Nearly 600 associates work in Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s London office, and their talent and hard work plays a hugely important part in enabling us to serve our clients and continue to grow our business. In recognition of this, in early 2007 we instituted a major initiative to involve associates in aspects of the business: the Associate Engagement Group (AEG).

The AEG was set up with the aim of identifying changes that could help associates become more engaged in the way the London office operates.

At present, the AEG comprises 18 associates and six partners, all of whom are responsible for consulting in their departments on the issues that associates have identified as important to them. Membership of the AEG changes annually so that as many of our associates as possible can be involved. At the end of last year, some 70 associates and partners had been active in one or more of the AEG’s working groups.

Following the creation of the inaugural AEG in 2007, the group set about gathering feedback from our London associate population. From this, the AEG identified the most important issues that London associates wanted to talk about and organised these under 10 general headings.

These included: appraisals, feedback and mentoring; career path and prospects; and communications. These issues set the agenda for a one-day forum open to all associates, held in March 2007. A second London Associates’ forum took place in June 2008.

The morning session of the forum was attended just by associates, with about 40 partners joining them for lunch. This was followed by an afternoon session, where discussions were held with the partners to build on what had been considered earlier in the day.

Following the first forum in 2007, 50 associates and a dozen partners joined working groups that tackled the issues which had been identified, and made recommendations. These groups were classified as either ‘quick fixes’, ‘rapid focus’ or ‘longer term’.

The ‘quick fixes’ group was established to consider issues such as the management of the London office.. Some of the suggestions have been as simple as using china mugs rather than paper cups and introducing environmentally-friendly water in meeting rooms.

The role of the ‘rapid focus groups’ is to help the firm identify best practice in a number of areas — and make fast improvements. For example, it became clear that associates wanted a more uniform approach as to how they are appraised and how their contribution to business development is recognised.

As a result, different business development time-recording codes have been introduced. To improve the level of dialogue between associates and management, the AEG now meets on a monthly basis with Tim Jones, chair of the London Management Group.

‘Longer term’ groups were set up to deal with issues to do with career path and planning, work-life balance, and non-legal learning and personal development. Although the work of these groups is still ongoing, some progress has been made. In consultation with the AEG, the firm ran a new senior associates’ development programme for the first time in London in April 2008 — designed to help our senior associates make the transition to senior business people.

We know that other firms also have formal processes for involving associates, but we are proud of our innovative approach and the scale of associate engagement over the past 18 months. Driven by associates and supported by partners, the AEG has become a go-to entity for management, enabling them to consult with associates quickly on issues across the board. n

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