The Legal Cheek View
Research shows the growth of Leeds’ legal sector to have outpaced London, Manchester and Birmingham in recent years, recalling the city’s glory days in the pre-financial crisis era. For one of Leeds’ biggest firms, Walker Morris, the continued expansion of the local market has coincided with the implementation of a strategy that has seen it move almost entirely away from commoditised areas such as personal injury towards high-level corporate and commercial work.
A sleek office, which Walker Morris moved into in the summer of 2019, continues to impress. The “delightful” building, found at the heart of Leeds’ business district and “probably the best” in the city, includes “beautiful” communal spaces, swish meeting pods, an in-house Ts&Cs café, a scenic outside courtyard area and a boardroom that “will make you feel like you’re on The Apprentice”.
The latest financial figures show the firm’s annual revenue to be £67.5 million, an impressive 11% uptick the 2022-23 financial year, while net profit increased 10% from £25.2 million to £27.9 million. Managing partner Malcolm Simpson has ambitions for the firm to reach revenues of £70 million by 2024.
The quality of work is some of the best you’ll get in the regions. “It’s a very fast-paced environment, it’s good to be an important cog in the wheel here at Walker Morris,” a trainee tells us. As an independent, single-city firm, expect lots of responsibility and exposure to a wide variety of deals and cases, alongside staple trainee tasks “that cannot be justified being done by someone with a higher charge out rate”. Another insider warns the quality can “vary from seat to seat”, recalling how in one team they were rarely tasked with “chargeable work with a lot of the work being research based for the team’s own knowledge rather than tasks which actually assist our clients” while in another they were “given a lot of responsibility early on”. Another source quips: “Really not too much donkey work.”
The training, meanwhile, is solid, with a mixture of “very active and involved supervision” both firm-wide and at each of the six (not four) seats you’ll sit in. At the same time, “you aren’t walked through every little thing that you do.” Another trainee adds: “They trust you to utilise common sense.” An open-door policy and mostly approachable partners, some of whom “you can discuss Love Island with”, mean it’s easy to ask for help. While one insider tells us that it “can be a bit hit and miss in different departments, with some teams “right on it” and “others not so much”, reviews are generally good and the firm even boasts quite a few ex-City higher-ups who “are extremely open to developing juniors and passing on their knowledge”, according to one excited newbie.
The rookie cohort, meanwhile, is said to be “tight-knit” with good peer-to-peer support and a friendly vibe. As one trainee details “We would all say the workplace values are definitely the opposite of a “step on your colleagues to get ahead” culture; the firm fosters a social, collaborative culture which we have embodied. I cannot speak for everyone but I have made some lifelong friends in my intake.” The firm take on around twenty trainees each year.
Client secondments supplement the learning; according to our figures, around a third of the firm’s rookies have done one with Asda, energy company Drax and Tottenham Hotspur Football Club being popular destinations.
In fact, the firm boasts a range of football clients for you sporty solicitors, including Fulham, Burnley, and Bournemouth, all of which have worked with WM in the sale and purchase of their stadiums. Elsewhere, in departments like banking and finance, trainees get the opportunity to work with names like Santander — which WM recently advised on funding the acquisition of The Pharmacy Hub.
Hours are somewhat of a mixed bag. Late nights rarely go beyond 9pm and weekend work is rare. We are told that real estate “provides a quite steady 8:30pm to 6:30pm”, whereas in corporate — where it has been a “super busy year” — the “hours are much more unpredictable and often longer”. One insider describes it like this: “I have had times in my Corporate seat where you find yourself working until 2.30am on the Friday night and into Saturday/Sunday. However, you know that everyone else working on the deal is going through the same thing so you don’t feel quite so isolated (free food is always welcomed). In quieter times you can find yourself logging off ay 5/5.30pm and heading to the gym/pub.”
Another rookie adds: “Most days I can probably work 8am to 6pm and no-one would bat an eyelid. In fact, they’d all already be gone. I have been in the office trial bundling until 1:30am but it was a one-off. Most weeks I need to stay for one evening until 7pm or 8pm and/or work for a few hours at the weekend but it’s manageable. The partners tend to comment if you stay late, so it is noticed and not expected. They do, however, expect some fee-earners to work at home and if you get into the habit of it, it becomes difficult to break.”
Mitigating the hours are some decent pay levels, which are among the highest in the Leeds market. A newly qualified associate currently earns a salary of £60,000, while trainees recently saw pay move to £28,000 and £31,000 respectively. The perks are said to be good too. These include a solicitor sabbatical scheme, Help@Hand, gym discounts, free food and taxis when working late, “excellent” charity events such as quizzes, rounders and dress down days, as well as the option to “buy extra weeks leave” and a salary sacrifice scheme for electric vehicles. As part of a long-term agile working policy, one insider tells us, “many departments allow you to work from home 2/3 days a week” and the firm provided an allowance of £300 to purchase monitors, desks and chairs in order to “aid our working from home set up”.