Gilbert + Tobin Reviews

Personally, I (mostly) loved my time at G+T. I made great friends, met really interesting people, and worked on some very interesting deals. But plenty of people had the opposite experience. This is mostly a matter of personality fit. If you do your homework on the team you'll be working for, you can avoid mishap. The stories about working you too hard are true, but that will happen at any top firm and you need to expect that going in. Structurally, G+T is a federation. Individual partners collaborate and generally have good relationships, but ultimately run their own fiefdoms. If you land in a good one, you will be happy; if not, you won't. And that can be highly subjective - it will depend mostly on your personality fit with your boss. So definitely, when applying for a job at G+T, insist on meeting with the partner you'll be working for, ideally in a neutral location that allows you to properly scope out their personality and be honest about the deals they are working on. A consequence of that dynamic, which can be very tough for those who fall victim to it, is that if you don't find the right it with your partner or your team, you will feel isolated and unsupported. There is no safety net, and HR won't help you. The culture is also changing. Long ago it was like the wild west in terms of remuneration, rules, work style and culture. That has been changing gradually, and a few years ago a COO was appointed, who has sucked a lot of the life out of the place. This has probably been good for partners' draws, with directly correlated harm for the salaries and benefits for lawyers. The first thing to suffer was the Christmas parties, then biannual firmwide whinge emails about amex use and taxi policy, and then recently before I left, the introduction, in the name of transparency but apparently with the effect of bonus minimisation, of a bonus policy. The result is that increasingly the firm feels like any other law firm. Let's see where they draw the line, and lets see its impact on the type of talent they attract and retain, and their institutional ability to adapt to changes in the market.

Pigeon-holed. Silo team environment (you will only ever do one type of work, for one partner). Very toxic culture. Many very disillusioned colleagues. Many archaic views around women in the workforce in particular. Personal leave not respected (whether it’s for holidays, as a carer or any other reason). Not enough resources. No emotional support. Clients come first at all costs.