Pros
Good support teams, back office, marketing, HR (now)
Focus on training and development
Supportive of qualified flexible working (teams I know of)
Cons
Bonus scheme is odd. The standard bonus is based on sickness, if you’ve not taken more than 10 days sick leave you get the bonus. Good staff who have been sick don’t get a bonus, poor staff with no sickness do. It’s not linked to performance at all.
Fee earner bonus is only linked to billing, nothing else. Fee earner billing includes support work time so partners with more support can bill more, but then TA’s who support juniors don’t time record as they don’t have to and their bonus isn’t linked to performance, so juniors struggle to get a bonus. Bonus is only paid after you’ve billed 3x salary. Apparently some partners get £200k+ bonus a year.
No pay rise for promotions. Apparently each year each employees pay is reviewed individually regardless of position so there is no pay rise for promotions despite the expectation of more work and responsibilities.
No pay visibility and equity. Apparently there are additional bonuses for certain things, but employees have no information on these. Fee earners in certain teams are automatically paid more regardless of work just because of their team. Employees are not told what factors are considered in pay reviews.
Not all teams have the same support with flexible working, but HR has recently improved so this seems to be slowly changing.
Not enough desks or lockers for all staff.
