The Legal Cheek View
The firm that acted for Lehman Brothers on its world-changing 2008 bankruptcy has been one of the most adept riders of the ensuing business cycle and has enjoyed years of robust financial performance. Spearheaded by a busy private equity practice, Weil’s latest financials saw a steady 3% climb this year, rising from $1.76 billion (£1.36 billion) to $1.83 billion (£1.41 billion). Average revenue per equity partner (PEP) sits at a very robust $4.6 million (£3.6 million).
There has been lots going on in the recently expanded London office, which boasts “lovely roof terraces and sweeping City views” as well as spacious offices, a subsidised cafe with cheap food, and a gym complete with firm-branded towels in the basement. Rookies particularly rate how “well located” and “pristine” their digs are, but don’t get too comfy because the rapidly growing headcount in the City hub has led to rumours that it might soon be time to move to a more sizeable abode. For the time being, those lawyers lucky enough to be working inside these snazzy Fetter Lane digs have been busy with both M&A work, such as advising Microsoft on its $69 billion acquisition of video game maker Activision Blizzard, and restructuring deals, including advising on $630 million convertible note exchange offer involving car retail Cazoo.
Perhaps unsurprisingly then, the firm’s London office is said to be doing well financially, with the latest figures publicly available showing revenues of over $280 million (£230 million). Over a quarter of partner promotions this year were also made in the City, with five getting the nod.
Trainees and NQs have also enjoyed the fruits of the London office’s success with NQ’s netting a recently improved £170,000, whilst first-year and second-year rates reach £60,000 and £65,000 respectively. The firm’s City arm is currently undergoing a change in leadership, as veteran London managing partner Michael Francies is handing over his 23-year long tenure to M&A and private equity experts David Avery-Gee and Jonathan Wood. But this changeover hasn’t stopped Weil continuing its policy of poaching top talent from the likes of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Mayer Brown and, most recently, Latham & Watkins as part of the firm’s Californian expansion with two new offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Elsewhere in the world, Weil has followed the footsteps of firms such as Sidley Austin, Orrick and Eversheds in moving away from the mainland Chinese market. The firm has shuttered its Beijing office and is apparently considering closing its hub in Shanghai. Operations are being re-routed through the Hong Kong office, which Weil intends to keep open.
Back in the UK, things remain steady. The London office is said to have a “good, collegial atmosphere” which extends across the entire firm. “I think we have a “goldilocks” number of trainees, because it is small enough to know everyone but large enough to have a wide network. I’ve made some great friends” said one new recruit. A relatively small intake of fifteen trainees each year makes for a “pretty social” cohort who “are generally good at managing capacity requests together” and “eat lunch and dinner in the canteen together most days” – wholesome! We just hope there’s room for a few more in this “tight-knit cohort” as the firm has recently launched a solicitor apprenticeship programme within its London base.
Where the trainee experience really stands out is the “headline hitting work at the top of the market”, one source explains. “Expect associate-level work from day one as teams are very lean”, another remarks.
In short, if you’re up for a challenge, the work is really something to write home about: “All the deals are generally top-tier and at the forefront of the market in terms of innovative legal solutions we provide and from a commercial perspective in what our clients are aiming to achieve. If you’re up for it, there is super interesting work to get involved in given the generally lean nature of deal teams and small intake size.”
However, the leanness of the team cuts both ways. Because paralegals aren’t given billable work and the firm generally takes on a slimmer amount of admin staff, trainees can “get stuck doing the admin work” in the words of one rookie. Another junior offered this balanced view: “ Trainees are given the opportunity to get involved in more complex tasks — of course, the typical trainee role is a given (i.e. you are responsible for transaction management, coordinating signings/closings, drafting corporate approvals, Companies House filings, etc.), but we are afforded the opportunity to take on higher level tasks, such as drafting more complex and sophisticated transaction documents, running (with limited senior involvement) smaller portfolio company workstreams (i.e. MIP leaver/joiner processes) and there is plenty of direct client contact — this is actively encouraged by supervisors.”
Go-getters typically enjoy the “great practical experience” that Weil offers when it comes to training, with plenty of trainees we spoke to heaping praise on the banking and private equity teams’ training efforts. Corporate also receives plaudits for having “regular training sessions and a trainee-specific training programme” but otherwise (as you might imagine for a US firm like Weil) the learning style “is very much training on the job”. This can lead to training being slightly more seat-dependent than some might like, but generally Weil’s programme is praised — simply being “very good” and for often being tailored to suit each individual: “There’s lots of training received from the firm pre-training contract and throughout seats. In the core practice areas, there are set training sessions which take place frequently, for example in Banking we had one training session each week throughout the seat and in PE we had training Monday to Thursday for the first 2 weeks of the seat, followed by more formal training throughout the seat. Training is tailored to ensure we get the prerequisite background to understand the context of deals and background and it is very useful for trainees who have had limited exposure to the practice area before starting the training contract.”
Another spy in banking told us, “the banking team training is excellent — working through a uni-tranche comp grid is really useful background to all the deal work, and the partners make an effort to make sure it isn’t pitched too highly.”
It helps that most seniors are said to be “approachable and friendly”, and trainees get lots of direct contact. “My supervisors have been great so far — very happy to answer questions, and seem genuinely interested in my development. The associates are usually very happy to help too, and while some partners are obviously busy, they have all been very friendly when I have spoken to them,” reveals one insider. Weil does have an open-door policy even if this tends to work more so in the opposite direction — “I have often found that partners came to my office to check in on me and my work/progress, enjoyment of the seat, experience of the team, etc. Partners in the corporate team are specifically very good at recognising trainee involvement and hard work during and at the end of a process.” There is, furthermore, lots of support offered, from associate buddies all the way through to partner mentors.
Admin burdens causing some rookie gripes are somewhat eased by Weil’s “reasonable” IT. There’s apparently “the basic transactional and document services” but “nothing too sophisticated” and, although the laptops’ short battery lives can cause frustration, the consensus is that the tech is “pretty good”. Rumour has it that the firm is piloting further improvements, with AI tools beginning to pop up around the office. In addition, the firm provides a good work from home setup, sending trainees a monitor and, with partner approval, a printer as well as a standing desk amongst other WFH luxuries. Like with a growing number of its US counterparts in London, Weil’s trainees and lawyers are required to attend the office at least four days a week.
The high pay/little work-life balance trade-off that is common at US firms is exemplified by Weil. One junior offers this assessment: “As expected working at a US law firm, there is largely no ‘work/life balance’ during the working week — you are expected to be available every week night so it is not advisable to make weeknight social plans as, far more often than not, these would need to be cancelled. The culture is generally that people stay in the office fairly late, and as a trainee you are expected to be there and available. Weekend work is fairly regular (I worked almost every weekend in my corporate seat, bar five) — when it’s necessary, it is usually less time-pressured so you can work around the plans you have.” That said, people “are generally grateful for the sacrifice” and are said to be “really understanding if you have any social commitments as long as there is advance warning”. There also isn’t much of a presentee culture, so “no one will expect you to hang around” if it’s quiet.
Another insider gives this experience: “Two of my four seats had very reasonable hours (average leave time of 7pm), the other two were pretty full on. As a US firm, we run a lot of lean deal teams so if you’re coming up against a deadline, it’s all hands-on deck for at least a week or two. While it can be common to stay past 10pm/11pm during peak times, at other times hours are reasonable and I’ve rarely had to work weekends. Perhaps the toughest part is the ‘always available’ culture — you’re expected to answer calls at ungodly hours or on days off — but hey, that’s what they pay you for.”
Though the hours may seem onerous, expect to be rewarded with some great perks (besides being some of the best paid juniors in the City that is). For starters, working at Weil will get you free entry to a number of London art galleries and museums. “I skip all the queues at the Royal Academy and V&A,” a Weil rookie reports. There are also regular free tickets to football games, rugby and cricket matches, a free gym, subsidised canteen and (how could we forget) your very own “elite” Weil box at the O2. One lucky group of trainees are even said to have used it to watch a Drake concert. And if watching superstars from the comfort of your own private box wasn’t enough; a good number of trainees report completing a six-month secondment in New York!