The Legal Cheek View
If there’s one thing solicitors-in-training loathe, it’s spending four or five years learning the law only to sweat over a hot photocopier for half their training contract. No such worries at West Country outfit Foot Anstey.
“Very complex and challenging work with a wide range of interesting clients,” is the summary from one happy insider. With “kind and supportive” peers, alongside “very approachable” partners, what more could any young lawyer ask for?
Well, maybe a canteen, which Foot Anstey lacks. But that’s understandable, given that it has half a dozen separate offices scattered around the South West, including London, as well as a new hub in Manchester after it snapped up Clarke Wilmott’s four-lawyer IP team earlier this year. The “very bright, modern and open plan” Bristol office is the firm’s crown jewel, with the other offices said to be “pretty standard” (bar the good views from Plymouth).
Work/life balance is “excellent — I rarely feel that I have to compromise my personal life to manage my work life,” one happy trainee tells us. However, this does depend on your practice area, as another rookie details: “In Islamic finance and asset management I worked 9am-5.15pm most of the time, in commercial and corporate my hours were more consistently 9am–7pm with a handful of late nights, with one 2am finish on a Friday night in the office! But on the whole, I have had a good work life balance at FA with an average 9am-6.30pm work day.” Overall the work/life balance at Foot Anstey seems extremely reasonable in hours and attitude as another trainee explains: “I have always been encouraged to prioritise making time to get outdoors, exercise and look after my mental health.” That sound you’re hearing is jaws hitting the floor over in the City.
The trade-off is you’re not going to trouser sky-high City salaries. First year trainees can expect to earn £37,000, rising to £39,000 in their second year, while NQ’s take home £60,000 a year.
Training-wise, you can expect “excellent support and investment from first-class lawyers” as well as “a chance to work across a wide range of transactions [and] gain varied experience,” our insiders report. The firm focuses on six core sectors: developers, energy & infrastructure, private equity, private wealth, retail & consumer, and Islamic finance — with the lattermost of these areas getting a special shout-out for offering “great supervision and training”. The firm also has a busy medical negligence practice, dubbed EnableLaw, which has operated as a separate business since 2017. The real estate and corporate teams receive high praise for “hosting sessions for trainees on key topics” and running “weekly bitesize training sessions,” with most of the training elsewhere within the firm said to be very hands-on.
The corporate team is also said to have an exceptionally good calibre of work with a “brilliant level of exposure and responsibility,” one insider tells us. And this extends to the firm’s other practice areas, where trainees are generally pleased with their levels of responsibility and “exciting workloads,” even if there “is still trainee grunt work to be done”.
This spy provides a further insight: “I have had the opportunity to work on some really interesting matters, including supporting on a complex £180m sale involving teams across the firm. I have worked for impressive national clients as well as collaborated with smaller independent businesses, both interesting and stimulating in their own ways. I have also spent a fair amount of time on more banal tasks such as drafting COI letters, writing research notes for supervisors rather than for client work, proof reading documents, drafting land registry forms and taking attendance notes in calls. But that is the life of a trainee and we are still grateful for it!”
Notable clients include Santander, The Independent newspaper, Ministry of Sound and Netflix, which instructed Foot Anstey in an asbestos claim. Other recent deals include advising mountain bike company Silverfish on a management buyout and helping sustainable underwear brand Stripe & Stare secure a £2.5 million investment.
At Foot Anstey, the relatively small trainee intake of around 12 “means everyone is supportive and really friendly”. Another grateful recruit says that their trainee group is “very supportive” and the firm’s mentoring programme “really makes a difference”. However, it can be “hard to socialise with trainees as they are split across offices, but they all get together a couple of times every year”. Apparently, the social scene in “Bristol is much better than Plymouth”. The social life seems to dry up after your training contract, mind you: “Trainee socials have a large budget and there is something organised every quarter,” but post-qualification it’s mostly about the Christmas party.
Again, this is partly down to having multiple offices. What the firm may lack in the sesh department it makes up for in perks: everyone loves Lifestyle Hour, an hour a week on firm time to do whatever you like. “I like to use mine to leave early on a Friday,” one trainee told us while sipping a mojito in her hammock. And health-conscious trainees are also keen to point out the regular deliveries of fresh fruit and office treadmills!
Flexible working opportunities are excellent, and you can buy and sell annual leave days. As one trainee puts it: “The best perk is not having to work silly hours.” Those with an eye for a deal will dig the discounts for local shops, which drive down the un-London-y cost of living further still. Trainees can WFH up to two days a week, but the lack of good quality home equipment is a bit of a drawback. As is legal tech at the firm which is said to be “very basic”.
One trainee jokes that the partners range in approachability from “curtsying in their presence to limited banter,” but mostly it’s a good vibe. “Senior lawyers and members of the partnership are extremely friendly and approachable. The culture is very warm, and there is no distinct hierarchy,” one young lawyer praises. “The partners are very invested in the quality of the trainee experience,” the trainee continues with another commenting “everyone is very approachable”. The partners might even join you down the pub on a Friday night — a mixed blessing, potentially, but definitely works if they’re buying. They can probably afford a round or two; the firm’s latest available financial results (2021-22) show revenues sit at £53.5 million — an 8% uptick on the previous year.
International travel is saved for those that go on to qualify, but client secondments to a range of big name businesses are an option. The firm also has its ‘Virtual Trainee’ programme where rookies provide up to five hours per week of additional legal support, at no cost to the client, adopting the role of an in-house legal adviser.