Legal stars reveal tales of stacking shelves and packing bags for UK supermarket clients
A light-hearted yet revealing debate has swept across LinkedIn, sparked by a rumour that partners at some of the UK’s most prestigious law firms are made to work shifts on supermarket shop floors as part of their client relationships.
Chris Lee, a real estate lawyer who trained at a global firm, posted: “I was once told that a big UK supermarket makes every law firm on its panel send a partner to do one shift a year on the shop floor. To date, I’ve never been able to verify this… but I really want it to be true.”
What followed was a flurry of anecdotes, confirmations and a fair amount of banter from the legal community.
Vinod Bange, now a partner at Baker McKenzie, added credibility to the tale: “I can confirm — I wasn’t a partner at the time, but I did a shift at a supermarket distribution centre. Partners also helped out in stores during the Christmas rush — stocking shelves and packing bags.”
Meanwhile, former Pinsent Masons solicitor Matt Peacock recalled: “Both Tesco and ASDA did this from recollection… not just the shop floor, but warehousing too. The in-house legal teams joined as well, so it was a great opportunity to talk legal shop while walking a mile in the staff’s shoes.”
Others welcomed the idea. Eversheds Sutherland partner Dave Hughes said he’d “love this,” fondly remembering his own days on a supermarket checkout. Taylor Wessing partner Martin Dowdall joked he’d have relished the chance when he worked for a Premier League club — though, sadly, he was “never asked to fill in at left-back.”
Embed from Getty ImagesYet not everyone was convinced.
James Allen, a former Ashurst lawyer turned mediator, criticised the concept as potentially patronising. “Let’s all go see what the plebs do… One shift a year teaches nothing. It would feel very condescending for those who do it daily. Yes, sounds like just the sort of thing a law firm partner would do,” he wrote.
There’s also the matter of cost. Mishcon de Reya’s Jon Baines highlighted the absurdity of billing rates being applied to such an exercise. “At average partner rates, even with discounts, it would cost the supermarket between £5,000 and £10,000 each time,” he quipped. “Maybe the Premier League would be a better match after all.”
Whether this ‘lawyer-on-the-till’ policy still survives remains unclear, but it appears the practice — or at least variations of it — did exist, particularly in the early 2000s. The initiative seems to have been more than just PR fluff: it helped lawyers better understand their clients’ operations and fostered stronger relationships with in-house teams.
The wider legal world, however, is divided on its merit. For some, it’s a rare dose of humility and empathy-building. For others, it’s a well-meaning gimmick that misses the point.
Still, as the post continues to generate buzz, many agree on one thing — they’d rather be stacking shelves for a day than answering endless emails. As one user put it: “Give me the barcode scanner over a six-hour conference call any day.”
