Penningtons Manches Cooper
Interesting selling points
- Broader range of practice areas than many classic City firms, with teams dedicated to family law, clinical negligence, immigration, personal injury, private client, residential property, and reputation management (as well as the usual finance, corporate, intellectual property etc. departments).
- Caters to a diverse range of sectors, including charities, education, life sciences, retail, social housing, sports and entertainment, sustainability, private wealth, real estate, shipping, technology, and financial services.
- Small trainee intake could offer the opportunity to earn more responsibility and forge closer professional relationships with colleagues.
- Recent merger has extended the firm’s international reach to a total of 13 offices, including Paris, Oxford, São Paulo, and Singapore. This demonstrates the firm’s ambition to grow.
- Notable clients include Jimmy Choo, Tough Mudder and IKEA.
- Initiatives such as providing free legal advice at the Citizens Advice Bureau, collaborating with the Environmental Law Foundation, and supporting local community schemes demonstrate the importance of corporate social responsibility to the firm.
- Prioritises diversity and inclusion through initiatives including the EMpower programme, Pennclusion and appointing a number of mental health first aiders within the firm.
We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.
Practice areas / services
Penningtons Manches Cooper is a full-service law firm, with a broad range of practice areas including:
- Banking and Finance
- Commercial
- Commercial Dispute Resolution
- Construction and Infrastructure
- Corporate
- Corporate Tax
- Data Protection and Privacy
- Employment
- Immigration
- Insurance and Reinsurance
- Intellectual Property
- International Trade
- IT and Telecommunications
- Marine, Trade and Energy
- Pensions
- Real Estate
- Regulatory Compliance
- Restructuring and Insolvency
- Clinical Negligence
- Court of Protection and Deputyships
- Employment
- Family Law
- Holiday Accident Claims
- Immigration
- Personal Injury
- Private Client and Tax
- Reputation Management and Privacy
- Residential Property and Conveyancing
Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Penningtons Manches Cooper its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Family/Children Law, Real Estate: £10-50 million, Family/Matrimonial, Intellectual Property, Real Estate Litigation, Clinical Negligence: Mainly Claimant and Information Technology. See here for more information
Key sectors / industries
Penningtons Manches Cooper services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:
In addition, Penningtons Manches Cooper services the following industries: charities; education; financial services; life sciences; retail; social housing; sports and entertainment; and sustainability.
Work
Penningtons Manches Cooper is consistently involved in interesting, complex cases. Examples of projects include:
- Jimmy Choo: The firm acted for Jimmy Choo in a number of Community Unregistered Design Right cases, which involved the infringers paying significant damages and legal costs.
- Tough Mudder: Penningtons Manches Cooper worked together with BM Advisory to preserve the business of the renowned obstacle and mud race Tough Mudder in the UK, advising on the acquisition of the business and assets of Tough Mudder UK to US rival Spartan.
- IKEA: The firm helped IKEA negotiate a settlement after a third party infringed on its trademarks and advised on an application to the Company Names Adjudicator for unauthorised use of IKEA in a company name.
Older examples
- Care First: A corporate team from the firm advised on the sale of Midlands-based Care First and Respite Breaks to Outcomes First Group.
- Newsquest Media Group: Penningtons Manches Cooper acted for one of the UK’s regional media groups on its acquisition of Archant Community Media Ltd from Rcapital.
- Pareto FM: The firm represented the founding shareholders of Pareto FM on the £18 million management buyout of the Oxfordshire-based facilities management business.
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Headquarters: London, 125 Wood Street
Offices: Penningtons Manches Cooper has 13 offices in a variety of locations. A few examples include Paris, Oxford, São Paulo, and Singapore.
Insights, internships and other opportunities
Penningtons Manches Cooper provides a number of opportunities to gain an insight into working life at the firm. A short film released by the firm provides a casual idea of the trainee experience with Penningtons Manches Cooper. For a more formal insight into the firm, Penningtons runs its vacation schemes at various points throughout the year. These programmes aim to provide attendees with experience of working on real assignments, as well as collaborating as a team and attending meetings.
Training contract
Penningtons Manches Cooper offers a four-seat training contract, with each seat lasting six months. The programme is designed to offer trainees a breadth of experience and a significant amount of exposure to projects and clients. During the two years, trainees are provided with regular feedback and receive support to ensure their career aspirations and interests are met.
Secondments
Penningtons Manches Cooper offers its trainees to chance to undertake secondments with some of the firm’s clients. An example of a previous placement is with the British Athletes Commission.
Technology and innovation
As a “forward-thinking” law firm “delivering imaginative and incisive advice”, Penningtons Manches Cooper has introduced a number of innovation solutions to optimise its work. Some examples include:
- PennSIFT: The data transfer action reporting service supports organisations facing new essential UK/EU compliance requirements relating to the cross-border sharing of personal information.
- Settify: This custom-built tool uses artificial intelligence to interact with clients making enquiries for the first time, providing them with relevant initial information and preparing a brief of instructions for lawyers.
Penningtons Manches Cooper values the “opportunity to give something back to the communities” in which the firm works. This is reflected in the CRS initiatives followed by the firm, some examples of which include:
- RCJ Citizens Advice Bureau: Lawyers from Penningtons Manches Cooper regularly give free legal advice to individuals on a range of issues at the RCJ Citizens Advice Bureau.
- Environmental Law Foundation: A number of cases are referred to the firm annually through the Foundation which provides pro bono advice on planning and environmental matters affecting communities.
- United Legal Access: The firm partnered with the social justice organisation United Legal Access to provide free legal assistance to people submitting claims to the UK government’s Windrush Compensation Scheme.
Diversity and inclusion
Penningtons Manches Cooper believes that “a diverse workforce generates vitality” for the firm. To support such diversity, the firm has introduced a number of D&I initiatives, including:
- Pennclusion: The firm’s diversity, equity and inclusion programme is referred to as Pennclusion and consists of six committees: age, disability and mental health (including neurodiversity), gender, LGBTQIA+, race and faith, and social mobility. These committees host events and raise awareness of various issues.
- EMpower programme: Penningtons Manches Cooper runs an EMpower programme for first year law students and penultimate year non-law students from a Black heritage or ethnic minority backgrounds. It provides them an opportunity to get to know the firm and better understand the culture.
- Mental Health First Aiders: The firm since 2018 has recruited and trained over 30 mental health first aiders and mental health champions.