Associates in large City departments are often ‘starved of the opportunity to make a name for themselves’ and should look to small and mid-sized firms to achieve partnership and job satisfaction, a leading legal recruiter has advised.


Commenting on the recent pay hikes at magic circle firm Allen & Overy (see [2005] Gazette, 20 October, 5) and reports of an exodus of associates at other top City firms, Hudson managing consultant Aaron Balfour said there were clear indications of an industry-wide problem – the increasing disillusionment of hard-working associates who do not make it to partner.


He said: ‘Part of the problem is that in large City firms the teams are so large that people lose visibility, responsibility, autonomy and exposure to clients. They lose out on the opportunity to make a name for themselves and miss out when in comes to partner consideration.’


Mr Balfour said the lawyers are expected to put in extremely long hours, which they are happy to do if their efforts are recognised and rewarded, but too often this does not happen. ‘There is almost a degree of complacency among many larger firms and a feeling among the lawyers that they are expendable,’ he added.


Mr Balfour explained that pay rises are most pronounced at two or three years’ post-qualification experience (PQE), and after seven or eight years’ experience, pay differentials fall away.


He said: ‘Firms are acutely keen to hang onto the younger lawyers, but by the time people get to eight, nine, ten years’ PQE without being made partner, the view is they are not bringing enough to the table. Beyond that, firms are aware that even if people wanted to go elsewhere, at that stage in their career the opportunities to do so are limited.’


However, he claimed that a number of small- and medium-sized firms have spotted the fact that there are ‘able, intellectually agile and commercially savvy associates with the ability to generate business, but who have been starved of opportunity in the large firms’.


‘Given the tools that smaller firms will give them – client contact, responsibility and opportunity to spot areas for development – they will be able to generate work,’ he suggested. ‘The lawyers will be part of a smaller team, so there will be greater opportunity to make an impact on the department and the firm and make partner speedily, and they will see a clear and transparent route to doing so, rather than the more opaque route in some top 20 firms.’



Mr Balfour said smaller firms often offered good salaries and high-quality work but without the expectation that their lawyers will bill ‘obscene’ hours.