Eversheds
No of UK Partners: 310
No of UK Assistant Solicitors: 1000
www.eversheds.com
Eversheds’ 280-strong Birmingham office gave the firm its name and is often considered to be the jewel in the national firm’s crown, serving blue-chip clients from far and wide. Meanwhile, Nottingham has long been in the shadow of its West Midlands neighbour but enjoys long-standing relationships with some of the firm’s key local and national clients such as Rolls-Royce, Boots, DEFRA, British Gas and the Royal Mail and is the home of 130 of the overall firm’s 2,000 lawyers.
Eversheds’ network has only been an integrated firm since 2000 and efforts to reorganise the internal structure are ongoing. The most tangible effect on the Birmingham and Nottingham offices has been the operational merger of their operations in 2002.
The restructuring also involved the loss of a number of corporate partners from the East Midlands practice to be replaced by more junior lawyers, provoking rumours that the firm plans to close its Nottingham office following the closure of its practice in Derby in 2002. These rumours, however, are emphatically denied by the firm.
“We are now the largest pan-Midlands law firm, with major offices in the ‘capitals’ of both the West and East Midlands and are well-connected in both,” says Midlands managing partner, Meg Heppel. “Treating the Midlands as a single region replicates what the accountants and venture capitalists have been doing for some time.”
A key part of the reinvention of Eversheds generally is the “vision and values” statement issued by David Gray in 2003 which emphasises that the firm should be both “a great place to work” and the “most client-centred law firm.”
The practical implementation of the statement means an increased emphasis on training and personal development, progressive employment policies (one-quarter of the firm already works on some form of flexible basis) and a focus on the individual behaviour of management, or, ‘mutual respect’ as the firm describes it. The firm also offers what it considers to be the market-leading package of benefits to its staff, including part-time equity partners, flexible working opportunities and an alternative career structure for lawyers not wishing to become partners.
It also means that those hoping to join the Eversheds bandwagon should emphasise their client service credentials as much as possible if they are to impress. Note that the background and CV of potential lawyers is less important than the skills and personal qualities they can demonstrate and the firm prides itself on recruiting staff from a variety of backgrounds.
“Technical ability is a given, but we differentiate ourselves through the clear client focus of our people,” Heppel says.
“Our people also need to be team players and solutions-orientated – those who are not just good at describing the problem but also at finding the solution and coming up with viable alternatives.”
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