4. The European Court of Human Rights – Photo Block 4. Law Firm.

1. Law firm structure and practice

One factor which plays an important role in the culture of a law firm is its size. Law firms can range from a one-person solo practice (conducted by a sole practitioner) to global firms employing hundreds of attorneys all over the world. A small law firm, which typically engages from two to ten lawyers, is sometimes known as a boutique firm, as it often specialises in a specific area of the law. A mid-size law firm generally has ten to 50 lawyers, while a large law firm is considered to be one employing 50 or more attorneys.

Law firms are organized in a variety of ways, depending on the jurisdiction in which the firm practices. Common arrangements include:

• Sole proprietorship, in which the attorney is the law firm and is responsible for all profit, loss and liability;

• General partnership, in which all of the attorneys in the firm equally share ownership and liability;

• Professional corporations, which issue stock to the attorneys in a fashion similar to that of a business corporation;

• Limited liability company, in which the attorney-owners are called "members" but are not directly liable to third party creditors of the law firm;

• Professional association, which operates similarly to a professional corporation or a limited liability company;

Limited liability partnership (LLP), in which the attorney-owners are partners with one another, but no partner is liable to any creditor of the law firm nor is any partner liable for any negligence on the part of any other partner. The LLP is taxed as a partnership while enjoying the liability protection of a corporation.

Anchor Robbins’ resources and expertise

1.1 General details

Personnel

282 personnel including 38 partners, 62 solicitors, 12 other lawyers, 14 legal executives, and 10 trainee solicitors, in addition to clerical, secretarial, and support staff.

Structure

We have three specialist areas:

Commercial Property incorporates Public Sector, Construction, Planning and Environment.

Public Commercial comprises Banking, Project Financing, Procurement, Employment and Pensions.

Private Client offers Wills, Trusts and Probate, Tax Planning, and Residential Conveyancing.

Dedicated specialist dispute resolution services are provided within each of the respective areas.

Services

We provide all the services you require. The head of our Projects team, Jan Stephenson, will lead the team providing legal services to you.

1.2 Professional Indemnity Insurance

We have provided full details of our current professional indemnity cover in our Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PPQ). The terms of our cover are reviewed annually.

1.3 Resources and Specialist Knowledge

Expertise and Structure:

Each of our departments contains specialist partner-led teams ensuring that we are able to resource high quality specialist knowledge and provide a comprehensive service to our clients.

Commitment:

We are committed to anticipating our client’s needs and meeting them. Fundamental to this is the commitment of each team leader to understand thoroughly the priorities and business of our clients.

Information Technology:

We have made significant investment in our information technology systems in order to give the support and resources that our lawyers need. Our system enables to transfer know-how into a searchable database using links to cases and legislation, to monitor workloads, measure outputs, and plan ahead more effectively. The stability and security of our system is of particular importance to our clients and to us.

Projects at Anchor Robbins:

The Project team is headed up by Jan Stephenson and brings together specialists in infrastructure, construction, energy, planning, and public sector. The team are able to draw on relevant expertise from elsewhere in the firm when required and have exclusive access to a dedicated Professional Support Lawyer.

The team have had extensive experience in handling PFI (Private Finance Initiative) since its very beginning and have been involved in a considerable range of accommodation projects including schools, hospitals, courts, and light rail projects.

We’re a relatively commercial firm. We’re what’s known as a law boutique, since we specialise in two areas of the law: Real Property and Debtor-Creditor. Since we’re specialists, we try to maintain high standards in our work. Well, the firm is headed by the two senior partners Mr Robertson and Mr Michaels. They founded the partnership 30 years ago. They’re still quite active, especially with the older clients, but the day-to-day affairs and the finances of the firm are managed by the full partners, that’s Ms Graham and myself. We also oversee two departments. But a salaried partner is in charge of each of them.

Well, in the Real Property Department, there are three associates who report to the partner, and they’re assisted by two paralegals. In the Debtor-Creditor department, there are two associates and two paralegals. There’s also one secretary for each department who basically assists the partner who heads the department, but who does on occasion do work for the associates as well, since they’re responsible for all the clerical work that needs to be done. Of course, there are always summer associates or clerks working at the firm, on average four of them, just during the summer, but also during the term breaks.