Brodies
Interesting selling points
- Brodies is the largest Scottish law firm and is repeatedly recognised as ‘Scottish Legal Firm of the Year’ by the Legal 500.
- It works closely with organisations in the Energy, Financial Services, Food, Drink & Leisure, and Infrastructure, Transport & Logistics sectors.
- Chambers and Partners has awarded the firm Band 1 rankings in Scotland for its Administrative & Public law, Agriculture & Rural Affairs, Banking & Finance, Banking Litigation, Charities, Competition Law, Construction, Corporate/M&A, Data Protection & Information Law, Defamation/Reputation Management, Education: Institutions, Employment, Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas, Energy & Natural Resources: Renewables & Alternative Energy, Family/Matrimonial, Financial Crime, Franchising, Health & Safety, Litigation, Local Government, Planning and Shipping departments.
- Carries out a broad range of private client work, including work relating to child law, family law, divorce, wills, residential property, and personal tax planning, as well as work for organisations, indicating there is more variety on offer for trainees than at many other City firms.
- Notable clients include VINCI Airports, the Accor Hotel chain and the London Universities Purchasing Consortium.
- Uniquely, the training contract consists of eight month seats (rather than the usual four x six-month seats), which could allow you to gain more in-depth experience during each seats (and potentially therefore enable you to make a more informed decision about qualification and better prepare you for life as an associate).
- Training contract seats are in broad areas (e.g. “corporate and commercial”, “personal and family” etc.), suggesting trainees will be exposed to a broad range of work within each team they sit in.
- The firm has its own in-house solicitor advocates, who represent clients in the UK’s highest courts, tribunals and arbitrations (see here).
- Brodies has developed a number of its own technological solutions including Amelior CLM and Workbox.
We cover these selling points in more detail below, alongside other relevant firm facts and characteristics.
Practice areas / services
Brodies provides expertise across multiple practice areas, including:
- Advocacy by Brodies
- Banking & Finance
- Boardroom Risk & Business Reputation
- Changing or Challenging a Will
- Child Law
- Commercial Contracts & Outsourcing
- Competition & Antitrust
- Corporate & M&A
- Dispute Resolution
- Divorce & Separation
- Elderly or vulnerable
- Employment & Immigration
- Environmental, Social and Governance
- Executries
- Family Law
- Family Law: Children
- Family Law: Resolving Disputes
- Guardianship
- Health & Safety
- International Business
- International Personal Matters
- IP, Technology + Data
- Land & Real Estate
- Pensions
- Personal Tax Planning & Compliance
- Power of Attorney & Incapacity
- Public Inquiries
- Public Law & Regulation
- Real Estate Litigation
- Residential Property
- Restructuring & Insolvency
- Tax Implications
- Trusts and wealth structures
- Wills & Estate Planning
Chambers and Partners, a leading analyst of the legal market, has awarded Brodies its highest ‘Band 1’ ranking for the following departments: Administrative & Public law, Agriculture & Rural Affairs, Banking & Finance, Banking Litigation, Charities, Competition Law, Construction, Corporate/M&A, Data Protection & Information Law, Defamation/Reputation Management, Education: Institutions, Employment, Energy & Natural Resources: Oil & Gas, Energy & Natural Resources: Renewables & Alternative Energy, Family/Matrimonial, Financial Crime, Franchising, Health & Safety, Litigation, Local Government, Planning and Shipping. See here for more information
Key sectors / industries
Brodies services a broad range of industries, with some of its highest-value clients operating in the following sectors:
In addition, Brodies services the following industries: Charities & Third Sector, Construction & Engineering, Education, Government & Business, Government & Public Sector, Healthcare & Life Sciences, International Business, Living, Media, Broadcasting & Sports, Real Estate, and Technology.
Work
Brodies works with a number of high-profile clients, including:
- London Universities Purchasing Consortium (LUPC): the firm was appointed to provide legal support to the consortia members across England and Wales. The LUPC supports consortia members in the procurement of goods and services, with its membership extending to universities and colleges.
- VINCI Airports: The firm advised VINCI Airports on the acquisition of the majority shareholding in Edinburgh Airport Limited, the company that owns Edinburgh Airport, for £1.27 billion.
- Accor: the firm represented Accor in the conclusion of long-term branding and management agreements for the Fairmont Lusail and Raffles Lusail Hotel and Residences in Qatar.
Older examples
- Stornoway Port Authority: the firm advised the port authority on its new marina and deep-water port, which is one of the largest ever projects in the Hebrides.
Offices / global footprint / expansion
Headquarters: Edinburgh, 58 Morrison Street.
Offices: The firm has six offices in total, including a branch in the Middle East and an office in Brussels. In the UK, it has offices in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Inverness and London.
Insights, internships and other opportunities
Brodies offers three-week long summer placements. Each placement includes breakfast sessions that give insights into different areas of the business, allocation of a dedicated mentor, and networking opportunities with current trainees. A summer placement can include an assessment for a traineeship with the firm. These placements are offered in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.
For Scottish university students, the firm partners with Entrepreneurial Scotland to offer a 12-week internship programme.
The firm also offers modern apprenticeships for those aged 16-24 across a broad range of areas, including both legal and business services.
Traineeship
Brodies offers a two-year traineeship made up of three eight-month seats. Seats include Litigation, Real Estate, Corporate & Commercial, Banking, and Personal & Family. Trainees benefit from a dedicated graduate engagement contact, a supervising solicitor, and a mentor. Trainees also benefit from a series of in-house workshops to help enhance the development of technical, business and soft skills.
Secondments
Trainees may have the opportunity to undertake an international secondment at either the firm’s Middle East or Brussels office, or undertake a client secondment.
Technology and innovation
Brodies’ approach to innovation centres around providing “Enlightened Thinking” to its clients. Examples of its "Enlightened Thinking” include:
- Enlightened Thinking on Innovation: the firm provides regular thought leadership ideas on innovation in a legal context. These ideas are shared via webinars, podcasts and articles.
- Amelior CLM: This is one of the firm’s technological innovations and it is a contract lifestyle management service made up of Amelior Draft, Amelior Negotiate and Amelior Perform.
- Workbox by Brodies: This is an online offering created by the firm which provides clients with more than 350 HR guidance pages and over 200 templates written by the firm’s leading employment lawyers.
Corporate social responsibility
Brodies is “committed to making a positive contribution to the communities” in which it is based. As such, it is involved in a variety of initiatives, including:
- Brodies Reading Partners: Brodies Reading Partners is a group of 35 colleagues from across the firm who take time out of the business to help primary school children with their reading. It currently supports schools in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
- Back to Tennis with Brodies: Brodies works in collaboration with the Judy Murray Foundation to launch a Back to Tennis programme, which is a free resource designed to give tennis players or those new to the sport a series of fitness and skill building exercises.
- RSA Schools Art Award: The firm has sponsored the RSA Schools Art Awards every year since 2016. This is open to all secondary schools in Scotland and aims to encourage creativity and showcase talent.
Diversity and inclusion
Brodies believes that diversity and inclusion is key to enabling the firm to see the world through many lenses, so is constantly seeking to increase diversity and inclusion. Examples of this include:
- Colleague Networks: the firm has five networks which give colleagues within the firm a collective voice to enable positive change. These networks include the carers’ network, multicultural network, parents’ network, pride network, and women’s network.
- Brodies Family Policy: all colleagues with over one year of service are able to access the firm’s family leave policy, which includes 39 weeks of paid family leave (maternity, adoption and shared parental leave) with up to 26 weeks of full salary, paternity leave of up to four weeks of full salary, time off for fertility treatment, parental leave for parents, grandparents and foster carers, as well as dependent leave.
- Inclusive Email Signatures & Inclusive Language: the firm encourages the use of inclusive email signatures including pronouns, phonetic spelling and working patterns to highlight and support diversity in the workplace. The firm also publishes a guide to promote the use of inclusive language and to encourage colleagues to talk about inclusion and diversity.