Travers Smith

Travers Smith Profile & Stats

Travers Smith manages to punch well above its mid-market weight, landing knockout deals without the advantage of a network of international offices. The firm has resisted temptation to grow too quickly, instead remaining with around 275 lawyers, and focussing its attention on getting the very best deals that a firm of its size can handle. Travers Smith is a full-service firm with a propensity for corporate, banking, financial services, private equity, M&A, and tax, but strength in depth in other areas too – their litigation department won "The Lawyer's" Litigation Team of the Year Award in 2011, and the real estate team was ranked second in their category. Travers Smith is applauded for its laid-back ethos and working environment in what is a notoriously demanding industry.

Travers Smith is one of the oldest law firms in the City, in fact one of its earliest partners drafted the constitution of the first Stock Exchange, in 1801. The firm took its name from its senior partner, in 1851, Joseph Travers Smith, whose clients included the Westminster Bank. The arrival of Stephen Braithwaite, in 1873, brought a change in name to Travers Smith Braithwaite; however, the firm truncated its title back to its original moniker in 2005. Despite its long history, the firm has remained monolithic, growing without acquisition or merger – something that very few law firms worldwide can claim.

While much of the City went expansion-mad in the 1990s, Travers Smith bucked the trend by maintaining its focus on the London market. All along, the firm has emphasised cautious organic growth in order to preserve its preciously guarded culture – one of its major selling points when it comes to recruiting new talent. However, the firm does have a small liaison office in Paris staffed by UK lawyers. On the international front, the firm has a trusted policy of ‘best friends’ that has seen it build up excellent relationships with independent corporate firms across the Continent, Asia and North America.

This ‘best friends’ network is fastidiously maintained, with lawyers seconded back and forth at regular intervals, and partners racking up the air miles visiting potential colleagues. In fact, 45% of Travers Smith’s deals involve cross-border advice, so it’s probably fair to say that this system appears to be bearing fruit.

Although it’s no pushover in the M&A field, the firm’s mainstay practice is private equity, and Travers Smith was one of the first firms to appreciate the huge potential that involvement with this lucrative sector could bring. The firm boasts an impressive roster of clients, including Barclays Private Equity, 3i, Bridgepoint Capital, Pinewood Studios, Shepherd Neame and Channel 4.

Prospective lawyers choose Travers Smith because of its relatively small size, which guarantees that even trainees are given lots of responsibility from the start. Another attractive prospect is how the actual office is set up – trainees, associates and partners sit together so the level of on the job training is very high. Though employees at Travers Smith commend the firm for this flat hierarchy, there still seems much to be done on the diversity front, though the firm is actively addressing this. But everyone agrees that the collegiate atmosphere is one of the pluses of working at the firm.

Travers Smith makes a good contribution to its community and has a healthy commitment to pro bono work. The firm has acted on a number of death row cases for the Caribbean Capital Cases Committee, and has taken on cases from the Bar Pro Bono Unit. Other examples of pro bono work have included advice to St Bart’s Church, Macmillan Cancer Support and Coram. Trainees in the litigation department are encouraged to take on their own pro bono cases through the Free Representation Unit and all trainees can participate in the drop in legal advice clinics run by the firm at the Paddington Law Centre. There are also opportunities to join the firm's “Reading in Schools scheme” helping children in a Tower Hamlets primary school learn to read. Employees have even done a sponsored climb of Mt. Everest, helping to raise money for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust.

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