RollOnFriday’s survey of Australian Firms reveals that firm of the Year is Piper Alderman. The firm came top of the table by a comfortable margin with a magnificent score of 91%. ……..
ROF write
It’s the second win for Piper Alderman, which also topped the poll in 2007. Last year’s winner Lavan Legal had to settle for second place, with a very respectable 81%.
Piper Alderman scored highly in all categories but did exceptionally well for career prospects and for the treatment of its employees, scoring a record-breaking 99% and a record-denting 97% respectively. Lawyers also praised the firm for the "happy outlook" of its staff and for its legendary Friday night drinks – although whether one is responsible for the other isn’t entirely clear. And with a whopping 96% score for the attractiveness of the firm’s staff, beer goggles are clearly not necessary. As one lawyer put it before passing out with lust, "the best looking staff I have ever seen in my working life. Ever".
Lavan Legal also scored well across all categories, although many contributors singled out the firm’s personal trainer for particularly high praise. And a personal trainer is probably necessary to balance out the free breakfasts / free lunches / free after work drinks. And a special mention goes to founding partner Martin Bennett for being "a text book and a joke book all rolled into one". Thank you Mr Bennett for that contribution to the survey.
Other high scorers included Maddocks, which was praised for its efforts to boost staff morale and for putting the continued supply of Tim Tams ahead of partner profits. However, it fell down on staff pay and promotion prospects for women. Meanwhile, Gilbert + Tobin staff are still convinced that their lives out-glam anyone else, "staff are encouraged to disclose mad partying stories – everyone loves them". Hmmm.
And honourable mentions go to Holding Redlich and Arnold Bloch Liebler. The first achieved a fantastic 99% score for work life balance, with lawyers praising the firm for a "lights out at 6.30pm" policy. The score is particularly impressive given one contributor’s revelation that "a rat once died in the roof cavity and maggots fell from the ceiling".
And whilst Arnold Boch Liebler might have come way down the table, it still managed 99% for the state of its loos. Which just goes to show that, as your mother always said, everyone has something to be proud of.
With a record-breakingly low score, HWL Ebsworth has come bottom …..
The firm scored just 25% overall and had the bottom score for all but one category (it managed an impressive third from last for the state of its bathrooms). It also received the lowest score ever achieved in either hemisphere – just 18% – for the treatment of its staff. Plus a shocking 15% for the attractiveness of its staff. RollOnFriday scientists have diagnosed a slight morale issue.
Complaints poured in about the firm’s atmosphere and badly behaved partners. One lawyer claimed that partners were "more interested in sleeping with their secretaries than doing any work", whilst another moaned that "a partner stole my clients in order to get more equity points". Nice.
The firm’s management was described as a "circle of money hungry sycophants" that stifles all dissent. Apparently, after RollOnFriday published a rumour of proposed redundancies at HWL Ebsworth a memo was issued promising instant dismissal for whoever had leaked the story. Staff are worried that their emails are monitored, and partners live in fear of having their equity slashed. A charitable view would be that things have not yet fully bedded down from the 2008 merger. 2010’s survey will tell whether management can turn things round.
Other firms that did badly include:
Middletons: "work / life balance isn’t possible", "the firm expects a huge number of non-billable responsibilities to be completed even if you’re busy with billable ones".
Gadens: "tends to get quite political", "partners only care about their wallets", "getting involved means giving up Saturdays".
DLA Phillips Fox: "disgraceful IT system, bad office furnishings including a patchwork carpet", "offices and teams generally dislike each other".
Full results at http://www.rollonfriday.com/load.asp?page=story2032a.htm
