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I recently interviewed for a role with McMillan Williams and believe this atmosphere is still very much prevalent.

The management has taken on venture capital funding and are working towards floating on the LSE. Producing persuasive financial results is an obvious management policy they are pursuing vigorously, no doubt to obtain a high market cap valuation when they prepare for IPO.

Looking at their current financial information, they have high exposure to private client work, primarily high street type, so conveyancing, etc. They pay referral fees for their conveyancing cases. Their financial information shows their turnover is about £30M with about 27 branches and expanding the branch network rapidly is part of their business model. Yet their profit margin is merely 2% with relatively high debt.

If there's a downturn in the residential conveyancing market, this firm may have some issues. If the staff already work in a 'culture of fear' at present, I wonder what the atmosphere will be like when there's a downturn.