As reported by Lawyers Weekly last week, UK website RollOnFriday has conducted an online poll of Australian firms in which respondents were asked a series of questions about their firms. They were asked to provide their own level of qualification, as well as tell how competitive their firm’s pay is. Questions ranged from how easy it is to be promoted to how well the firm treats its staff. But respondents were also asked how they rate the quality of meeting room biscuits, the standard of the firm’s toilets, and how attractive the staff is.

In almost all areas Piper Alderman comes out on top, the results suggest. According to the website, one associate said the firm has a “friendly working environment” and “very competent staff”; another said the firm was sociable; and another simply claimed “I love this place”.

Henry Davis York and Piper Alderman tied on the issue of treatment of staff, followed by Dibbs Abbot Stillman and Maddocks, both on 81 per cent.

On the matter of prospects, Piper Alderman scored an impressive 95 per cent, followed by Maddocks with 81 per cent and Holding Redlich with 75 per cent. At the other end of the scale of firms that offer their staff a future comes Cornwall Stodart with a miserly 33 per cent. DLA Phillips Fox does not do much better with its 43 per cent.

DLA Phillips Fox is the only firm that failed to score above 50 per cent in any category. The firm was given 50 per cent for work/life balance. It was closely followed by Mallesons Stephen Jacques at 48 per cent, and Clayton Utz at 46 per cent.

Those two firms did quite well, however, when it came to meeting room biscuits, scoring 76 per cent and 75 per cent respectively. Arnold Bloch Leibler scored an impressive 100 per cent on biscuits, the highest score achieved in any category by any firm.

In the category ‘most attractive staff’, Piper Alderman scored a high 95 per cent, and Gilbert + Tobin came in second with 82 per cent. Hunt & Hunt, Gadens and Lavan Legal tied third in this category with a slightly less attractive 75 per cent.

In the RollOnFriday results, percentages in each category represent the arithmetical mean satisfaction scores submitted by users (where “excellent” responses were scored as 100 per cent and “very bad” responses are scored as 0 per cent). Overall scores are based on a weighted average of individual category scores using a formula developed by RollOnFriday. Extra weighting was applied to pay, prospects, balance and treatment.

See Folklaw on p44.