Building employment from a standing start

Thu 10 Apr 2008

Employment law is a new practice area for Winckworth Sherwood and the team effectively began with my arrival at the firm in May 2007.  I have always liked being involved in start-ups and WS is a good firm from which to achieve this.

The first part of any start-up is to review the sources of work and initial staffing. WS has invested in two partners, James Lynas and me, and we have already recruited one junior assistant from White & Case, Lucy Biddulph. We have a dedicated trainee, access to paralegals and assistants in the dispute resolution department (LDR) and there are no problems with resourcing the work.  We are a small team and sit within the LDR department, not unusual for an employment practice.

The aim is to become an integrated part of the firm, providing employment law services to the firm’s major clients, whilst at the same time building our own practice, both by an intensive marketing campaign, which we have already started, and by putting ourselves about as much as possible. While we develop, I have a good practice in terms of referrals of high net worth individuals from certain large city firms and both James and I have legacy clients who instructed the firm when we joined.

With a small team there is always a certain tension between a high level of non-chargeable marketing activities and chargeable work. We do the best we can but, when things get busy, it can lead to very long hours and pressure to deliver.  I guess that’s why I am writing this at 3.00am rather than 3.00pm.

WS is also a good firm to operate in. I was attracted to the firm by the quality and attitude of the people as opposed to anything else and the environment is both supportive and efficient. The firm is developing very quickly in terms of marketing and profile raising and our new head of marketing, Susie Pugsley (who joined us from Morgan Lewis) has been the instigator of most of the changes. We work very closely with marketing, particularly as we do so many workshops and bulletins, and the relationship is both valuable and productive.

Management is not really an issue in a small and motivated team. I report to Jim Rai, head of LDR, but the employment law practice is otherwise a separate entity and is marketed as such.

The strange mix is WS and me.  WS is associated with parliamentary, public sector and ecclesiastical work (although we do an awful lot more) whereas my background is wholly commercial and based firmly in financial services. But it seems to work. We are pushing hard for more commercial work, outsourcing in particular, and as time goes by I expect there to be more corporate support work.

Most employment teams grow to the point where they are ideally “sized” in proportion to the firm in which they are placed and I have no illusions about the pace or limitations on growth.  There are very few firms where an employment practice becomes larger than its environs (Lewis Silkin being a good example of where it can happen) but Messrs Burd and Davies caught the market at just the right moment – I’m not sure that could happen now. I imagine our biggest competitors, particularly in the area of charge-out rates, are niche employment law firms such as Archon and Doyle Clayton.  Our charge-out rates and lack of conflict issues will always make us attractive to disaffected or dismissed city executives.

The big development this year (so far) has been the fallout from the credit crunch and we have received a large number of instructions from casualties of that fallout. It reminds me of my early years at D J Freeman in the early nineties, when the employment team (led by the now Baroness Denise Kingsmill) was frantically busy acting for similar individuals. I suspect this will ease off as the year progresses and we are looking to our both the firm and our marketing programme to assist our growth.

So we will see where we are in two years time and take stock.  I am very optimistic about both the team and the firm and, although I am realistic about the in which employment teams grow, the firm is moving forward very fast and I suspect we will be a very big part of that.

Author: David von Hagen, Employment Partner.

Appeared in Managing Partner Magazine publsihed 10th April 2008.