Pros
Colleagues across business services and fee earning teams genuinely good, hardworking, and collaborative.
Good regional office presence, and relatively flat structure, which makes it easy to build relationships across departments. Efforts are being made to modernise the office environments, and that is visible.
Cons
Salary and benefits lag behind market peers in professional services and legal.
Career progression is a limiting factor, though this varies across positions and teams. The underlying structure to support meaningful development pathways (clear frameworks, defined progression goals) is not consistently in place.
IT and technology in a state of change: many systems are fragmented across a number of different applications, which creates day to day friction.
Technical troubleshooting and resolution frequently depends on third parties rather than internal capability, which can slow things down.
Programmes of work are ambitious but can lack sustained strategic direction and continuity. Clearer long-term objectives would strengthen this significantly, which would help teams understand how their work connects to broader goals.
Business services functions work hard but are under-resourced, relative to the demands placed on them.
The firm is navigating a period of real change and identity evolution. Its regional roots are a strength in some respects, but can feel like a constraint when it comes to embracing investment in transformation.