Pinsent Masons rolls out revamped bonus scheme

The new scheme, which is being rolled out to apply throughout FY15/16 in the UK, will see the firm's overall budgeted bonus pot doubled relative to the prior year.

It comes in the wake of a refresh of the firm's strategy in 2014 which saw greater emphasis placed on finding innovative new ways to deliver legal services and enhance client relationships, and in so-doing win a greater proportion of transactional mandates.

Over recent years the firm has launched several cutting-edge solutions including Vario, the flexible legal resource hub, SmartDelivery, a comprehensive legal service delivery solution, and the Pinsent Masons Project Management Methodology toolkit, which is being applied in major disputes and transactions. In August the firm announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Cerico, an online regulatory compliance solutions business.

Pinsent Masons lawyers and support staff will now be assessed on a broader range of criteria. Those who can demonstrate excellent client service and relationship management, including through innovative approaches to the design and delivery of legal services, will be eligible for a new bonus pot.

Richard Foley, Senior Partner at Pinsent Masons, says:

"Pinsent Masons has never been afraid to do things differently. We take the view that innovation is about more than finding ways to make an old model fit a new world, it's about fundamentally re-examining what legal solutions we provide and how. Our most successful innovations to date have not come from sending people off into a darkened room to create products, but by creating a culture in which our lawyers are encouraged to really understand the client and develop propositions accordingly. We want to engage everyone in the firm to think creatively about how we can bring additional value to our client relationships."

Jonathan Bond, Director of HR and Learning at Pinsent Masons, says:

"We've increasingly found ourselves in a position where clients have been demanding greater cost certainty on one hand, while on the other our principal means of measuring lawyer performance has been looking at metrics like utilisation. Under the new scheme our lawyers will still be rewarded for putting in the hard yards, of course. However we are simultaneously encouraging them to think holistically about the client relationship and how they can help the client achieve its objectives."