The Legal Cheek View
Corporate and tech firm Taylor Wessing runs a happy ship, and its approach has paid off with dividends. The firm’s high-profile sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery Photographic Prize helps ratchet up its ‘cool’ factor. Financially, the firm has been going from strength to strength, growing more rapidly over the past year or so than previously. Global revenues were up 9.5% to £480.7 million — its highest recorded revenue to date, while UK revenue (which is included in the global figure) climbed 8.6% to £246.6 million, up from £227.1 million last year. UK profit was also on the rise, up 12.2% to £91.7 million, and although TW doesn’t disclose its profit per equity partner (PEP) figure, it’s understood to sit around the £900,000+ mark. UK managing partner Shane Gleghorn attributes this growth to several practice areas, but particularly the firm’s IP offering, which has won leading mandates representing the likes of pharma giant Pfizer.
Looking internationally, Taylor Wessing’s European offices are understood to have had good financial years too, with positive results in Germany, France and Ireland; growth has been the name of the game across the board this year. Take the firm’s Irish arm, which launched just three years ago and has already outgrown its original premises. TW Ireland moved to a larger office in April this year, aligning with plans to double its headcount in the next two years. The opening of this Dublin branch expanded TW’s focus beyond tech and life sciences to include finance and real estate expertise.
Filling a gap in its European network Taylor Wessing also has ‘strategic alliance’ with Spanish firm ECIJA, collaborating with them on a non-exclusive basis on matters such as referrals, secondments and client pitches.
It’s known for being exceptionally friendly, a great place to work, and f0r having some pretty neat clients across intellectual property, media and competition law, with the likes of Sky, digital bank Monzo, fintech start-ups and cryptocurrency exchange platform Bitstamp just a few names on the list. Some clients might even be described as peachy — the firm previously advised The Roald Dahl Story Company and its shareholders on the sale of the business to Netflix, helping bring Charlie & The Chocolate Factory and James and the Giant Peach to a whole new audience.
It’s not all Netflix deals, however. We’re told the variety of work “across practice areas is large, with stimulating work more readily seen in non-transactional seats”. In some areas there can be “some lesser skilled, administrative-type tasks” but at least one trainee notes that they have been “given a significant amount of responsibility on matters, much more than [I] have heard from friends at other firms”, with the opportunity to “run matters and cases by [myself]”. Another trainee sums up their experience as so: “overall, a good level of involvement in important and interesting work”.
Generally, the ratio between challenging work and grunt work is regarded as good relative to many firms. According to one rookie, “every single day is different”. Another enthuses: “Due to strength of support staff, trainees aren’t stuck with mundane tasks. Lots of my work feels associate-level.” Taylor Wessing’s Liverpool office, which opened with a brief to handle lower-level tasks, may have helped tilt the balance. As one former trainee puts it: “This is a small part of the overall trainee work and the people giving you these tasks try to avoid doing so where possible. At the other end of the scale, I’ve been consistently given the opportunity to engage in interesting and challenging work in all four of my seats. Overall, I think this breadth of experience and wide exposure has helped me to build up an understanding of the way in which matters work, from a junior to a more senior level.”
While Taylor Wessing has recently closed its TechCity satellite office in a workspace in Shoreditch, East London, its commitment to tech clients remains strong, with the firm’s well-established Cambridge office developing close ties with top academics specialising in legal tech research. Additionally, one lucky trainee will have the chance to engage with the firm’s pioneering technology projects, as the firm also offers a Cambridge-based training contract. It’s no surprise, then, that Taylor Wessing has been at the forefront of trialling some of the new artificial intelligence (AI) software that has hit the market lately.
The firm is “always looking to innovate and introduce new technology”, developing its own AI products internally through its ‘TW: navigate’ AI solution. Following involvement in testing phases, it rolled out LitiGate, an AI-driven litigation platform across a range of its contentious practices to increase efficiencies in document searching and witness evidence review, among other areas. According to one rookie, “there are always new products being launched and trialled” and TW has recently strengthened its AI offering with the rollout out of ‘TW: Litium’, hailed by one trainee as the firm’s “own equivalent of ChatGPT”. On top of all this, the firm’s IT team is said to be “very responsive”, and one insider tells us that there are “some really interesting projects in the works with the technology user group”.
The training is thorough, with a one-week training period before you start in your first seat, then department specific training within each seat and ‘know-how’ sessions on different topics. Another positive voice notes the approachability of colleagues at all levels of seniority, that they are “incredibly supportive” and “always willing to answer questions and allow me to develop greater understanding of legal principles and strategy”. That being said, trainees do report that the “quality of supervision varies across practice areas”.
The work-life balance is one of the firm’s strengths, and it has a reputation for being at the more reasonable end of the City law spectrum. One trainee says that it “really varies from team to team. In my first seat, my average hours were incredibly reasonable (apart from the odd late night here and there), which allowed me to have evening plans in the work week. However, in my second seat, which has been slightly busier, my average hours have slightly increased. On the whole, though, compared to other firms, my working hours are incredibly reasonable — highlighted by the fact I have only worked two weekends in my ten months or so with the firm”.
One trainee said he has “no complaints at all”, with most people at the firm respecting work-life balance, “especially for trainees”, although those in the corporate departments “may have periods of longer hours in the evenings”. Another plus, according to one junior, is that there’s no “face time culture”. If you are finished for the day, you can leave for home.
The firm has adopted a “hybrid” model of working where staff, including trainees, can work remotely for a percentage of their time. To adjust to this shift, the firm has implemented BigHand resource management to ensure that hybrid working is accompanied by equitable and inclusive work allocation. One rookie notes, “the hybrid working system is amazing. It’s great to be able to factor in your personal life by working from home. It also means I can use the time I would usually use to commute for exercise. I personally haven’t noticed a drop in my development due to the model”. As to the equipment required to facilitate this home working, one junior praises the “good allowance” the firm provides “in addition to an office chair”. Another trainee says that the firm will provide “any equipment needed”.
The “chatty and welcoming” partners are “incredibly down to earth” and highly rated by rookies for their approachability, with the natural caveat that they are unavailable during particularly busy times. A trainee reports: “I’m in my fourth seat and yet to come across someone who isn’t supportive and willing to take time out of their day to provide guidance and support. Most memorably, I asked one of the partners if he had 10-15 minutes to speak about a recent update of interest. Our chat ended up lasting just over an hour and when I thanked the partner for his time, his response was that he is always happy to take time to help support and further the interests of junior members of the firm.”
What’s more, the “trainee cohort is absolutely lovely”, with “everyone looking to support each other” and “no competitive culture”, insiders say. One tells us: “my peers are amazing and I can rely on them for support” whilst another echoes: “I think the culture is probably the best part of Taylor Wessing. There are almost no ‘bad apples’ and I’d be more than happy to chat with any of the other trainees or my team.”
The firm offers a number of international secondments to its trainees, with locations including Munich and Dubai, although these are not too common with most people “coming to the UK office, than going out”. Trainees have also been known to visit the firm’s offices in Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg and Bratislava on one-day trips. As for client secondments, these are more common, with destinations include Farfetch and other major tech, pharmaceutical and property companies.
The office is renowned for its “incredible views over the City” and its canteen which offers free breakfasts for those early birds quick enough to catch the morning worm. And it’s set to get even better. TW City HQ is currently undergoing a major refurbishment, with changes including a new reception, lifts and an outdoor communal terrace, as well as the decarbonisation of the building. According to one rookie, “the designs for the new office look outstanding”.
The perks are also pretty good, with yoga sessions, premium subscriptions to wellbeing apps, in-house massages, a national art pass, an in-house GP, free dinner and Deliveroo allowances after 8pm, and free tickets regularly made available to some of the glamorous events that Taylor Wessing sponsors. The firm also operates an incentive programme that sees lawyers awarded crypto tokens for “outstanding contributions to the firm” (a scheme which appears to be the first of its kind in the legal industry). Meanwhile, the firm has also increased its newly-qualified (NQ) salaries to £115,000, while trainee salaries sit at £50,000 and £55,000 for first and second-year trainees respectively.
We’re also told that Taylor Wessing is incredibly focused on being environmentally friendly, with facilities such as food waste, numerous recycling points throughout the office and the provision of e-bike and opportunities to purchase electric cars, all designed to allow employees to reduce their carbon footprint. This environmental focus also drove the firm’s decision to refurbish its existing London office rather than move into new premises. One trainee also reports that Taylor Wessing “helped develop and sign up to the Legal Charter 1.5 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions”. There is even an active Sustainability Network which offers trainees the opportunity to get involved in making the techy firm more green-fingered.
