A leading South West law firm has been ranked among the best in the UK for quality of work, work/life balance, low stress levels and being inclusive. That is according to an influential guide to law firms for legal trainees, which also highlights the level of responsibility given to trainees and the quality of training at the firm.

Stephens Scown LLP features in the Lex 100 survey, which uses feedback from legal trainees from 165 different law firms. The firm has built on its success last year, by being awarded four 'medals' for top rankings, up from one medal last year. It has also increased its scores in nine out of 13 categories.

Some of the comments from trainees highlighted in the guide include that "the firm is very innovative", "there is a huge amount of momentum at the moment" and that "the firm has a great ethos and brand".

The guide also praises the "very high quality of training" and that "partners have a lot of time to review work with you and teach things thoroughly". The fact that "the standard of work is extremely high" and trainees "get lots of responsibility from day one" are also noted.

Stephens Scown, which is the current holder of the UK Law Firm of the Year title from the British Legal Awards, has recruited its largest number of trainees this year. Twenty three trainees are now taking part in the two year graduate training scheme at the firm, with three of them due to qualify as solicitors this year.

>Robert Camp, Stephens Scown's managing partner said:

"The Lex 100 matters because it allows us to understand what our trainees think and how we compare to other firms. The future of our firm relies on attracting the brightest and best legal trainees who are willing to work hard and contribute to the success of the firm, so we put a lot of effort into our training scheme.

The culture at Stephens Scown is unlike any other law firm and we deliberately look outside the legal sector for ideas of how we can improve. We do things differently here. We are the first large law firm to bring in employee ownership, which gives everyone an equal share of the profits. We are also the highest ranking firm in the Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For."

Emma King, graduate recruitment officer at Stephens Scown added:

"We are at the start of our recruitment process for our next group of graduate trainees. Our campaign is called 'Be Yourself, Be Unique' because we want to attract individuals who will bring their own passions and personalities to the role. There is so much scope to get involved in the firm, beyond a standard training scheme: from influencing policy through some of our staff project groups to running fundraising and networking events."

For more information on Stephens Scown's graduate training scheme go to www.stephens-scown.co.uk