, Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis.
Cutting edge work is the norm at Paul Hastings. Recent deals coming out of the London office include the £780 million sale of the Co-Operative Bank to Coventry Building Society and the $22 billion sale of a global ports business to BlackRock. Another regular client is Goldman Sachs, whom the firm recently advised on their billion dollar acquisition of UK-based AI cybersecurity company Darktrace. Unfortunately, rookies on the frontline haven’t seen the same interest in AI internally, with one telling LC “I’ve been very unimpressed with PH’s legal tech. It feels like we’re in the stone age at times doing certain things manually when other firms have software to do those tasks automatically.”
A small intake of around twelve trainees annually means that it’s not unheard of for rookies to get involved in these types of deals early on with the high-flying US firm touting its expertise in complex cross-jurisdictional work. New recruits are given “good quality of work, if you are trusted” but it can sometimes be “very repetitive and process-heavy”, warns one LC mole. As another insider puts it: “The work is very dependent on practice area and what you enjoy. In the seats I loved, the work was very interesting, and in the seat I hated, the work was incredibly dull. Even in the seats I loved there have been tasks that have been a slog to get through but by and large I’d say I find the work very interesting.”
The training programme also follows the orthodox US hands-off approach to learning on the job. Some seats, such as leveraged finance and corporate, do provide targeted training sessions, and we’re told that some practice groups have “very hands on” associates and partners, but overall, this firm is better suited to those who learn by doing and enjoy being thrown in at the deep end: “My supervisor is excellent but we’re so time pressured for work that there isn’t time for any formal training, or even for me to try out new tasks,” one source divulges.
Another gives this detailed insight on the training process here: “It depends on the type of firm you’re at and your learning style. PH doesn’t have any training, which objectively means “very poor”, but the lack of formal training at a US firm should not be a surprise for anyone looking to train at one. I haven’t received any actual training since I arrived here and I’m almost done with my third seat. All my learning has been on the job and by doing, which is what I wanted and is the way I learn best.”
Slightly longer working hours reflect the top-end salary of £60,000 trainees take home in year one, which rises to £68,000 in the second year of the training contract. NQs currently take home an impressive dollar-pegged salary of around £174,000. For this though, you’ll be expected to put in some late nights, as one details, “If you’re in collateralised loan obligation you can expect to leave the office between 2-4am and to give up most, if not all, weekends and bank holidays. The other transactional seats are also pretty bad. On the other hand, the advisory and litigation seats have way better work life balance, with partners and associates trying to manage workloads so late nights are a rare occurrence and only happen when absolutely necessary. In my current seat I generally leave between 7pm and 8pm which is pretty decent for a US firm.” Trainees do also mention that there’s flexibility, even when working late, with one telling us they are “able to attend events or dinners and log back on afterwards”.
Culture at US firms often gets a bad name, but trainees at Paul Hastings insist that this is where the firm breaks the mold: “Very supportive and always willing to discuss matters to help us develop and learn” was the review from one. The graduate recruitment team are praised for their judicial hiring process of only friendly people (who won’t try to screw you over when it comes to qualification) and juniors are quick to rave about the “very supportive” cohort.
Higher up the food chain, approachability is said to be more department-dependent but generally we’re told the firm operates a pretty flat hierarchy. In the words of one current rookie, “PH has a pretty flat structure generally. In the teams I’ve been in, I’ve found even the senior equity partners to be friendly and easy to talk to. The partners I’ve worked with will chat with me in the kitchen or when they come into my office, which was unexpected and a welcome surprise.” And don’t be surprised to see a few partners tagging along to monthly team drinks as our sources tell us the firm makes a decent effort to organise firmwide socials.
Trainees are expected to attend the office at least three days a week and equipment is provided for rookies working from home (though there are some grumbles around the lack of desks and chairs!).
Despite having 23 offices across the US, Europe and Asia, there are currently no reports of international secondments. Client secondments to asset management and private equity funds, however, were enjoyed by a few juniors.
The perks do receive praise. Alongside a generous monthly allowance for a work phone, trainees also receive the standard BigLaw package of a fitness and wellbeing allowance, private healthcare, and life insurance. On top of this, PH also pays for your dinner and taxi home if you’re working late!