Bristol-based Burges Salmon sets out to provide its fee earners with quality work and responsibility while promoting a collegiate atmosphere, aided by the fact that it operates out of a single office.
Training offered by the firm includes its Senior Associate Development Centre, where 
attendees undergo roleplays that recreate typical business situations. Burges Salmon holds an offsite AGM for all staff to update them on its activities, and a biannual ‘outstanding service awards’ for individuals and teams. It also recently held a series of workshops to reassess the firm’s values.
It runs an active social programme that this year included a ‘battle of the bands’ between local law firms and ‘Frenzy’ – a party celebrating all things British, which involved fancy dress and karaoke. The firm holds ‘wellbeing markets’ with a range of exhibitors including gyms and nutritionists, and runs several sports clubs. It is a member of Prime and has an entry in Stonewall’s Starting Out career guide.
Robert Halton, Chief People Officer, says: “One of the fantastic things about working here is that we are a people business. It’s about the relationships: about how people work together and how people work with their clients. Clients are people too: we never lose sight of that. What can be very powerful, and yet gets missed, is that the relationship between lawyers when they’re working on a deal or a case is also very close.”
What fee earners like about the firm
- ‘Its people and its prestige’
- ‘High quality of work without the London working environment’
- ‘Friendly, flexible and collegiate’
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