Missing out on a training contract with a leading firm doesn't mean you'll never make it to the top. Alex Aldridge meets four lawyers whose careers have veered away from the conventional path

Legal Week research reveals that the number of places offered at the top 30 law firms has fallen by just over 10% in the last three years, dropping from 1,375 places in 2008 to 1,225 in 2010.

Plenty of wannabes will doubtless be disappointed, and in a tough graduate job market they may have to consider training contracts at places they would previously have deemed beneath them, as the passage from top university to top law firm becomes a little less smooth.

Starting out at a lesser outfit isn't always a bad thing, however. Indeed, a look at some of the CVs of the leading individuals in the profession reveals some highly unconventional routes taken to the top.

paul-maher-greenberg-traurigPaul Maher (pictured), now chairman of Greenberg Traurig's London office, struggled to secure a training contract at all. "In those days, firms attended the universities and you submitted yourself for interview. Unfortunately, I was rejected by everyone," he says.

Among the many firms which turned him down was Rowe & Maw, where he would go on to become senior partner in 2003, following the firm's merger with US outfit Mayer Brown & Platt. Eventually Maher secured a place at West End firm Boodle Hatfield, then almost entirely focused on private client work, after one of their first choice candidates pulled out.

"I knew private client work wasn't up my street, but I had a choice of one firm, so I went for it," he recalls.

A secondment to Imperial Chemical Industries' (ICI, now part of Akzo Nobel) legal department two years into Maher's time at the firm, which led to a full-time move, got him into corporate work – and from then on there was no looking back.

"That job shaped my career," says Maher. "Mainly because we were responsible for handling virtually all of the deals the company was working on at the time, and just left to get on with the work."

Several of Maher's ICI legal team contemporaries have also gone on to great things. They include Steve Williams (now general counsel of Unilever), Andy Ransom (now an executive director of Rentokil), Michael Herlihy (who went on to become ICI general counsel) and Neil Withington (now general counsel at British American Tobacco).

richard-youleLinklaters' co-head of private equity, Richard Youle (pictured), is another high-profile lawyer who got off to an inauspicious start. With his options limited by a poor degree result (a 2.2 from Newcastle University), Youle was grateful when Hull law firm Stamp Jackson & Procter offered him a training contract.

After qualifying, he managed to wangle a move to Eversheds' Leeds office – a friend who worked there having put in a good word on his behalf. Two years later, and now definitively set on a career as a corporate lawyer, Youle moved to London to join SJ Berwin's private equity department, before 18 months later joining Linklaters as part of the 2006 lateral hire that saw his boss Graham White brought in by the magic circle firm.

"I've always been motivated and ambitious," says Youle. "But those characteristics express themselves in different ways at different stages of your life. At uni I suppose my energy went into playing football and going out, then after that I realised I had to work, so I focused on my career instead."

Not that he has any regrets about his unorthodox route to the top. "Stamp Jackson & Procter taught me a much more entrepreneurial and individualistic approach to delivering client service, which has held me in good stead throughout my career," he says.

Youle's career has parallels with that of ex-Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft partner Justin Bickle, now senior vice president at Oaktree Capital Management. The first member of his family to go to university, Plymouth-born Bickle didn't even consider applying to large London firms for a training contract. "I lacked confidence, I guess," he says. "But I also love the West Country dearly and didn't want to move away."

Starting out with Foot & Bowden (now Foot Anstey Sargent), Bickle cut his teeth on a mixture of legal aid, crime, family, conveyancing and insolvency work – learning "valuable entrepreneurial skills" of a type he doesn't think he'd have acquired at a larger firm. It was insolvency work which he found most interesting, with this specialism seeing him move to Bevan Ashford (now Ashfords), where he focused on bankruptcy and directors disqualification cases. Then, aged 30, he decided to have a shot at the big time, registering with a City of London headhunter.

Turned down by a magic circle firm for being too old, Bickle's break came when the head of Cadwalader's fast-growing London restructuring team granted him an interview. Having convinced him that he was prepared to put the hours in, Bickle got the job – the interview lasting little over 15 minutes.

nigelhewitsonnortonroseNot all lawyers begin their careers at law firms. Norton Rose head of planning Nigel Hewitson (pictured) is one such example. Hewitson started out with Harrow Council, where he went on to spend 19 years.

"I suppose I was just not interested in City law at that stage. My interest was in planning law," he says. But during the late 80s and 90s corporate clients became increasingly involved in planning-related matters, bringing Hewitson into contact with lawyers at the major City firms. "The more I worked with these people, the more I thought, 'I could do that'," he says.

So when an opportunity came up to join Howard Kennedy in 2006, Hewitson – who'd by this stage moved on to English Heritage – grabbed it, before securing a move to Norton Rose a year later. While he enjoys being a partner in the City, he feels that the environment isn't always the healthiest for trainees. "As a junior lawyer at Harrow Council I handled my first planning inquiry when I was just two-years qualified – something which would be unimaginable in a City firm.

"Alongside that I had a lot of access to senior people, which does wonders for your confidence. Sometimes I wonder how we expect junior solicitors to develop given the level of hands-on experience they get," he comments.

Missing out on that glamourous City training contract may not be the disaster it seems.