Pros
Collegiate and collaborative culture, reasonable working hours, nice people, pleasant office and cafe. Less terrible than other City law firms.
Cons
Below market pay means that the firm attracts relatively junior and inexperienced people in the MBD function who, although, well-intentioned, are out of their depth much of the time. It's the blind leading the blind. There are no proper competency frameworks in place so people have no idea what the benchmark is for their grade/role and how they are performing relatively. Appraisal and promotion process is vague and people are quietly waved through without due diligence. Many seem to get promoted when they kick up a fuss and threaten to leave. As a consequence, mediocre people stay in role for years, hold back bright juniors who cannot rise up through the ranks, and don't help efforts to raise standards or strive for excellence. The firm's collaborative and collegiate culture means that leadership is too mild-mannered to make difficult decisions and force through necessary change. The London leadership team has recently rolled out a requirement to attend the office 3 days per week and warned that this will be enforced, however adherence is patchy and there don't seem to be any consequences for non-compliance. There is far too much focus on woke box-ticking D&I initiatives like the ridiculous all-gender bathrooms, membership of afro hair alliance, endless neurodiversity campaigns, and not enough practical support from HR on real issues like bullying and harassment, serious illness or bereavement.