The Legal Profession This Week: Legal Operation Roles at Law Firms​

By Dheepa M​


The Long Term Question - Legal Operations Roles at Law Firms

An increasingly large number of law firms have started offering graduate opportunities across a wider spectrum of legal services. Early last month, Slaughter and May and Herbert Smith Freehills announced the launch of their respective legal operations graduate programmes. This week Addleshaw Goddard also unveiled its graduate scheme within its tech and innovation department (The Lawyer). While the specifics vary from firm to firm, many of these schemes are generally focused on project management and operational skills specific to the legal industry with graduates spending several months at a time in business development, legal technology, client project teams and more.

However, the relatively recent introduction of these programmes creates room for speculation on the long term career trajectory and progression within the firm for graduates. Graduates who join law firms in this capacity are not offered the certainty of yearly progression through the ranks in the same way that trainees and junior lawyers are.

Ashurst may be setting an example here. According to The Lawyer, Ashurst has several employees from the first few cohorts of its legal services graduate scheme who now hold managerial positions within their specialisms, from technology delivery and people management to project management. Ashurst has plans to make these graduate routes more transparent, with clearer communication on career progression and salaries. Similar efforts need to be made at all firms introducing these schemes, to better ensure that its hires are retained and consequently, long-term value is generated for clients seeking more efficient legal services.

‘Business as usual’ – the notable deals and cases which went ahead this week:

Linklaters and Latham & Watkins have taken the lead on Caesar’s £2.2bn sale of UK based betting company, William Hill. Caesar’s acquired William Hill late last year with the intention of only keeping the company’s US operations. The sale was made to 888 Holdings, advised by Latham & Watkins. Linklaters acted for Caesar’s on both the purchase from last year and recent sale (The Lawyer).

Ashurst acted for industrial companies Rolls Royce and Babcock on the sale of their £315m stake in Air Tanker Holdings. CMS took the lead for purchasers, Equitix. According to The Lawyer, Ashurst also has a strong relationship with Equitix from when it advised the infrastructure investor on purchasing a stake in John Laing earlier this year.

T-Mobile Netherlands €5.1 billion sale to Warburg Pincus and Apax Partners is the latest private equity mega deal. Clifford Chance advised Swedish telecoms operator Tele2, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Simpson Thacher advised Apax Partners and Warburg Pincus (Law.com).