Working at DLA Piper: Building Your Career

Over the last few years we have put a great deal of effort into developing a series of building blocks which support the values of the organisation and the commitment to career management within our organisation.

Our Training and Development curriculum is supported by a sophisticated Performance Management process.  This process is not just about setting business objectives for the coming financial year, but provides an opportunity for individuals to discuss their development and advancement in a structured and transparent way.

The key areas of competency used in the Performance Management process were developed in consultation with our people to reflect the jobs that they do. As a consequence we have clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all our fee earners and business support professionals.

Promotion criteria from Solicitor to Associate, Associate to Partner, and then within the various levels of partnership, are published within the organisation and are strictly merit-based.  We are guided by the following broad principles:

• Solicitor to Associate - promotion to Associate is not simply the result of time served, but instead is linked to increasing responsibility. Promotion to this level recognises the advancement of an individual within the organisation and their increasing contribution to the management and development of the business.
• Associate to Partner - there is no set period of time before which an individual can be considered for partnership but generally three years as an Associate is considered as a minimum before an individual is likely to have developed the relevant qualities. A Partner is expected to develop the business within the framework of group strategies and to support corporate objectives and values.

For business support professionals, the promotion criteria to supervisor, team leader, manager and senior manager are clearly laid out in our roles and responsibilities and are supported by relevant training and development.

We pride ourselves on our meritocratic nature. Time served or "who you know" play no part in an individual's career advancement. Whilst many of our senior management have started their careers as trainees with us, many others in senior management roles have been recruited from other organisations and law firms and have proved themselves while here. The only limits to what people can achieve here are those that an individual places on themselves.

Everybody is a professional within the organisation.  We are all client facing.