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&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;Vault&amp;#8217;s law firm rankings won&amp;#8217;t be released until later in the summer, but I don&amp;#8217;t think it&amp;#8217;s giving too much away to say that those &lt;?xml:namespace prefix=&quot;st1&quot; ns=&quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags&quot;?&gt;&lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;U.K.&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; firms with a substantial &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;U.S.&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; presence&amp;#8212;Clifford Chance, Freshfields, Allen &amp;amp; Overy, Linklaters, Lovells&amp;#8212;aren&amp;#8217;t exactly struggling. In fact, the ascension of the &lt;st1:street w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:address w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;Magic Circle&lt;/st1:address&gt;&lt;/st1:street&gt; firms in terms of prestige has been one of the survey&amp;#8217;s most striking trends over the last few years.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;?xml:namespace prefix=&quot;o&quot; ns=&quot;urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office&quot;?&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;This trend is even more remarkable when one considers what a rocky start these firms had, particularly the largest of them all, Clifford Chance.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;First, there was Clifford Chance&amp;#8217;s acrimonious union&amp;nbsp; with Rogers &amp;amp; Wells,&amp;nbsp;followed swiftly by&amp;nbsp;the self-inflicted PR debacle known as the &amp;#8220;Memo Scandal.&amp;#8221;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Back in 2002, in response to the firm&amp;#8217;s perennial cellar-dweller status in the American Lawyer&amp;#8217;s survey of associate satisfaction, the firm commissioned an associate-authored memorandum summarizing the associates&amp;#8217; gripes.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;To the surprise of no one, except perhaps Clifford Chance, the memo was leaked and rapidly made the rounds of &lt;st1:state w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;New York&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:state&gt;&amp;#8217;s legal community.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Most of the complaints catalogued in the memo were fairly typical for big time firms: partner favoritism and indifference, inadequate perks (&amp;#8220;no free shoeshines!&amp;#8221;), and insufficient training.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;The portion concerning billable hours, however, was a bombshell: some associates suggested that they felt pressure from partners to pad their hours.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;(Rumors of fraud = bad for business.)&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;For the next couple of years, the memo scandal was, for many law&amp;nbsp;students and young associates, &lt;i style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-style: normal&quot;&gt;the&lt;/i&gt; salient fact about Clifford Chance-NYC. So kudos to the firm for climbing out of that hole.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;In&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;the wake of the scandal, the firm took on morale issues head-on, going as far as&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;installing a &amp;#8220;people partner&amp;#8221; to work on increasing retention. &lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;David Childs, the firm&amp;#8217;s managing partner told &lt;i style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-style: normal&quot;&gt;The American Lawyer&lt;/i&gt;,&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;#8220;Her sole role is to look after people.&amp;#8221;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;They&amp;#8217;ve done something right: In the AmLaw 2007 midlevel satisfaction survey, the firm&#39;s &lt;st1:state w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;New York&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:state&gt; office ranked&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;10th out of 81.&lt;span style=&quot;COLOR: windowtext; TEXT-DECORATION: none; text-underline: none&quot;&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in&quot;&gt;&lt;o:p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/o:p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;But of course providing a happy place for associates is hardly the point of a modern law firm.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-style: normal&quot;&gt;&lt;i style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-style: normal&quot;&gt;The Lawyer&lt;/i&gt; &lt;/i&gt;recently revealed some truly amazing statistics on the financial growth of &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;UK&lt;/st1:country-region&gt; law firms: Since the turn of the century, the average PEP of the &lt;st1:country-region w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;&lt;st1:place w:st=&quot;on&quot;&gt;UK&lt;/st1:place&gt;&lt;/st1:country-region&gt;&#39;s top 30 firms has grown by just under 93 (!) per cent.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;As &lt;i style=&quot;mso-bidi-font-style: normal&quot;&gt;The Lawyer&lt;/i&gt; puts it: &amp;#8220;The explosion in profitability has caused a seismic shift among the top firms with respect to their recruiting position stateside.&amp;#8221;&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;John Christian, the personnel committee chair for Clifford Chance-US, positively crows: &amp;#8220;We receive resumes almost every day from lawyers who want to come here.&lt;span style=&quot;mso-spacerun: yes&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp; &lt;/span&gt;Higher profits have certainly helped. But the lockstep culture and global reach are also important. I don&#39;t believe any US firm can match our global footprint and collaborative approach.&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p class=&quot;MsoNormal&quot; style=&quot;MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt&quot;&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; -posted by brian&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;; mso-fareast-font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA&quot;&gt;&lt;v:shapetype stroked=&quot;f&quot; filled=&quot;f&quot; path=&quot;m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe&quot; o:preferrelative=&quot;t&quot; o:spt=&quot;75&quot; coordsize=&quot;21600,21600&quot;&gt;&lt;img style=&quot;BORDER-RIGHT: 1px solid; BORDER-TOP: 1px solid; BORDER-LEFT: 1px solid; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px solid&quot; height=&quot;95&quot; src=&quot;http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:R7jXptzW6C2l5M:http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/RPrice/Coursedirectory/219/My%2520Pictures--British%2520Empire/British%2520Lion.jpg&quot; width=&quot;126&quot;&gt;&lt;/v:shapetype&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;; mso-fareast-font-family: &#39;Times New Roman&#39;; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA&quot;&gt;&lt;v:shapetype stroked=&quot;f&quot; filled=&quot;f&quot; path=&quot;m@4@5l@4@11@9@11@9@5xe&quot; o:preferrelative=&quot;t&quot; o:spt=&quot;75&quot; coordsize=&quot;21600,21600&quot;&gt;Above: a&amp;nbsp;google image result for &#39;British Empire&#39;&lt;/v:shapetype&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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