Tracing family trees

LUCY HICKMAN EXPLORES THE PROS AND CONS OF LAWYERs FOLLOWING IN their RELATIVES' FOOTSTEPSPaisner & Co has just announced its merger with Berwin Leighton.

Harold...Lucy Hickman explores the pros and cons of lawyers following in their relatives' footstepsPaisner & Co has just announced its merger with Berwin Leighton.

Harold Paisner will remain as senior partner of the new entity, which is being renamed Berwin Leighton Paisner, thus retaining the name established by Mr Paisner's father, Leslie, when he founded the firm in 1932.

A child following in the footsteps of a parent and joining the same law firm is perhaps less common nowadays than previously, but it does still happen and working with relatives can, apparently, be beneficial.

Mr Paisner's father was senior partner when his son joined the firm in 1971, and Mr Paisner junior now works alongside his brother, Martin, who is a partner in Paisner & Co's trust and estate planning department.'We work very well together,' says Mr Paisner.

'The family relationship doesn't come into it - we both have our own lives outside of work.'Indeed, had Mr Paisner's son, Jonathan, not decided to branch out into venture capitalism last year, he too could have been joining his father and uncle following the merger in May - he completed his two-year training contract with Berwin Leighton.

However, Mr Paisner did not take the conventional route of keeping it in the family.

He worked first as a merchant banker, deliberately turning his back on the law.

He says: 'I did it a strange way round.

I always rebelled against the idea of going into the family firm, and because of that natural reluctance, I didn't give the law a fair chance.' Having worked as a merchant banker for some time, he developed a keen interest in corporate finance.

'I realised then that it made sense to qualify as a lawyer.' He says that his father never pressed him to join the firm, and because he was older and more mature by the time he did arrive there, he felt less pressure than he imagines younger lawyers might feel.'I was left to get on with my own stuff and I didn't really work directly with my father anyway,' he says.

While Leslie specialised in trusts, his son practises corporate law.

Mr Paisner says that although children who follow parents into firms may feel more intensely the need to prove themselves than others, carrying the firm's name does have its benefits.'Being a named partner gives you more clout and gives one an entre that others might lack.

Once I had this entre, though, I had to prove myself capable of doing the job to the client.' Mr Paisner says it was important to him for the Paisner name to be retained following the merger.

'I am convinced there is a lot of goodwill in the Paisner name, and I would be loath to see that go.

Berwin Leighton Paisner is an appropriate new name.' He says that although the firm has changed dramatically since he joined - growing from around 10 partners to 54 now, and 116 post-merger on May 1 this year - his father had a strong influence on both his management style and upon the culture of the firm.

'My father influenced me because he was a very caring person who cared very deeply for both his staff and clients.

I think I learned from him the value of loyalty: if you are loyal to people, they are to you.

He looked after staff very well and I have tried to emulate this.' Again, perhaps influenced by his father, Mr Paisner is adamant that a law firm is a people business, not just a business.

He maintains it is an ideal shared by Berwin Leighton - one reason why a merger between the two seemed so attractive.West Midlands firm Higgs & Sons has had a Higgs in the practice since it was founded by the great-grandfather of the current senior partner, David Higgs, in 1875.Mr Higgs senior currently has both his son, Mark Higgs, and his nephew, Michael Higgs, working at the firm - the former as an associate, the latter as a partner.He says: 'I suppose we are carrying on a tradition but this is no longer just a family firm.

I just happen to be senior partner at present.

Clients like the continuity of the name.

I think it may be harder for my son and nephew because although they are here on merit, outsiders might be a bit resentful and think they get preferential treatment.

'There is more pressure on them to prove themselves but the clients love it and although it's early days for both of them, I hope they both make careers here.

I shall be retired before too long anyway.' Mr Higgs adds: 'I now don't see a lot of them outside of office hours.

In fact, we tend to avoid each other outside work unless there is some kind of family gathering.'He says it was expected of him to follow in his father's footsteps and join the family firm but he determinedly avoided applying similar force on his son.'I hope I didn't pressure my son into going into the law or to join the firm.

I went into it quite naturally but I hope I didn't influence his decision.

I have told him that if he is not happy, he is quite welcome to go elsewhere.

I have spent my entire career here and I haven't been tempted to go elsewhere.

I enjoy working here.'Similar emotions were in evidence at Halliwell Landau, where Peter Halliwell and his son Mark are seen as something of a double act in the profession.

Halliwell senior founded the practice more than 20 years ago; his son joined him and completed his articles there.Both commercial lawyers, the father and son team later left to join Manchester neighbours Lace Mawer, where they occupied neighbouring offices.

However, five years ago both upped sticks again to return to the firm which bears their family name.Midlands firm Challinors Lyon Clark employs father/daughter team David and Sarah Corser - though they work in different disciplines and in separate offices.

Mr Corser is a partner in the trusts and probate department, housed in the firm's Edgbaston office, while Ms Corser, works in the main Birmingham office as a clinical negligence lawyer.

Ms Corser originally took an English degree, but took a law conversion course after doing work experience at her father's firm.

She joined as a trainee in 1998, qualifying last year.

She says: 'People might think I was given a passport to get into the firm.

It's been hard because I have had to prove I got here on my own merit, not just because my dad was here.

Nobody has said this to me but it's how I feel.' She explains her decision to join the firm: 'It's the right sized firm for me, doing the right sort of work.'Mr Corser says: 'Our practices are so different, we might as well be in different jobs.

I'm quite relaxed about working in the same firm - it's more of a burden on her than me.

I deliberately keep a low stance on this, she has to prove herself more and I think she is doing that.'The pair worked directly together for only six months during Ms Corser's training contract and both agree they worked effectively.

Inevitably, the pair discuss work outside office hours.

Mr Corser says: 'We talk about the practice and the personalities involved, which is interesting because I get good feedback of what the young people in the firm are thinking, and she gets to see our side.

Not that we talk about anything confidential, of course.'But there are drawbacks when relatives work at different levels of the hierarchy within firms, as Mr Corser explains: 'I don't see any drawback of us working in the same firm, not yet anyway.

She has only just qualified as a solicitor and it's going to get a bit more complicated as time goes on and she wants to progress.

If it comes a time when she is being considered for partner, that might be one partnership meeting I disappear for.'Lucy Hickman is a freelance journalist