Linklaters Reviews

Pros

Linklaters is one of the premier law firms to work for in Hong Kong and the Asia-Pac region. It is an excellent law firm that demands a lot from it's employees. The hours are brutal and the clients and demanding. However if you like the work it is a great place to continue your legal career.

Cons

Definitely the downsides of being a lawyer, especially in a corporate role are many. Generally lawyers work just as hard as bankers but don't get paid as much. The work can be dreary and tedious. Anyone with a passion for business should avoid being a lawyer!

Advice to Senior Management

Management is generally good. There is little 'management' per se as the legal professionals tend to get the job done. MY advice would perhaps be to hire more non-legal support staff to reduce the amount of 'grunt work' that is done by junior staff.

Pros

Challenging work and great people.

Cons

Long hours and high expectations

Advice to Senior Management

None.

Pros

Good level of salary at Linklaters

Cons

Long hours so work life balance an issue

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Management is generally supportive of employees, good work, good experience in finance and corporate law. Great addition to your CV. Recognises and encourages excellence and creativity.

Cons

Long hours, stress, competitive culture. Cons are similar to those you'll find in any other magic circle/big city firm really. If you don't mind hours and stress,, this is the place for an ambitious young lawyer.

Advice to Senior Management

Not really applicable, they've done quite a good job of keeping employees in the loop and managed the redundancies reasonably well.

Pros

Smart people, quite motivated, and good at what they do

Cons

Unidimensional, work can be repetitive, there is an emphasis on the good work making up for the rubbish, but the amount of rubbish is fairly high.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to be more transparent about decision making

Pros

Great compensation
cutting edge deals
opportunities to go abroad/do secondments to other depts.
great IT and knowhow
significant number of ethnic minorities

Cons

lots of office politics
minorities don't easily make it to the top
partners care more about billing than staff - only care about delivery
if you dont smooze at drinks, you don't progress
you won't know your fate until they tell you, you're fired

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent

Pros

You get to work with clients from a wide range of industries on their most important issues. People are generally smart and driven. The culture is supportive; case teams work together to solve client problems and help one another, with very little politicking within the firm. Great global training programs where consultants from all over the world are brought together in one location for milestone training programs. Career progression can be fast - if you measure up.

Cons

Hours can be long and travel taxing. Very focused on producing results for clients, which can lead to stress and pressure on consultants.

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Linklaters is a top-ranked law firm, and you do have prestige if you work for them. The benefits and pay (including top-tier health insurance, excellent retirement plans, and noteworthy annual bonuses) are among the best you'll find at a law firm. Most of the people are extremely professional and friendly, and HR has clearly made an effort to hire a diverse group of employees. Nearly all attorneys and support staff are exceptionally well-educated and many attorneys hired have expertise in multiple areas or have particular experience beyond a "normal" law school graduate-- ie, significant international experience, community service background, or advanced degrees in other areas along with their law degree.

There is an air of casual camaraderie and teamwork at the firm. Hours tend to be very flexible in times of illness or personal changes, and vacation allowances are very generous. The company is growing at a steady and significant rate and works with some of the biggest corporations, companies and other entities in the world. It has offices scattered around the globe, allowing for a good amount of cultural exchange, work on international projects, and the opportunity to be transferred to other offices for temporary assignments for both administrative and legal staff.

The firm is also heavily involved in community service projects and makes a good effort to promote involvement (fundraisers, walks, collections, emphasizing pro bono work, "green" office practices) among every level of staff. Linklaters also makes efforts to cultivate a "team" feeling with regular meetings among specific sections of employees, a large common room and other amenities such as pantries and coffee on every floor, two annual staff parties, and various social activities. The atmosphere is warm and employees seem generally content.

Cons

The bureaucracy is notable (forms, procedures, and "best practices" policies can be tedious) and things like which software programs are used can seem somewhat lacking compared to other law firms in the U.S. as Linklaters is based in London and often uses European systems and procedures. Some lawyers and staff find this frustrating. Upper management and HR has a tendency to spread important information haphazardly, often letting administrative staff know of important changes last or telling certain groups of attorneys certain information at different times, leading to general confusion over who knows what when, and who can discuss information with whom. HR can be a little too hands-off at times, seemingly leaving day to day evaluations and problem solving entirely up to individual departments (showing a lack of firm-wide consistency) and lacking in a centralized system to share complaints, ideas or concerns anonymously or otherwise.

While a corporate law firm naturally breeds a hierarchical system to a certain extent, not enough is done to ensure that staff and attorneys at lower levels are fairly and equally assigned work, leaving some attorneys and staff desperately swamped, and others literally twiddling their thumbs for days. This hierarchical system, as in many corporate settings, also breeds some mistreatment of newer employees (both attorneys and support staff) by more senior employees at Linklaters, but there is little recourse for complaints beyond simply moving on to another firm. "Politics" among even senior staff is also quite apparent at times, and personality conflicts are sometimes observed to have a detrimental effect on other staff not directly involved in disputes.

There is also a great disparity of knowledge among departments and higher/lower levels of employees within those departments (ie, many staff in one department have very little idea of what goes on in other areas of the firm, and within individual departments little is done to expand knowledge of the department's specialties for administrative and support staff). Administrative/support staff often seem frustrated by the lack of opportunity for career or other advancement along with the small amount of professional development opportunities. Attorneys can appear to be "pigeon-holed" into working on one type of issue, or with one senior attorney or on one particular matter, and it can be difficult to advance to other areas or expand experience beyond a narrow scope.

Advice to Senior Management

--Work on improving how and when information is shared among various levels of staff
--Increase opportunities for administrative personnel to advance and gain professional development experience
--Outline a better plan for division of labor among staff in various departments, and better track who is working with whom, and on which issues to spread assignments evenly
--Eliminate as much unnecessary bureaucracy as possible
--Provide an avenue for employees to give anonymous feedback and suggestions
--Develop stronger learning programs to enhance employees' abilities to form good working relationships amongst each other and improve overall firm success