The Legal Cheek View
Pittsburgh-founded Reed Smith saw a slight increase in global revenues in the latest financial year, reaching £1.3 billion, while revenue from its London office declined by over 6% to £167.05 million. This decline led to a 2.7% decrease in profit per equity partner (PEP) to $1.59 million (£1.24 million), which the firm attributes to heavy investments in technology and real estate. Despite this, the firm remains optimistic, stressing that its London office plays a key strategic role in its future growth. Following a recent shakeup of its global leadership, with Gregor Pryor becoming Europe and the Middle East managing partner and Casey Ryan as global managing partner, the firm predicts stronger results going forward, partly due to an uptick in transactional work.
The firm’s London operations now account for around 15% of its total gross revenue, and is its largest office, with Pryor noting that it has seen more than 10 billion-dollar deals in the past year. Its London base has relocated to “an amazing new office” at Blossom Yard & Studios, near Spitalfields Market. Although it’s just across the road from its old office — an oligarch-style penthouse at the top of Broadgate Tower — the new location, comprising restored Georgian and Victorian warehouses, has an industrial vibe unique to the City and is described as an “open-plan, collaborative and light” space. It also features its very own art gallery thanks to a partnership with Chelsea College of Arts.
When it comes to training, the trainee experience is reported as being “very department dependent” — a common theme among many US players in the City. When it is good, however, it’s “top-rate” and there are even “videos to train for each individual project” in the firm’s pro bono practice. In what is perhaps a nod to its US roots, quite a lot of training is delivered “on the job” and supplemented with “extra optional sessions and online options”.
The quality of work, overall, seems to be very good, according to insiders — although it can “vary between departments”. The tax team received a special shout-out in the latest Trainee and Junior Lawyer Survey, as did the litigation team, where tasks often include “research, witness statement drafting,” and ample opportunities to understand how their work impacts “the wider case”. Another trainee noted that while the matters are very interesting, some work can inevitably be administrative. Overall, the verdict seems to be that while it is team-dependent, the quality of work is generally good.
The firm has a business support centre in Leeds that operates alongside its sister hub in Pittsburgh. While these ‘Global Solutions hubs’ help ease the administrative burden on trainees, one insider notes that some departments “seem to use trainees for everything instead of the proper teams”.
The culture at the firm is described as “extremely supportive”. The shipping litigation team received high praise from one trainee, who described them as “absolutely marvellous!”. Among peers, rookies appreciate the “small trainee cohort which means everyone knows each other and is supportive of one another”, while firmwide “everyone is friendly, approachable and generally helpful”. One spy noted: “It’s amazing how most of the superiors don’t act superior at all!” We are also told that supervisors make time for trainees even during busy periods, which rookies are very appreciative of. A few lucky trainees even received Christmas presents from their superiors!
Work/life balance is said to differ between departments and according to time of year: “If you’re in a finance seat, particularly in Q4, then there will be early morning finishes and weekend working.” For early finishes, dispute and arbitration seats seem to be the place to be, with one trainee “generally logging off at 6.30pm” whilst their peers in asset finance and shipping litigation worked “much longer hours”. Trainees are conscious, however, of how Reed Smith compares with other firms and consider themselves relatively fortunate: “The salary is at the higher end of firms without the constant horrendous hours trainees seem to be working elsewhere in the City.” NQ rates currently sit at £125,000; not quite crazy US MoneyLaw levels but still very respectable for the City.
Reed Smith is especially strong in financial disputes, shipping and, somewhat unusually for a City firm, entertainment and media law. In the past, the firm has advised Concord on the purchase of Phil Collins catalogues, so it’s no surprise that Billboard magazine named one London partner as a go-to music industry solicitor. More recently, the firm advised ITV on the sale of its 50% stake in Britbox International to BBC Studios. Elsewhere, the firm boasts expertise in other rock n’ roll subjects like sports, gaming and social media, where they have previously defended long-term client Microsoft in an employment dispute.
For those who are especially passionate about the environment, the firm offers a designated pro bono environmental working group which supports various environmental causes and a dedicated ESG (environmental, social and governance) practice with new ‘sustainability partners’ who are said to be “driving this forward”. The firm was one of the first to roll out a billable ‘sustainability hours’ policy, which allows lawyers to bill 25 hours of environmental leadership and advocacy training to count towards their targets.
In London, Reed Smith has a dedicated innovation lab and trainees note that “the firm is very proactive in trialling new technologies”. It is said to have a clear tech strategy, with the aim of “integrating tools that are useful in day-to-day work”. There is also praise for the firm’s legal services centre in Leeds, where lawyers and support staff can benefit from a “creative environment” in which “to find new approaches to problem solving”. However, there are still no plans to offer training contracts in Leeds.
Despite these niches, supervisors are known “to be conscious about giving trainees as broad an experience as possible” and help trainees “branch out and try something outside your typical area”. Juniors undertake secondments to the likes of Barclays, the BBC, Bauer Media Group, Reprieve, Shell and Liberty. International secondments are also slowly picking up, with trainees reporting on six-month stints to Dubai, Paris and Singapore.
And it’s not just for international secondments that rookies might need their passports. In the past, trainees have enjoyed client visits to Hamburg on a big case, a week-long trip to Seoul and a Korean shipyard to take statements, and a week in Japan for business development and marketing. Closer to home, the firm’s perks include a range of health and travel insurance packages which are apparently “standard for City law firms”, as are the taxi services and Deliveroo allowances for those late nights in the office.
On the social side, trainees give a particular shout-out to the monthly drinks trolleys on the corporate floor and that the people are lovely, making it easy to build relationships within the firm. Although cross-departmental and impromptu socials are a rarity, invites to client events might compensate for this.
On the whole, Reed Smith’s WFH policy is said to be “pretty accommodating”. Most people work from home two days a week, although there are gripes about removal of the £350 WFH equipment grant, which used to be a trainee favourite. One survey respondent also pointed out that the Citrix-based virtual desktop is “slow, unreliable and crashes frequently”, although people unanimously appreciate the flexibility offered on office attendance.