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Bryan Cave LLP 
88 Wood Street London EC2V 7AJ
Lex 100 winner
Favoured by 1 users (Register to add this entry to your favourites)

The trainee verdict

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The lowdown (in their own words...)


Why did you choose this firm over any others? 'Good training, good reputation, intimate and friendly'; 'the international nature of the work, the overseas offices'; 'for the type of work'; 'because of the quality of the people working here'; 'my vacation scheme indicated that the lawyers here would make time to teach trainees'

How does your training compare with peers' at other firms? 'We have less formal training but more responsibilities'; 'it compares very well'; 'pretty much the same, there isn't much between all of us'; 'I think we get more autonomy here and more attention because there are fewer of us'

Best thing about the firm? 'The people'; 'the willingness to let you prove yourself and take on new roles'; 'the people and the time they devote to the trainees'; 'the approachability of associates and partners who take time to explain things and offer support' 

Worst thing about the firm? 'Not all staff are willing to give time up for you (minority of staff)'; 'no biscuits for internal meetings'; 'sometimes we can be dropped in at the deep end with not enough support'

Best moment? 'Acting on large scale international M&A transactions'; 'meeting people who I know will remain good friends, attending hearings and being involved on interesting matters'; 'working with some very intelligent people'

Worst moment? 'Spending a long weekend on your due diligence report and seeing the deal cancelled the next week'; 'being blamed for a mistake that was not my fault'; 'not getting enough good quality work'



The Lex 100 verdict

The firm

Founded in 1873, Bryan Cave is an international law firm with 13 offices around the world. The London office was established in 1982 and reorganised in 1999 as a multinational partnership of US and UK lawyers, serving an expanding base of both corporate and private clients in the UK, Europe and the Middle East. The firm has over 975 fee-earners worldwide and acts for a variety of public and private companies, businesses and financial institutions, on a range of corporate, commercial and financial matters. In addition, the London office's private client practice is one of the largest American private client practices outside the US.


The star performers

Top-ranking department according to The Legal 500*EU and Competition; Finance (asset finance and leasing); M&A (smaller deals).

The deals

Acted on approximately 20 M&A deals in 2008, totalling £1bn and ranging from £1m to £500m in size; advising on public international law, particularly in areas such as export controls, sanctions and corruption-related matters; handling international arbitration issues as part of a team with members across the UK, US, Middle East and Far East; acting on complex cross-border litigation; advising US clients residing in Europe on US tax issues.

The clients

Companies in the following sectors: aerospace; chemical; defence; energy and natural resources; financial services; healthcare; technology; telecommunications; transportation and food industries; and wealthy individual private clients.

The money

(from Legal Business magazine)

Turnover in 2008: $469.1m (+14% from 2007) Profits per equity partner: $676,000 (+10%)


The Lex 100 verdict

This is Bryan Cave's second appearance in The Lex 100, as it has only been offering training contracts in London for the past couple of years. The small group of trainees praise their firm for its 'friendliness and intimacy', for the 'quality of the people' and for the good level of responsibility given to trainees. They particularly appreciate that their firm is 'willing to let you prove yourself and take on new roles'. The work has a corporate/finance bias with a large international dimension, including public international law, but there is also a big private client side to the firm, so trainees are exposed to an 'interesting range of high quality work'. While they seem happy with their levels of responsibility, trainees comment again on their desire for increased client contact so that their training feels more complete. Some would also like to see more structured training and feel they could do with more support at times, while others are happy with the informality because it gives them more autonomy. They would also like to see more organised social events and could do with some biscuits in the internal meetings! In general, though, they are pretty happy with the work and the atmosphere - most staff are willing to help and 'devote time to the trainees' and there are 'some very good lawyers to learn from'. If you're looking for a truly international firm, with interesting work options spanning corporate, public international law and private client and you don't mind trying somewhere a little bit less well-known, then Bryan Cave is certainly worth a look.

A day in the life of.....

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About the firm

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