Avoid at all costs - Fee Earner Simpson Millar Employee Review

1.0
Dec 31, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The only positive is flexibility with working hours and remote working.

Cons

No progression for fee earners, despite SMT always saying how good the firm is in this regard. They do not see the talent that they have in front of them… well, until it is too late when they make you feel bad about handing your notice in and manipulate you to stay but offer you nothing in return. However, they will give out managerial roles Willy-nilly to whomever, despite the lack of experience. Terrible pay. Basically working for nothing. Putting so much time and effort into the role and not being correctly rewarded. You will get an annual 2% pay rise with the rest of the firm but won’t be allowed a pay rise, despite consistently exceeding billing targets. Pay was also never revised to reflect the cost of living crisis. Numerous times not being paid on time. Blaming the bank for the ‘error’, one time is an error…not multiple times. It seems they do not hold enough money to pay their employees. Changing the pay day half way through the year without sufficient notice, leaving everyone to change all their direct debits at the last minute. Bonus structure is not fit for purpose. They come up with any excuse not to pay what you deserve. Lack of benefits. The only ‘benefit’ is the pension scheme. How many operations managers does one department need?! No clear line of management as there is constantly emails from different managers. Managers will pretend to like you to your face then talk badly about you in team leaders meetings. Death by spreadsheet. They will ask you first thing in the morning to complete updates on 100+ cases and expect the response by noon that day.

Explore other reviews about Simpson Millar

1.0
Jun 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Remote working is good and they are very flexible They don’t micro manage

Cons

Ineffective layers of middle management Really low pay compared to other competitor firms Bonuses don’t happen and annual pay reviews are fruitless. You will hardly ever get to do any client facing or active work - clients don’t come in to the office. Truly awful IT system, hard to get anything done. They will have lost so much money to this but feedback is not acted on. Very poor software and case management system. For some reason they will not pay for better software. No AI legal software utilization so there is too much time wasted on administrative work - you will spend most of your time either doing admin, battling with the IT system or case management software, or being harassed when your chargeables drop below 99%. You will feel like an overworked admin assistant as a fee earner. Ineffective billing process - you essentially have to do your own billing, which is nonchargeable of course. Excessively corporate, too much jargon: management like talking about finance and budget to employees who are not management and have no stake in this. A lot of saying and not much doing. ‘Mental health days’ , open rewards and random drinks evenings don’t make up for being paid the lowest in the publicly funded legal sector. Retention is very bad and people leave all the time. Some teams have lost almost the entire workforce in only 12 months. There is a culture of blaming and scapegoating certain employees and favouritism of others. Very petty and pedantic attitudes to file management, to the detriment of clients who hardly ever get to speak to their solicitors except by email.

3.0
May 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly, supportive team with a great culture Approachable management and team leaders Good opportunities for career progression Senior management have recently been making an effort to listen to employees and make improvements, but progress is extremely slow

Cons

Salaries are very low for the market, and salary increases are tiny They struggle with retention so there is a high turnover of colleagues Terrible IT

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