How do you define 'national law firms'? Brian Marshall, partner at Mills & Reeve, explains

National firms have offices around the country, often including one in London. They're different from regional and City firms in a number of ways, as one national partner points out.

Generally, national firms will have a number of offices around the country. However, not all of these are necessarily ‘full service’ (ie with a wide range of departments so that the office can provide help to clients with all manner of legal problems). Some offices may focus on one or two specialist areas, particularly if these are connected with local business strengths (such as commercial law in London or construction and insurance law in rapidly growing cities). That means that as a whole the firm can be full service but individual offices can offer specialist expertise and an understanding of local issues.

Typical clients of national law firms

Clients can include public sector bodies such as the NHS, government departments, universities and local authorities as well as commercial organisations – the broad scope of national firms, and the fact that they can provide lawyers with local as well as legal expertise, can be an attraction to clients. Because of their size and wide scope of resources, national firms may take on work for national and even international clients as well as local ones. This means that clients can vary enormously depending on the office you work in.

Public sector work is by nature more national and calls for co-ordination between offices, so there is a definite sense of collaboration and of being part of a bigger ‘whole’ for lawyers at all levels. Trainees may not need to travel to other offices regularly but group leaders and sector heads will, and teams from different offices will get together fairly regularly. There are other forms of inter-office ‘glue’, too: there may be firm-wide social and sports events and charity fundraising activities that everyone can get involved in.

Client contact for trainee solicitors

Trainees are likely to get to know clients well; in fact, they may well encounter the same client each time they move to a new seat during their training contract. For example, a higher education client may need advice on establishing new buildings for student accommodation, the exploitation of intellectual property rights and the rights of employees overseas.

Brian Marshall is a partner at Mills & Reeve.