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Finers Stephens Innocent LLP 
179 Great Portland Street London W1W 5LS
Lex 100 winner
Favoured by 3 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? 'I was a paralegal here and enjoyed my experiences'; 'due to the range of commercial practice areas, approach to training and reputation'; 'size and type of work'; 'very impressed at the Open Afternoon. West End firm rather than City'; 'good quality work but with early responsibility and opportunity to run with smaller matters'; 'interesting clients'

How does your training compare with peers' at other firms? 'The work tends to be a lot more varied than at bigger firms with more responsibility and client contact'; 'good - we get lots of useful in-house training'; 'we seem to have far more contact with clients, better quality work and generally more responsibility'; 'more responsibility can lead to more stress'

Best thing about the firm? 'It's friendly and small enough that you know most people'; 'level of responsibility at an early stage'; 'the support from assistants and supervisors'; 'size and friendliness of people who work here'; the firm is very committed to our training'; 'quality of work' 

Worst thing about the firm? 'Working for several partners at the same time'; 'you aren't guaranteed to get the seat you want'; 'coffee is hideous'; 'it's open plan - can get noisy and difficult to concentrate'; 'not knowing if you will have the opportunity to experience working in your top-rated seat that you might want to qualify into'

Best moment? 'Working on an urgent Injunction Application just before Christmas'; 'completing a licence that had taken months to negotiate'; 'completing a huge deal in Corporate that lasted well into the night. Seeing how all the work we did got pulled together'; 'seeing a Licence to Assign through from beginning to end and being personally congratulated by the client'

Worst moment? 'Starting our training in the current economic climate has proved a challenging time'; 'spending an entire day scheduling deeds'; 'stress prior to going on holiday each time'; 'working late to compile document bundles for a purchase that did not even complete and not getting thanked for it'



The Lex 100 verdict

The firm

Finers Stephens Innocent has a widely respected media practice and acts for a range of publishing and broadcasting clients. The firm is also known for its commercial property, litigation and financial services expertise, and is praised by clients for its 'practical and business-savvy approach'. The private client department continues to flourish, with trusts and tax work for wealthy individuals a real strength.


The star performers

Commercial litigation; Commercial property; Corporate and commercial; Defamation and privacy; Education; Family; Media and entertainment; Personal injury (claimant); Personal tax, trusts and probate; Property finance; Property litigation.

The deals

Advised Dangerous Films on docudramas Moonshot and Rocketmen; completed around 20 deals with values up to £30m in 2008 including advice to NASDAQ-listed Global Traffic Group on its long-running £14.5m acquisition of a radio business; advised the tenant of large restaurant premises in Sloane Square in relation to its opposed application for a new tenancy.

The clients

CNN; Clydesdale Bank; Express Newspapers; Fashion TV Russia; RBS; Society of Authors; a large number of broadcaster, creative and celebrity clients

The money

(from Legal Business magazine)

Turnover in 2008: £22m (+9% from 2007) Profits per equity partner: £438,000 (+10%)


The Lex 100 verdict

Finers Stephens Innocent is a medium-sized firm with a good range of practice areas and some interesting niche specialisms. Trainees here compare their experiences favourably with peers at other firms, feeling they 'have more varied work, more responsibility and more client contact'. They have good and 'useful' in-house training sessions, but also a lot of on-the-job learning, where 'we get really involved in matters and the chance to work on our own with minimal supervision'. As we said last year, trainees here are happy with the size of their firm, which makes it a friendly and familiar place to work - 'big enough to offer a good variety of work but not so big you would ever feel lost in the crowd'. The location and feel of the firm are important too - Finers is not pigeonholed as City or Chancery Lane and this helps to make it feel less like a standard law firm. Trainees appear to really enjoy the work here - they find the clients 'interesting' and the firm is a Lex 100 Winner for client contact and the work 'challenging and diverse'. The high levels of responsibility from an early stage lead to some trainees finding their training 'more stressful than others' and 'working for several partners at the same time can be quite difficult'. Others agree that 'juggling the workload and balancing the needs of fee-earners' can be hard and 'more support is sometimes needed'. Trainees also comment that it can be difficult to get your first choice seats. These concerns (and coffee which has gone from 'bad' to 'hideous') aside, Finers Stephens Innocent is a good place to try if you're unsure about the City route and keen to get your hands on real work and interesting clients from early on in your training.

A day in the life of.....

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About the firm

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