Culture that binds

It’s probably true that the firm now, for both of us, does not look any different.” 

Andrew Masraf, recently elected senior partner of Pinsent Masons, is in Scotland as part of a tour of the multinational law firm’s offices (there are 27 in 13 countries, plus a network of associated firms). North of the border he is hosted by head of Scotland Katharine Hardie, who, like Masraf, has been at the same firm, or its merged successor, since trainee days. 

“I remember being challenged once by somebody when I told them I’d never moved firm,” Hardie recalls, “and they said that doesn’t say much about your ambition. I said, ‘I don’t agree with you, because I think we’re ambitious for the organisation that we’re in’. And I want to be part of the growth of this business.”

Shared vision

Indeed, in the 10 years or so since Pinsents’ merger with McGrigor Donald, it has added 100 partners globally (the current total is 480), seen revenues increase by more than half to top £530 million in 2021-22, built a strong presence in continental Europe and established itself in Australia. Its Vario business, a mixture of legal contracting and managed legal services, has grown from a startup eight years ago to £35-40 million turnover this year. It has acquired a reputation for championing diversity, and for spearheading carbon-neutral practices. So how does Masraf justify the statement that opens this feature?

“The big consistent, I think, is the culture, the piece which binds the partnership together.” Attempting to define that, he adds: “My sense is there’s a genuine sense of collegiality, that clients are genuinely shared, as are opportunities. Partners look after each other when we’re looking for opportunities, but when times are tougher there’s a culture of gathering around supporting our colleagues. There’s a real sense of shared vision.”

Culture is reflected in Masraf’s own position, the somewhat unusual one of an elected senior partner. Business-wise, he describes it as a combination of chairman and chief executive, working with managing partner John Cleland on delivering the strategy set by the board. “You are also, and this is much more traditional, effectively seen as the guardian of the firm’s culture, if that doesn’t make it sound too grand. You are the person people look to, to make sure that the decisions being made are in line with our strategy, our values; you’re ultimately the last line of appeal, so it’s quite a pastoral role in that respect.”

It’s a post for which he went through a full election campaign, with numerous virtual or in-person hustings, standing on a platform titled ‘Vision 2026’, reflecting the four-year term of office. Its key strands – the people-centric one of ensuring the firm is relevant to its clients and its people, and the business-focused one of geographic and revenue growth – sound like something the firm itself would produce. Masraf describes it as “really an extension of what we were doing. There’s no radical departure; it was saying that it’s a good and clear strategy, and how can we articulate and refine that for the next four years as a pivot from where we’ve got to”.

Legal services plus

Rather than simply a law firm, Pinsent Masons brands itself as “A professional services business with law at the core”. Why such a focus? That, Masraf explains, is about delivering a coherent and integrated service. “It’s not about offering non-legal services on a standalone basis; it’s the ability to respond to client demand and say we can provide a range of services in the round to deliver what you need.” A team of forensic accountants works on corporate transactions or with the fraud and asset tracing team, while a project management team will support large corporate deals or major litigations. So legal services plus, you might say, rather than professional services as an umbrella of which legal services is one element. 

Scotland in the world

Asked how her role as head of Scotland fits into the firm-wide scheme, Hardie explains that, over the 10 years since the merger, it has evolved from when the late Kirk Murdoch had to ensure the efficient integration of the two firms. Today, “the key part for me as chair of Scotland is making sure that the three Scottish offices remain relevant to the rest of the business” – of which Scotland remains a very significant part. With such a large partnership, “you’ve got to have lots of levers around the business, people who understand everything that’s happening. I feed in to Andrew, and the managing partner, and we work collaboratively to make sure we’re getting the best out of the business, and also the best for clients”. 

“A centralised approach has its limitations”, Masraf observes. “You really have to be on the ground to know what’s going on. That’s why people like Katharine are so important in making sure we’re knitting together.” 

How does Pinsents’ Scottish operation see itself within the business? Hardie has no doubt: “I definitely feel we have a Scottish identity. And I think if you were to ask people in the Leeds office, or Birmingham, they would say the same: they’re a Birmingham-based player and they’re part of an international law firm. Every office has its own feel, so Glasgow is very different from Edinburgh; go down to Birmingham and the sign says Pinsent Masons but it’s how Birmingham wants to be seen in the Birmingham market.”

Masraf emphasises: “Clients want to know that we are operating in the markets in which they are instructing us, and that means we have to remain domestically strong, but with that breadth of capability to reflect a client base which is operating in a range of local, regional, national and international markets.”

At the same time, Scottish based lawyers have “huge opportunities” to be involved in international transactions, or to work in other jurisdictions, or indeed advance to global positions within the firm. Solicitor advocate Jim Cormack KC was recently appointed global head of the Litigation, Regulatory & Tax team, with responsibility for practice group revenues and for more than 260 staff across the UK and six overseas offices. And since our interview, the election has been confirmed of Glasgow-based partner Laura Cameron, already the first female member of the global board, as the firm’s next managing partner, succeeding John Cleland from 1 May 2023. 

Diversity outreach

Since his election, Masraf has been going out seeing general counsel and clients around the country – revealing a notable consistency of conversation, he says. Some of it was not a surprise. “Economic and social challenges, energy security, cost of living has been a theme in every single conversation in every sector”. But beyond that, he says, “Of importance to GCs in all our conversations has been diversity and inclusion, both gender and race and ethnicity: again nothing new there but a consistent theme; and ESG, particularly for corporates and particularly around reporting: many say they are struggling to understand really what standards they are trying to report against, because that isn’t really settled. 

“And perhaps the most interesting theme which has emerged is a real interest in social mobility, particularly looking at – and GCs have articulated it in this way – how do we broaden the reach of the profession to more people?”

It’s a subject on which Masraf believes law firms have a definite role in assisting clients. “Clients are realising it’s a real team effort, because for people from perhaps socially disadvantaged backgrounds, access into the profession is pretty opaque; actually access to the business community as a whole is a bit opaque. So there’s an opportunity for us to work together, to say you can join Pinsent Masons on a schools programme or internship or through an apprenticeship. We introduce these to our wider client base – banks and financial institutions, engineering businesses and construction companies, all of which have legal functions. Don’t feel that your gateway to the profession is a narrow one through private practice. From our own client base, look at what help is out there and who runs these schools programmes and internships and academies. In reality we’re all doing it but perhaps in isolation. The ability to knit that together I think is really quite exciting, and on the face of it seems quite simple.”

At this, Hardie points to a story that recently made the mainstream press – the winner of Pinsents’ latest Kirk Murdoch scholarship, an award for deserving undergraduates, is a single mother who was working as a barista but is determined to join the profession. 

Hardie has noticed a growing trend for graduates to work first as paralegals, pursuing a training contract before committing themselves financially to the diploma. “At the moment, on top of our trainee cohort we’ve got about 16 paralegals in Scotland who are law graduates, doing litigation support, property support, banking support – learning while also getting paid. In addition our Vario group has a lot of paralegals and assistant paralegals who are working either for clients or in our business, and that’s another route for graduates to gain experience. A significant number of our trainees come to us through this route as well.”

“It would be very easy for us to miss talented people coming into the profession if these schemes didn’t exist,” Masraf adds, “because I’ve absolutely no doubt that these are people who are really intelligent, really motivated, will have long and successful careers. They’ve just come through alternative routes and I’d really celebrate that.”

2023 in prospect

Looking to the year ahead with its economic challenges, Hardie points to the energy and renewables sector as continuing to provide opportunities in Scotland, with clients involved in offshore wind projects, new hydrogen developments, energy security, and related corporate deals, and with Aberdeen, her home city, undergoing a major transition from oil and gas. 

Masraf reports a similar picture across the wider firm. “Those examples are there throughout our network, so we can take offshore renewables experience from what we’re doing here in the UK in what were traditionally our home markets, across our network to our clients whether it’s the Middle East or Australia. That’s one of the benefits of this platform, and it’s really powerful.

“I think we go into whatever turmoil 2023 is going to throw up, a pretty well hedged business, geographically and across our skillsets.”

Strategy wise, a key focus for Masraf will be to continue to develop the firm’s presence in Europe, which it has been building since it opened in Paris and Munich in 2012 – one that has been “absolutely validated” by events since the Brexit vote. “The exciting piece is when our colleagues in Amsterdam are doing deals with our colleagues in Munich and Dublin without reference to the UK at all. We’re increasingly seeing those sort of cross-border mandates. It’s a real validation of the quality of people we’ve been able to hire; hopefully it’s a reflection of the strategy as well.”

Partnership: still a vehicle

There are those who view partnership as an outdated business model for law firms, but even at its present size, Pinsents retains it. “It’s one of those things we keep under review,” Masraf confirms. “As our Vario business develops, it’s one thing we will keep an eye on, whether the current structure reflects the needs of the services we are providing. We’ve always found that the existing structure is a really powerful way of reflecting our culture – actually it’s a good question whether it’s the culture that reflects the structure. But essentially we are one global partnership, so there are no vereins, no other contractual arrangements: if you’re a partner in Pinsent Masons you’re a partner in the global firm.” 

He denies finding it unwieldy. “It’s the combination between the executive role and the partnership, so the executive are tasked with setting and delivering strategy, and there are certain things where we will need a partnership vote – the elections are a good example of the partnership having a say in who they want to be led by. Ultimately we are a people business and the people in the room are the senior employees and shareholders and there’s something very powerful about that. We keep it under review because markets change, opportunities change, but we haven’t seen a requirement to do anything different at the moment.”

What advice can our interviewees give to new lawyers starting out at this time? Hardie tells her own new starts not to sit at home on their laptops, but to get into the office and see how the senior lawyers operate. “Learn from them. I don’t think it’s just the legal profession. With all professions, you cannot learn working from home. You’ve got to be around people.”

For Masraf: “One of the interesting discussions is around the O shaped lawyer [featured at Journal, October 2022, 36]. That agility, that ability to say I need a range of experiences, to be flexible, my career will take all sorts of paths and opportunities – be really openminded and think about the opportunities. It’s so easy in our profession that your focus comes nearer and nearer to the things you see on your desk. For me the O shaped lawyer is someone who’s able to listen and articulate how to have a conversation with clients about the macroeconomic picture, or the geopolitical position, just as much as their technical skillset. It’s being openminded and agile.”