Great escape

Scott Neilson talks to solicitors who have traded in the city to work outside London and asks: Do regional firms have as much to offer lawyers used to life in the fast lane?

London, some say, is a young person's town - a good place to make one's fame or fortune before leaving (hopefully at not-too-ripe an old age) for somewhere a little more relaxing.

But what is it like to trade a partnership or promising job at a top City firm to practise law in the regions? Does the move actually turn out to be the 'professional suicide' that some see it as?

Ex-Allen & Overy corporate lawyer Jonathan Porteous, now of 22-partner Guildford commercial firm Stevens & Bolton, says he feels fairly settled in Surrey these days.

This is just as well, given that his wife gave birth to their second baby only last month.

In terms of his career, Mr Porteous's current arrangements must seem a world away from his past positions at A&O's European offices.

Mr Porteous, who was made up as an A&O partner in 1999, spent a total of 12 years practising at the global finance heavyweight.

'Some of the older people at A&O, I think, were of the opinion that by leaving the City I was committing professional suicide.

I got a few comments about how I'd be doing conveyancing and probate, and playing golf every Friday,' he says.

'But with A&O, I'd seen the full range of it.

I'd worked in the London factory and I'd worked in Amsterdam with 150 lawyers.

Budapest was 15 and Prague was 20.

From all of this, I realised that working in the smaller office has many advantages.

'What's important to me is that in a firm this size I have a stake and a real say in how it develops.

At A&O you're one of 300-plus partners, so you just can't identify as well with where the firm is going.'

He says there is also a lot more scope to become involved in practice development at Stevens & Bolton.

'We all contribute ideas as to how we should be moving the practice on.

Actually, it's the same with the whole firm.

In these terms, it's much better than working in London,' Mr Porteous says.

'But make no mistake.

It's still hard work down here.

People don't move out to the regions just to play golf.

They're still looking for active and rewarding careers.

I don't see a big difference between the quality of partners here and the partners in the City.

There used to be a big difference 20 years ago.

There isn't any more.'

Yet legal recruiter Liz Neser from Graham Gill, a specialist in the fine art of placing City partners inside regional law firms, admits that many City lawyers still see a regional move as a gamble.

'It's [perceived as] a big risk for them.

But these days the regional firms seem to be dramatically narrowing the traditional gap between themselves and firms inside the Square Mile,' she says.

'People tend to consider this move when they're in their thirties and forties.

You get some young blood but it's normally people who have made it in London.

The move is therefore a lifestyle choice.

Often it is young City partners who have just started a family.'

Sebastian Briggs, 34, moved to Bond Pearce's Southampton office only a few weeks ago.

Mr Briggs kick-started his career with a seven-year stint at pre-merger Rowe & Maw, before taking on a corporate role at The Simkins Partnership in the West End of London.

He made the move to the regions for career as well as lifestyle reasons - his new firm has three times as many partners as his last one.

'Seven or eight years ago, I would have been that much more cautious about going to a regional firm.

Back then, I think firms outside London suffered from an image problem - in my mind, at least.

But since then I've dealt with a lot of regional lawyers and realised that the quality of work at many of these firms is as good as any in the capital.'

Reality, however, means that many lawyers leaving London are forced to take a financial hit.

Most 'would have to be prepared to take a drop financially,' Ms Neser warns.

Rick Munro, 35, an insolvency partner in Lamport Bassitt's Southampton office, was no exception.

He headed for Hampshire in 1997 after ditching an associate's job at pre-merger City firm Durrant - saying goodbye to the prospect of a lucrative equity partnership at the top-10 City player now known as Lovells.

'My move from Durrant meant a large reduction in salary.

For the first 12 months after making the decision, I remember picking up the legal press, seeing the sums being paid to City lawyers, and wondering if I'd made the right move,' he recalls.

'But all of that disappeared rather rapidly as I got into the local community and into the work down here.

If you get into the right role then you move onward and upward and you still have a nice standard of living anyway,' says Mr Munro, who was soon made up as a partner by Lamport Bassitt.

'There was the question of travelling in and out of London.

And also we had just made the decision to start a family.

London's not the greatest place to bring up kids,' he says.However, Mr Briggs argues that the phrase 'rat race' is used too commonly in reference to the Square Mile.

'That's taking it too far.

What the City actually is, is a situation where there are is a lot of the same firms chasing the same kind of work.

Therefore, it becomes fairly difficult for them to differentiate themselves.

It's okay if you're at the top of the greasy pole, or a strong niche player.

Otherwise, the pressure really is on.

'But things like schooling certainly are a lot easier to organise once you get out of London.

Some friends of mine back there have only just had a baby and they're already putting 2,000 down as a deposit to get him into a school.

The competitive nature of winning commercial instructions is nothing when it comes to getting your kids into a good school in London.

'Quite frankly, remaining in the golden cage involves sacrificing a huge amount of your personal time.

I'd rather strike a balance.'

But surely the grass is not always greener on the other side? There must be something these solicitors miss about either their old firms or the City itself? Mr Munro, for example, has fond memories of Friday night drinks at his old firm.

('Everyone has a parking space at Lamport Bassitt and everyone tends to use it.') But for Mr Porteous, it is the kind of resources that his old firm offers its fee-earners on a twenty-four hour and seven-day-a-week basis.

'Resources like A&O's typing pools, like marketing departments who can produce glossy brochures within half an hour.

You don't have the daily seminars on hand, or the resources of the intranet for example,' he says.

So can these former City operators offer any sound advice for other solicitors thinking about saying goodbye to the yellow brick road?

'Before you make a move, make sure you get a good feeling for any firm you're thinking about joining,' warns Mr Briggs.

'You need to have enough get up and go about you, and enough faith in your own abilities,' advises Mr Munro.

'If you have, then you can progress quite rapidly outside London on a purely meritocratic basis.

If you've got the ability, there's no reason why the decline in income shouldn't be relatively short term.'

Scott Neilson is a freelance journalist