Allen & Overy Reviews

Pros

- Highly professional and very friendly team
- Senior management you can learn from
- Opportunity to come up with ideas and run with them
- Approachable partners and associates
- The facilities and benefits for staff

Cons

- Depending on the role you have, the day-to-day work could be a bit 'samey'
- Not all partners and associates are receptive to marketing and business development ideas
(although you get both of these in any organisation)

Pros

There are many wonderful opportunities and it is a very prestigious company with plenty of scope for pursuing your career in whatever direction you wish

Cons

The long hours that are necessary to put into theis career make it tough on your social life, and you can't be guaranteed of getting the rotations you wish an dcan end up doing something you hate for 6 months.

Advice to Senior Management

In my experience the leadership I have received has been direct and clear, and I feel that I am progressing well in this environment.

Pros

- highest quality of work
- highest quality of training
- informal atmosphere

Cons

- can be a sweatshop
- compensation is decent but not great

Pros

The people - very approachable generally.
The offices - great location and facilities (including gym with basketball court)
The name (especially in banking)

Cons

Demanding clients
The hours - working weekends is quite usual.
People worrying about their billable hours.
'Keen' senior associates who make the lives of junior associates and trainees miserable at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Management need to think about breaking away from the traditional renumeration model and rewarding people for giving up a large chunk of their personal lives for the firm (as oppose to soft rewards).

Pros

Professional
Accomplished
Good renumeration
Great facilities
Encourage growth
Good work/ life balance
Nice gestures to take care of staff
Good place to work

Cons

Can be challenging when dealing with high profile lawyers working on high profile cases. Alot of stress and timelines involved.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more feedback on good work.

Pros

Allen & Overy is an international firm and allows you to work on international and complex assignments;

Allen & Overy provides second to none learning possibilities;

Allen & Overy is a prestigious firm without being stuffy or very formal;

Cons

Allen & Overy is manages in a rather bureaucratic way, and does not leave much room for merit based progress and career advancement;

Very strict lock step;

Pay is not great in continental Europa compared to the London and especially the US salaries;

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the good work up;

Do not forget to reward your associates in line with their peers at other magic circle firms;

Pros

Prestigous law firm and good place to sharpen one's expertise. The management places a lot of trust on the legal translator team and is quite patient with some translators who need time to get their performance up to the standard.

Cons

Relatively long hours and stress as the work mainly deals with time-sensitive transactions.

Advice to Senior Management

Nothing I can think of