Nurturing talent, developing people and giving them responsibility is all in a day’s work at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP).

The open and supportive culture of this City legal firm has already helped it attract more than 100 lawyers since May 2006. BLP specialises in finance, real estate, litigation and dispute resolution, and tax. Clients include blue-chip firms, banks, property companies and public-sector bodies.

Part of its mission is to be a more attractive place to work than its competitors. Employees certainly think it is. People are proud to be associated with the company, earning it an 80% positive score in our survey, and would strongly recommend it to others (81%).

More than one in 10 of the 1,257 employees has been on the payroll for more than 15 years, and nearly one in five for at least a decade. BLP rewards their loyalty with flexible working policies, an attractive remuneration package and good career prospects.

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The company has produced career development frameworks for its lawyers, secretaries and professional support lawyers, and is creating a similar system for all support staff. It funds professional qualifications and gives study leave, and the workforce feel the experience is valuable for the future (78%) and are confident in the leadership skills of the senior management team (79%).

There are biannual performance reviews, but staff don’t have to wait that long to find out what’s going on, with face-to-face meetings and feedback from board meetings cascaded down to employees, who are excited about where the organisation is going (76%) and would not leave tomorrow even if they were offered another job (79%).

Each department has a budget for social events and people help with local community projects. When a secretary was diagnosed with a brain tumour people from across the firm raised funds for her treatment, with BLP matching what individuals brought to the table.

As well as reduced hours and sabbaticals, some associates work remotely from Devon, France, Switzerland and Australia. Employees, 44% of whom earn more than £55,000, are happy with their pay and benefits (70%), which include an extra day’s holiday at Christmas, private medical insurance, profit-related pay and coaching sessions for those going on maternity leave.

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