In 2020/21, the second financial year of the COVID-19 pandemic for Mills & Reeve, the firm continued to demonstrate strong performance with turnover increasing 9% to £124.4 million. As a result, it is paying an all staff bonus of over £2,000 for every employee. A person working full time for the whole financial year receives £2,214.60, while the bonus for those with five years’ service or more is £2,443.29. Awards are pro-rated for those working part time or having worked for Mills & Reeve for less than a year.
Claire Clarke, managing partner, believes this success is due to everyone pulling together: “To be able to pay a bonus reflecting our strong performance in a hugely challenging year is a real pleasure. This has been achieved by a lot of hard work from everyone across the firm really pulling together in difficult circumstances showing both the resilience of our people and also the overall strength of our culture.”
Best Company to Work For
Mills & Reeve maintained its focus on employee wellbeing, launching initiatives such as The M&R Kids Club and running webinars on issues including family mental health, bereavement and domestic abuse. Diversity and inclusion continued to be key, with engagement levels in the firm’s race, ethnicity and cultural heritage, LGBTQ+ and disability groups reaching new heights.
Claire Clarke adds: “We’ve done everything we can to help people – being flexible, constantly communicating, and thinking innovatively about how to work. But what has made all the difference is the way our people treat each other, genuinely asking how colleagues are and offering support.”
As a result, the firm achieved its best ever position in the UK 100 Best Companies to Work For list, placing 23rd. Mills & Reeve continue to be the only law firm to have been named on a Best Companies list for 18 years in a row. Based on employee feedback, Mills & Reeve was also ranked as a leading law firm by RollonFriday for the fifth year running.
Going Beyond Law
In this financial period, the firm was also recognised as one of the most innovative law firms in Europe by the Financial Times. Claire Clarke believes in helping clients beyond offering legal advice: “Our Innovate collaboration platform and our helpful apps have enabled us to support people in a much broader way over the last year. Our coronavirus hub and in-depth Building Resilience research are further examples of how we are helping our clients build back better post-pandemic.”
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