The City firm has shaken up the representative committee to ensure it includes elected members from all departments in the firm. The 14-member body, dubbed the ‘Assistant Solicitors’ Forum’, previously operated informally but will now meet monthly to discuss issues with management.
It will be the first time SJ Berwin has held elections for the roles. Various senior members of staff will join the monthly meetings, including senior partner Jonathan Blake, managing partner Ralph Cohen, chief executive Keith Wood and human resources director Karen Chalmers.
Cohen said: “We wanted to renew the process and think that an election process is the fairest way of ensuring all the associates are represented. It is an excellent way to ensure there is communication between partners and assistants.”
Blake added: “It is as likely that there is a difference in opinion on firmwide issues between practice groups as between partners and associates. If you only speak to partners in practice groups you are not getting a representative view of the group.”
The move follows criticism aimed at the firm from its own assistants after it unveiled a new bonus structure last year. It was announced that associates could secure up to 75% of their salary in the bonus, although this was dependent on them billing 2,500 hours a year.
At the time, an associate memo leaked to Legal Week read: “To get any type of bonus you have to give up your life.”
It has emerged that around a quarter of associates met the 1,700 billable hours target to secure a billable hours bonus. About 5% billed in the region of 1,800 hours, with just one associate approaching the 2,500 billable hours maximum point.
In addition, approximately 30 assistants were rewarded under the firms’ discretionary bonus for non-chargeable contributions.
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