rockhopper and LS In-house: brilliantly different for a decade
02 July 2024
Lewis Silkin is celebrating 10 years of two of its services, rockhopper and LS In-house, both of which provide high quality and excellent value solutions to clients, and offer flexible, alternative roles for senior lawyers who want to work differently.
Our rockhopper team is made up of senior, experienced employment lawyers who provide low cost, fixed fee HR helpline and Employment Tribunal services. They work remotely from home on different terms to our other lawyers, so they have control over when and where they work and what type of work they do. Many are female lawyers with young children who, through rockhopper, have been able to continue a successful legal career at a top-ranked firm in a way that balances work with their personal commitments. Cost savings are passed on to clients, meaning that rockhopper provides exceptional value as well as top quality.
Our LS In-house lawyers support in-house legal and HR teams with special projects or peaks in work, and also cover absences through secondments. Clients choose from a pool of senior lawyers who can work on-site or remotely, full-time or part-time, depending on clients’ needs and preferences. LS In-house secondees have the benefit of being part of (and therefore fully supported by) the main Lewis Silkin team, including having full access to training, knowledge and insights into employer trends whilst also being part of the firm’s special culture.
When these services were launched ten years ago, the teams providing them were separate, but two years ago we made a strategic decision to bring them together. After the pandemic many clients were requesting secondees who could work from home and part time, which suited the rockhopper lawyers who were already used to this way of working. Lewis Silkin was able to offer those secondments to the rockhopper lawyers, making it easier for us to meet the very high client demand for secondees and giving the lawyers more variety of work and opportunities for personal and professional development.
Creating this combined rockhopper/LS In-house model has been a great success and means that our lawyers have access to a steady flow of varied and interesting work across both services. As one member of the team, Anita Mishra, put it:
The ability to continue to do good legal work, but flexibly and remotely for a really nice and high calibre firm appealed to me. This is truly the best team I’ve ever worked in; amazingly clever and skilled lawyers who are also funny and kind.
LS In-house and rockhopper have both grown significantly over the years and have become an integral part of Lewis Silkin’s employment and commercial practice groups. They have been widely recognised and appreciated by clients across various sectors and industries:
Vice President of People, Gaming Company:
There's no other employment law support I'd consider using. I've used rockhopper in three separate companies now for a reason! The level of support, expertise and pragmatism simply isn't found in any other service of this kind. They're a people-person's dream to work with.
In-house employment lawyer, tech company:
LS In-house is every bit as good as we’d expected.
We’re extremely proud of the achievements of our rockhopper and LS In-house lawyers over the last ten years, and look forward to the continued success and evolution of our offering going forwards.
For further information about rockhopper and Employment LS In-house services please contact Laura Farnsworth.
For further information about Commercial LS In-house services please contact Liz Kilcoyne.