Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer associates are pushing for greater involvement with clients, with business development top of the agenda at the firm’s latest associate awayday.
At the firm’s second annual associate engagement meeting last week (19 June), the firm’s junior lawyers singled out greater involvement in client strategies as their priority for the coming year.
Around 250 of the firm’s London associates — roughly one-third — met with partners and management including joint senior partner Guy Morton and chief executive Ted Burke to discuss their concerns.
In addition to wanting a more prominent role in business development, associates also discussed issues surrounding career paths in the firm, including the use of the counsel role as a stepping stone to partner.
Over the coming year the firm’s associate engagement group (AEG) will also look into setting specific criteria for making senior associate — whether it is based on length of time served or merit.
Antitrust, competition and trade partner Nicholas French (pictured left), who chairs the AEG alongside restructuring partner Ken Baird, said: “The discussions this year were much more in-depth than last. Associate involvement in the business was one of the big themes. Associates said they wanted to be more involved in the strategy in relation to clients and more engaged with client plans.”
The firm also signed off changes that have been made since last year’s meeting, including overhauls of the appraisal and work allocation system. Also up for discussion was the use of technology in the business, with associates raising concerns over the firm’s knowledge management systems.
Talkback: Access to clients? Business development roles? Are these realistic aims, or are Freshfields' associates living in cloud cuckoo land? Click here to have your say.
More news, deals and comment on Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Freshfields on the Legal Week Wiki
Well done! Now do the same exercise and ask the paralegals what they think. Then do it all again and ask the secretaries. Get each group to "nominate" a person to sit on your Management meetings - Democratic - is it the case that this year is still the year of "Equality and Non-Discrimination" or is Harriett Harmen, a wee pathetic woman wanting positive discrimination for woman and ethnic minorities - which particular bit of "discrimination" did she not fully understand!!!
OK - I cannot resist this one: "inequality" is something you do to yourself via your own subjectivity - ie self-defeatist NOT asking for equal pay because you rightly or wrongly presume you will in someway either not get it or be reproached. "Unequal" is something that others do to you, so for instance if the company you are working for "knows" that they are paying a man "X" then there should be no valid reason why they are offering you as a woman or ethnic minority "y". As there is an Equal Pay Act - the jurisprudence should not be rocket science!
Too true ANON, but as someone quite wise once said to me, "one cannot legislate attitudes" - until attitudes change I suspect there will be all sorts of ways of circumventing the relevant legislation - and being cynical, isn't this what in many instances lawyers are paid to do? (although the lack of equality obviously exists outside of law firms as well - maybe they've retained really "good" lawyers - no, that's just TOO cynical - even for me...)
CC associates were well involved in business development back in the 1990s.
Now most of them are partners somewhere. Maybe Freshfields associates have got the message.
Related Articles
Latest Jobs
