A guide for clients
Awards and achievements While it’s about you, not us, we are still very proud of our work and our people and for being recognised by our industry peers. Here’s a glimpse of some recent awards in our trophy cabinet ... • Named for a record 19 years running in Best Companies to Work For. • Named as the winner of the Disability Inclusion award at the UK Diversity Legal Awards 2021. • Ranked in the top four of RollOnFriday’s Best Law Firms to Work At for the last six years, winning in 2018, 2019 and 2020. • Ranked in the Thomson Reuters top 20 UK Law Firm Brand Index 2022.
As many clients will testify, too many lawyers deliver the required legal expertise but fail to deliver outstanding client service. Which is why we always listen to our clients and constantly ask ourselves what we can do to deliver the results and care you expect. The answers are hardly rocket science. You expect a close and attentive working relationship, with a team that is responsive and available when you need them. You also want clear, pragmatic and commercial advice tailored to your needs, and transparency and certainty on costs. We completely agree. That’s why every day, through our culture, our approach and our people, we are committed to delivering the outstanding results and service our clients expect of us.
Claire Clarke Managing Partner
Justin Ripman Senior Partner 3
Achieve more. Together.
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You will often hear us say “Achieve more. Together.” Yes, most law firms talk about teamwork and collaboration. But this is not simply a catchphrase or a description of our approach, it’s the very cornerstone of our culture and how we work. We understand that it is all too easy to focus on the technical detail of the law and ignore how it is delivered, which is often the only part that our clients see. This is why we focus on getting our culture right. A culture that is as much about our attitude and how we work with you to achieve your goals, as it is about what we deliver. So what does our culture mean to you? Quite simply, we believe strongly the right culture will naturally produce outstanding service, delighted clients, and committed and happy staff. True collaboration, whether across our sectors, offices, or even different jurisdictions, will always produce the right people and expertise. Having respect for each other is one of our key values and is reflected in our extensive diversity and inclusion policies where we go above and beyond to always keep improving. We do everything we can to help all of our people thrive. We also think our culture explains why we are the only law firm in the country to have been named in the Best Companies to Work For list for a record 19 years in a row and why, in our latest staff survey, 97% of our people said that they would recommend us as a good place to work.
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How we will work with you Clients don’t just come to us for legal advice, which is why we measure our success as much by how our legal services are delivered as by the legal answers we provide. Matters that may well be complex and highly specific require careful collaboration and management across many strands of activity, teams of lawyers and advisers, and various sectors and jurisdictions. Our challenge is to offer the best advice and the highest standards of quality and care, seamlessly managed, reported and delivered at the right price.
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We plan, we manage, and we deliver We will listen and take time to understand your objectives and concerns, the scope of work involved and your appetite for risk. We will agree shared outcomes and a plan that breaks down the project into clearly defined, estimated and managed stages. It’s then time to get things done. We will follow the plan, stay flexible and always keep an eye on the budget. You will have a dedicated project manager to keep us on track and you informed. At the end, we will review what worked and what didn’t, in key areas such as planning, communication, reporting and billing to continually improve our service and your experience.
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And we’re always there when you need us To develop strong, successful personal connections with our clients, we know it’s vital for us to be available when you need us, and for our communication to be as useful, relevant and clear as possible. That’s why we will agree with you from the start how and when you will be kept informed. We will always provide you with regular updates. If we say we’ll call, we will without fail. As a firm that constantly uses innovation to improve its products and services, we will always look for opportunities to use technology to improve our communication – such as best-in-class online information sharing and collaboration technologies, live matter dashboards, document automation and transaction monitoring software.
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We listen well Every lawyer knows that understanding their client’s needs is an essential part of the service. Where our lawyers differ is in how they put that into practice. Too often, instead of really listening to what you are saying, lawyers arrive primed with a range of legal services, eager for you to stop talking so they can offer the advice they think you need. In our experience, what matters to you more is the way that we listen. Because it’s only by listening that we can understand your priorities and expectations, and provide you with the best possible advice and support. It sounds simple doesn’t it? But it isn’t. It takes time, patience, the right people and a genuine interest in our clients and their business to listen well.
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And only then, we speak What our clients want is straight advice, an honest assessment and a clear plan for the future. And it’s only now that we understand your needs, that we are able to do just that, by providing clear, timely, commercially relevant and jargon free advice. We work hard to build deep, long-standing relationships with strong personal connections so that our clients can appreciate us not just as their lawyers, but as a trusted sounding board. So when we’re working on a long-standing matter, our knowledge, understanding and value help us go that bit further. We are able to anticipate and tailor what we do to a specific context, identify future trends and needs, avoid potential issues before they arise and make the most of opportunities. We add value rather than merely reacting to events.
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The service, your solution and our fee Costs matter to our clients. We understand you often have tight budgets and limited resources, and that you need a clear idea of how costs are calculated and where you are with the budget, prompt and accurate billing, and control over the services you are paying for. Above all, you want value for money. As lawyers, it’s tempting to think that you are talking about our legal expertise. The more expert we are, the more you will be prepared to pay. But often what you consider to be of ‘value’, what you are prepared to pay for, is not just the legal advice we provide but the additional know-how we can offer by really understanding your business, sector and market. It’s also the attitude and attentiveness of our people, the access you have to and communication with our team, and the overall experience of the service that you receive. Our challenge is to understand the best we can do for you and your organisation and how we deliver that at a cost that is acceptable and achievable. Which is why we always approach costs from your point of view, by being open and transparent, explaining clearly from the start what we are charging for and why.
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And the value that we add Where we can, we are proactive in discussing alternative fee arrangements. We do this by sharing estimates, monitoring progress and getting approval for anything not in the initial scope of work. Financial reporting will be as clear and timely as we can make it, and we will provide you with simple and secure access to your financial information and billing profile, with appropriate levels of detail, including weekly updates if that’s what you want. And when changes do happen, often with knock-on costs, we will be up front with you and not carry on regardless. We always look at ways to lower costs, for example by using technology or outsourcing low-value work, and for clients with an in-house legal team, we assess what you can do yourselves. And finally, you will be billed promptly and appropriately. You won’t receive the invoice a long time after the job has finished or, indeed, before we have done anything.
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Bright minds. Great ideas. We call ourselves a modern, dynamic and thoughtprovoking law firm. And deliberately so. When you meet us, we don’t want you to just see good lawyers, but passionate, interested and approachable experts – delivering highly innovative solutions and legal thinking.
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We use innovation to create practical solutions Improving the delivery of legal services is at the heart of Mills & Reeve’s innovation strategy. We link our strong culture of collaboration with the technology and resources to make change happen. We innovate continuously, always looking for new ways of creating and introducing products and solutions to help you. Here are just a few examples: • Day-to-day clients benefit from our market-leading technologies, such as our multi-functional and awardwinning end-to-end case management tool. • We use app building technology to create both internal and external solutions. Our first client facing app “Life Questions” was built in response to the Covid-19 pandemic to support front line NHS workers. • Our legal process and innovation experts collaborate with lawyers on complex or unique projects through process design workshops. • We offer non-advisory services to help solve business problems. A recent example includes our innovation team providing a legal tech and innovation insight session to a large organisation to support their own innovation journey.
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And our ideas and insights to deliver client value We are also one of the UK’s leading thought leadership law firms, delivering value by creating ideas and insights across a range of sectors. For instance, following research commissioned with YouGov our family and matrimonial team launched the Cohabitation Law website, a first of its kind resource for the UK that examined the common myths and legal issues faced by cohabiting couples. We recognise the increasing importance of ESG (environmental, social and governance), and the fast developing nature of this area, and can help you keep pace with the changes, challenges and opportunities. With our cross-sector expertise, our team can help you from finding sustainable finance, to developing green contracts and building towards net zero. All these campaigns demonstrate the depth of knowledge of our sector-specialist lawyers and lead to insightful, profitable conversations with our clients and industry leaders.
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All about Mills & Reeve We are the only law firm in the UK top 100 to have consistently grown profit and turnover each year since 2002
Ranked in the top four of RollOnFriday’s Best Law Firms to Work At for six years running, winning in 2018, 2019 and 2020
Our UK office locations – Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds, London, Manchester, Norwich and Oxford
More than 1,100 staff and just over 600 lawyers.
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97% of our people would recommend Mills & Reeve as a good place to work
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Insurance Life sciences Mid-market Private wealth Real estate investment Sport Technology
Sectors
• Automotive • Charities and social enterprise • Education • Energy • Food and agribusiness • Government • Health and care
A top 40 UK law firm
We have been named for a record 19th year running as one of the Best Companies to Work For
We work for 50 private clients worth more than £50 million each
More than 30% of our work is international. We work across 119 international jurisdictions in over 30 different languages
Our Charitable Trust provides financial support to a wide range of good causes every year
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Mills & Reeve is centred on achieving more for clients, their businesses and the wider communities we serve. Our clients and their industries benefit from our knowledge and learning – on everything from wellbeing, diversity and inclusion to global trends. The wider community benefits from a focus on sustainability in client and business decisions. Clients get a consistent experience with no surprises – we tell them what they need to know, when they need to know it. Our sector and market expertise helps us understand clients’ issues. And our technology and innovations help them achieve more with less effort. We build personal relationships, with advice individually tailored to individual need. And if clients need things we don’t offer, we draw on our network to give recommendations. Our 1,100 plus people and over 600 lawyers share one vision – achieving more for clients. www.mills-reeve.com