Beachcroft
No of UK Partners: 201
No of UK Assistant Solicitors: 409
www.bwlaw.co.uk
Beachcroft’s background is in public sector work – notably healthcare – and insurance litigation, but it has spent the past few years successfully building a corporate and commercial practice to match, with particular strengths in property, employment, projects, IT/IP and financial services.
Both sides of the firm are well represented in Birmingham, which is home to 92 of Beachcroft’s 878 fee-earners (the other being spread around London, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Winchester and Brussels) and claims particular strengths in construction, PFI/PPP and public sector procurement as well as corporate finance, employment, property and public law for clients in the financial services, retail, telecoms, education, health and local government sectors. Clients of the office include Axa, Aviva, St Paul and Balfour Beatty. Birmingham was also the launchpad for the firm’s volume litigation division, Mutual Law.
Location, however, has become less of a factor as the firm has developed national practice groups, backed up by its substantial investment in IT. This, says the firm, allows the firm’s lawyers to work more responsively and potentially gives Birmingham-based lawyers access to clients throughout the network.
The emphasis that the firm places on responsiveness has a major influence on the skills and qualities it is looking for in recruits. “Our lawyers have to be quick on their feet,” says Birmingham senior regional partner, Sara May. “They must be able to look ahead and take a collaborative approach to tackling legal issues. We pride ourselves on being accessible, approachable, straightforward and easy to deal with.”
This approach the firm claims extends to its internal culture which it describes as progressive, open and non-hierarchical and sets great store in investing in the skills of its staff. Those likely to thrive in it will be those that can display business acumen and the communication skills to develop a genuine dialogue with the firm’s clients.
“Our strategy is to always exceed our clients’ expectations and if we want to realise this ambition, then we need to be ambitious for ourselves,” says May. “This has meant an even greater focus on training and commercial awareness in addition to excellence in legal and technical skill.”
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