HJA ranked in 3 Lex100 Winner categories
Trainee solicitor survey ranks HJA a Lex 100 Winner in three
categories ... and firm is likened to Spiderman!
30th September 2011
The 7th annual
edition of The Lex
100 - the student guide to the UK's premier law
firms (2011/2012 edition) was published online today.
Earlier in the year, trainee solicitors in the firm and in law
firms across the country were invited to complete an online
survey.
There were 10 categories and trainees
indicated a score out of 10 as well as left a comment.
HJA scored very well and the highest scores,
(above an average of 8 points) include: job satisfaction (8.4) firm
living up to expectations (8.5); quality of work (8.5); client
contact (8.9); happy work/life balance (8.1); friendly firm (9.2);
and social life (8.4).
Lex 100 Winner
Most impressively, the firm is recognised as a
Lex
100 Winner in 3 out of the 10 categories, (more than
nearly any other firm). This reflects that in these particular
categories, (client contact, social life and friendliness), it is
ranked in the top 20 of all the law firms in the country, a very
respectable achievement.
One of the more light-hearted questions
invited trainees to describe the firm as if it were a fictional
character. The answer favoured on the Lex 100 website for Hodge
Jones & Allen was "Spiderman – friendly, and passionate about
fighting crime and injustice".
The Lex 100 Verdict
The review below is a summary offered by the Lex 100 directory
based largely on the completed surveys.
One of the first legal aid firms, Hodge Jones & Allen is
well known for its service to disadvantaged members of the
community, with human rights work at the top of its agenda. The
mainstays of the practice are crime, family, social housing, personal injury, judicial review, civil liberties, wills and probate. Clients say the firm
'offers a more personable and bespoke service than some of the
other larger firms'. Fifty per cent of work here is still legal
aid-funded.
Trainees are drawn by Hodge Jones & Allen's 'excellent'
reputation and the opportunity to work on a broad range of work
from civil liberties to crime and family. With an interesting range
of seat options (including 'strong personal injury and clinical
negligence departments), the firm has a real commitment to
'fighting injustice' through its legal aid work.
A Lex 100 Winner for client contact, you [trainees] will also
have considerable responsibility and you might find yourself
running your own files from day one. You could also very easily be
'attending a murder trial at the Old Bailey' one day then 'getting
a warrant of eviction stayed on the day it was due to be executed'
the next. You might experience 'doing advocacy at an emergency
hearing at the RCJ' or 'attending a joint settlement meeting'.
Thanks in part to the firm having its own bar, it is a Lex 100
Winner for friendliness ('a very friendly firm with a genuine
open-door policy') and social life ('there are also plenty of
social events'). A firm with a real 'ethos of righting wrongs',
Hodge Jones is an exciting place to train.
View the full review in the Lex
100 website here.