Catrin Griffiths
The Lawyer
I have been editor of The Lawyer since 2000 and in that time have launched numerous products, such as our student title Lawyer 2B, the Hot 100, the Workplace and Diversity Awards (now The Lawyer Management Awards) and the UK200, our annual investigation into law firm finances, as well as leading the transition from a pure print title to a digitally focused product. My interests within the legal sector span from global law firm strategy to diversity and social mobility, and I also have long experience writing about corporate and finance transactions and issues facing in-house lawyers. I speak French and Welsh and I tweet as @lawyercatrin.
Cash alone does not tempt associates
Last year we launched our inaugural City associate attitudes survey. The findings surprised anyone who assumed that junior and mid-level lawyers were obsessed with money; the firms they consistently ranked top were not the stony Wall Street practices but genial internationalists like Baker & McKenzie.
A shortlist of the highest calibre ever
Tough questions to face on trainees
All is volatile among US firms in London
If you were to guess which might be the best-performing US firm in 2020, it could be one that hasn’t even opened yet. Two new US firms in our annual survey - Quinn Emanuel and Ropes & Gray - have been in London for less than five years, but Quinn already tops the London revenue per lawyer (RPL) table with $1.88m, and jointly tops the London revenue per partner (RPP) table with $5.7m along with Davis Polk. Ropes & Gray is the smallest international firm in the top 30, but it ...
BLP management rejig sparks client base shift
BLP shake-up sees firm facing up to a world of changed priorities
Leader: HSF disputes stars crave recognition
The best unfounded rumour of the year so far is that a 20-strong disputes team from Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) approached Latham & Watkins. ...
BLP real estate head MacGregor to hand reins to de Pury
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) real estate chief Robert MacGregor is stepping down from the role next month and will hand over to Chris de Pury.
Are Scottish independents doomed?
Why DWF is nothing like DLA
From New York Mayor to over here
All change in transatlantic referrals
It’s taken a Scot to kick Davis Polk & Wardwell into shape. Tom Reid’s tenure as managing partner is already taking the white-shoe firm into different territory.
Hot 100: bringing hidden stars to light
Welcome to The Hot 100 2013: as you’ll see, this year we’ve devoted a lot of space to our highly anticipated feature.
The rising status of the suit set
Eversheds is an interesting animal. Less evidently political than DLA Piper and rather less prone to dramatic convulsions, it’s always been short on pizzazz and long on execution.
Why bumper fees are still rare beasts
I suspect Colin MacNeill will be a much-envied man this week. In this issue, we reveal that the Edinburgh-based Dickson Minto partner charged a £1m uplift from £750,000 to £1.7m (dependent on completion) acting for AG Barr on its merger with Britvic.
Another year of major litigation
Welcome to our first print edition of The Lawyer for 2013: and as always, we kick off the year with our pick of the top cases.
Did the ground shift for you too?
What a year. 2012 was the moment when so many predictions started to be realised. Just consider the following:
US litigators need London weight
It’s here: this week we’re publishing a preview of our exclusive annual report on global litigation, where we reveal the top 50 firms in the world by revenue.
Partners do protest too little
Lawyers have become a docile lot. The corporatisation of law firms and the increasingly regimented nature of partnership has produced ranks of professionals who tend to do what they’re told.
Who will rid us of the zombie firms?
Since the summer of 2011 there have been 19 mergers involving major UK firms. Not all have been visionary: our lengthy study of the most recent deals examined some of the more questionable dynamics (The Lawyer, 29 October).
Why can't firms just talk straight?
Imagine no head office: it’s easy if you try. No boss in London, management on the fly. Imagine all the lawyers living life in peace… Such is the utopian refrain suggested by the declaration last week by SNR Denton, Salans and Canada’s Fraser Milner Casgrain (FMC) that the merged firm would be “truly polycentric” with no single HQ and simply bursting with diversity.
Firms can ride the LPO wave
A few weeks ago I was chairing a round table discussion of in-house lawyers at Taylor Wessing on the topic of outsourcing. It was, if I’m honest, one of those enjoyable evenings during which many of your assumptions are pleasantly overturned. However, it did rather confirm my suspicion that in-house lawyers and private practice are two cultures divided by a common language.
LPOver and out?
The trend for unbundling legal work is advancing through the law firm ranks but there is still resistance in some quarters - namely in-house. We asked why
Hiding the truth is not media’s job
To listen to former Schillings partner Gideon Benaim, you might be forgiven for thinking that every member of the media is enrolled among the forces of Lucifer.
200 nuggets of gold
Magic circle’s lost property mojo
What do you do with a practice area whose margins do not match the rest of the firm’s? As James Swift explores in this issue, nowhere is this problem more acute than at Linklaters’ real estate department – although given the current size of that team, perhaps we should call it the real estate unit.
A&O, Shearman advise on $900m Israeli gas field financing
Allen & Overy (A&O) has closed the biggest ever internationally-led project finance deal in Israel, advising Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and Dor Gas Explorations as sponsors on the US$900m (£562m) financing of the development of the Tamar gas field, first discovered 50 miles off the coast of Israel in January 2009.
Time to trim due diligence
Blame Kraft-Cadbury again. Since that politically controversial deal the Takeover Code has required that bids for UK-listed companies have to include estimates of legal fees on both the buy and sell sides.
Weighting list subscription
As team GB law firms bulk up for the global challenge, mergers have transformed this year’s rankings – with some surprising results
The new Establishment
In an Olympics season where the world has become obsessed with competitive rankings, it’s fitting that this week we’re running a sneak preview of The Lawyer UK200 Annual Report. I
Category imperative
Brand positioning is relative, and it’s complex. Take The Lawyer UK 200 Annual Report - the most extensive and detailed study of law firm finances available. When we pore over the financials and interview managing partners and finance directors, the variety of law firm structures proliferates year-on-year. That makes categorisation increasingly vexed.
Mishcon control
If you’d asked your average lawyer in your average ?firm about Mishcon de Reya 10 years ago the response would have been based on two impressions.
Merger mysteries
Here are two firms solving their problems by mergers. Herbert Smith’s full financial integration with Freehills will bring about the sort of culture change advocated by Allen Hanen in Project Blue Sky (The Lawyer, 5 January); and King & Wood Mallesons, which won International Firm of the Year at The Lawyer Awards last week, primarily for its extraordinarily imaginative vision.
CMS group to pursue US merger as priority
CMS Cameron McKenna and its affiliate firms have agreed to focus on delivering a transatlantic merger over the next year as the European network moves closer to integration
Finance hotshots
The entrants for The Lawyer Award’s Banking and Finance Team of the Year stand out for their creativity during the crunch
Wind and Smoke
When it comes to law firm dating, a GSOH is most definitely required.
Revealed: two-thirds of solicitors would take in-house role
More than 65 per cent of private practice solicitors would consider moving into an in-house role, a survey by The Lawyer reveals today.
Thomas Eggar revamps management as first female head takes the helm
Thomas Eggar partners have elected litigation head Victoria Brackett as the firm’s first-ever female managing partner while also revamping its overall management function.
Honorary QCs: clarity before parity
Every year in Westminster Hall a small group of honorary QCs line up to get an award alongside the real ones.
Knowles under pressure after DLA kept in dark over personal LawVest stake
Tony Angel puts matter at top of agenda for firm’s Tuesday board meeting after partners express outrage
Dozen silks sign up for launch of ABS LawVest
LawVest has signed up 12 silks for its legal services offering Riverview Law, which launches today.
Brand new bromantics
Two big beasts, a whole bunch of questions. When The Lawyer broke the story of Tony Angel joining DLA Piper last year, one question everyone asked was how he would get on with Nigel Knowles.
It’s the brand, stupid
Nigel Knowles took DLA Piper from a Northern upstart to a global player. Can Tony Angel push the firm to the next level?
Outgrowing your friends
I yield to no one in my delight that Nabarro has secured another alliance member, in the shape of Spanish firm Roca Junyent.
Herbies: solo empowered?
Let’s play Pollyanna for a moment. Could it be that the collapse of the alliance with Gleiss Lutz and Stibbe is a blessing in disguise for Herbert Smith?
Ex-Linklaters chief Angel to join DLA Piper as senior partner
Former Linklaters managing partner Tony Angel is set to join DLA Piper as senior partner in one of the most sensational lateral hires in the legal market.
Law and the order of things
You wait months for a good judicial speech, then four come along at once.
White & Case: no loitering
Funny how multijurisdictional firms are viewed in binary. First, there’s the global elite made up of the super-profitable group of New York and London transactional firms.
Smells like team spirit
Part of the fascination of reading all the tributes to Steve Jobs last week was wondering how much of his leadership style could be translated into a context outside the consumer and creative industries.
Finance
An unsettled year has been assuaged somewhat by leveraged finance and a continuing uptick in foreign-sourced instructions.
Top UK law firms unite to launch social mobility scheme
First profession-wide work experience scheme unveiled as 23 top firms sign up
Slaughters puts emphasis on China after chief’s exit
Slaughter and May has rejigged its Greater China practice as veteran finance partner George Goulding retires.
Greenberg Traurig Maher employment dispute with former partner settles
The dispute between Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) and former equity capital markets partner Andrew Croxford has settled just two weeks before it was due to be heard at the London Central Employment Tribunal.
Top of equity: Firms break into millionaires’ club as partner earnings rise
Largest membership since 2008 as Ashurst reappears and Clydes joins
Linklaters on board as Eircom heads for major restructure
A raft of law firms are lining up for the restructuring of Irish telecoms group Eircom, one of the biggest this year.
DAC Beachcroft to go live in November
The partners at Beachcroft and Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) have voted in favour of the proposed merger between the two firms.
End of an era for Nabarro as Paradise resigns from top spot
Nabarro managing partner Nicky Paradise is to retire from her role this summer, prompting a shake-up of the firm’s management.
Senior, junior or in the middle: the battle goes on
IMO, European Directories and WorldPay have done little to sort out intercreditor disagreements.
Broken news
I’ve always thought the fact that neither Keith Schilling nor David Price has voicemail was a slightly overzealous response to the antics of the tabloids. But as has become clear in the past week, it is entirely proportionate.
Dawkins swoop highlights Bingham’s new direction
US firm aims to complement its financial restructuring strength with a serious litigation player in the City.
WFW partner is a true Renaissance woman
When Watson Farley & Williams partner Celia Gardiner first started singing at church, she did not expect to found a chamber choir. In fact, when she started out she was the only amateur singer in a group of professional musicians.
DAC and Beachcroft moot £175m merger
Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) and Beachcroft are in merger talks to create a £175m insurance giant, The Lawyer can reveal.
CC threatens to sue departing funds team
Clifford Chance has upped the stakes in the highly charged situation surrounding the quadruple exit of its funds team by threatening to take action against some of the group for breach of fiduciary duty.
Ex-partner v GTM: enter the counsel
The dispute between Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) and former partner Andrew Croxford has moved up a gear, with both sides instructing counsel.
Troubles with the ex
The more corporate the law becomes, the more emotional the fallout: discuss. Our three main stories this week all involve contentious partnership issues, in different forms.
Heinz to create European panel as part of global review
Global food conglomerate Heinz is kicking off an extensive review of external advisers with a view to setting up a European panel in the autumn.
Rules and exceptions
The financial reporting season usually reveals a few surprises, but new levels of boggling were reached a fortnight ago when Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) announced its results.
Finance industry’s principles keep the watchdogs at bay
The restating of sector guidelines on retail structured products is politically well-timed, says Catrin Griffiths
Called to account
As Hogan Lovells partners and employees passed through the stages of denial, anger, depression and finally acceptance last week, the rest of the world was digesting the extraordinary news that litigation partner Christopher Grierson had been dismissed for claiming more than £1m in false expenses.
Family value: how private client filled the corp gap
Family constitutions, governance, succession planning and plain old hard work are in the spotlight, writes Catrin Griffiths from Monaco
Farrers’ turnover sees 10 per cent increase
Lincoln’s Inn firm Farrer & Co has posted a revenue of £46.7m for the last financial year, an increase of 9.6 per cent from £42.6m in 2010.
Hogan Lovells dismisses senior litigator over £1m of false expenses
Hogan Lovells senior litigator Christopher Grierson has been dismissed from the partnership after claiming over £1m in false expenses over the course of four years.
Hogan Lovells’ equality act
David Harris had his quip all ready at last year’s press party celebrating Lovells’ merger with Hogan & Hartson. “I know this looks like a coalition,” he said, “but neither of us is the Nick Clegg in this relationship.”
Steady as she goes
And so the rituals of the financial results season begin. As The Lawyer went to press the day before the Royal Wedding, most firms we contacted were still hoping their partners would be making one last push on billing.
Passmore triumphs in Simmons senior partner election
Second round of voting sees star litigator come out on top; rival Dawkins to return to fee-earning
Litigation chief wins top job at Simmons
Colin Passmore has won the senior partner election at Simmons & Simmons, beating former managing partner Mark Dawkins in the final round of voting.
Yorkshire terriers
Twenty years ago a brash Yorkshire firm called Dibb Lupton decided it could go mid-tier and that SME corporate clients needed a more responsive service than City firms were providing.
Kirkland adds Shearman high yield star to City team
Kirkland & Ellis has scooped Shearman & Sterling high yield partner Ward McKimm in its latest foray into the lateral hiring market.
RPC’s all-equity model key to attracting latest lateral
Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC) has made its 20th lateral in three years with the hire of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) real estate partner David Johnston.
Travers – too posh to push?
Most managing partners would kill to have Andrew Lilley’s problems.
Dickie Dees’ growth drive kicks off structural shift
Dickinson Dees has launched a partnership consultation on remuneration as part of a wide-ranging overhaul of its business.
Simmons’ senior partner vote sees six in the frame
Six Simmons & Simmons partners have confirmed their intention to stand for the senior partner job, to be vacated by current incumbent David Dickinson by the end of June.
INTRODUCTION
The genesis of our In-house Thought Leaders project can be traced back to our annual summit for in-house lawyers last year, when we eavesdropped on conversations among delegates. Whatever sector those lawyers were operating in we found that a consistent set of non-industry-specific topics animated them, from workplace issues or reputation to regulation or data protection, and they were relishing the opportunity to learn from their peers’ experiences.
The Lawyer’s great debate: e-disclosure
One of the biggest issues in litigation management at the moment is e-disclosure.
IP rights: Dyson
Gill Smith
IP rights: FT
Tim Bratton
Workplace: Old Mutual
Meekal Hashmi
Bribery/Anti-corruption: Shell
Richard WIseman
Regulation: Bank of America Merrill Lynch
Janet Wood
Data protection: Heinz
Janice More
Industry stars to judge The Lawyer Awards 2011
The Lawyer has assembled a stellar list of judges for The Lawyer Awards 2011 this summer.
How blogs plug the legal drain
Last week I chaired a debate on the future of legal blogging, held at One Crown Office Row and featuring three excellent web commentators: David Allen Green of the Jack of Kent blog, Carl Gardner of the Head of Legal blog and Adam Wagner of the UK Human Rights Blog.
WFW appoints London boss as back-up for managing partner
City firm Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) has revamped its management structure, appointing a London head to support firmwide managing partner Michael Greville.
Addleshaws vows: no more drudge work for associates
Routine work to be sent to new paralegal centre; associates to ramp up client-facing skills
Gold sets up post-Herbies consultancy for complex litigation
Former Herbert Smith senior partner David Gold will set up on his own as a strategic litigation consultant when he leaves the City firm next month after 37 years.
Olswang’s middle aged spread
Olswang spent its teenage years alternately wanting to be accepted by the City establishment and cocking a snook at it. Always best known for its hip (well, by law firm standards) media brand, its decision to go all-out for corporate, private equity and real estate seemed like borrowing another girl’s lipstick.
Shell quizzes all advisers on corruption policies
Shell has upped the ante on anti-corruption prior to this year’s implementation of the Bribery Act by extending its scrutiny to law firms that advise third parties involved in joint ventures, and therefore are not employed by the company.
Tweetie shy
An IT director at a top 20 firm bet The Lawyer features editor Matt Byrne last week that he could get the phrase ’leveraging their centricities’ into his story on Clifford Chance teaming up with Microsoft. As none of us knew what that meant we couldn’t oblige, but it neatly illustrates the semantic gulf between IT strategists and lawyers.
New year, fresh faces
The first issue of The Lawyer in January is traditionally an exercise in talent-spotting, since it has a fortunate conjunction of The Hot 100 and the top cases of the year. Both are barometers of the market in different ways.
Authority figures add up
If you’d said in 2007 that local authority legal directors would emerge as the profession’s most imaginative group of lawyers, most people would have gone slack-jawed in amazement.
Kass proves he’s a clever Fela
It is not often that in-house lawyers summon their external advisers to an evening of Afrobeat, but Associated Newspapers group legal director Harvey Kass did precisely that earlier this month.
Putting paid to bribery
Our lead story this week, on Dentons suing its former India head Gauri Advani following the allegation of a bribe (something she strongly denies) and costs of a subsequent court case, is a preview of the future for law firms.
The aim of the name
With the exception of Slaughter and May, every law firm has built parts of its business by recruiting external senior talent. Some, such as Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), have been flamboyantly hiring laterals during the recession, much to the incomprehension of its rivals.
Focus: Simmons female representation - Lady billers
From boasting an enviable proportion of female partners to currently having one of the worst showings in the City, Simmons is trying to tackle the problem head-on
The waiting game
In an uncertain world where transactions are down, it makes sense to qualify as a litigator, right?
A&O watchdog to probe client business processes
Allen & Overy (A&O) has put organic business improvement at the centre of its strategy as it looks to improve profitability and efficiency in what it sees as a low-growth era for legal services.
Crossing the LPO Rubicon
Our report on Slaughter and May setting up a panel of LPO providers seems to be proof that outsourcing is here to stay.
Equity partnerships ride out the recession at UK’s top firms…
…despite five-year trend revealing gradual decline in number of owners
Focus: Equity partnership and EPP: Slash and earn
With the chances of making equity gradually reducing across the top 100, has the focus on PEP radically changed the structure of partnership?
Partners in time
I always smile when partners complain about how radically different things are from a decade ago.
DAC targets Brazil with insurance firm link-up
Davies Arnold Cooper (DAC) is putting Latin America at the heart of its strategy with a formal association with São Paolo boutique insurance law firm JBO Advocacia.
Kingsley Napley
Kingsley Napley is on an expansion drive.
Pride 2010: all equal in love and law
With more than a million participants, Pride has now become one of the biggest parades in the country. And yet up until a year ago it never had formal representation from the legal profession, when around 40 turned out.
Slimmers’ world
The shrinking starts here: as we report today, total revenue for the UK top 30 was £10.84bn, down half a billion from last year’s figure of £11.36bn. So are the days of City growth over?
The outstanding achievement of Sir Geoffrey Vos
Amid all the celebrations at The Lawyer Awards last week, one of the most warmly received was the Editor’s Award, reserved for individuals in the profession who have made a difference.
Double standards
First it was on, then it was off, then it was on again: Mayer Brown and Simmons are doing a bit of a Burton-Taylor, but with a tad less flouncing.
Outer Temple’s Lissack teaches Rada students a thing or two about courtroom drama
“There’s a lot of similarity between acting and the law,” says Victoria Ross.
Dispute resolution laid bare by top panel
?The Lawyer Debate on Dispute Resolution, 8 June 2010: THE LAWYER’s first town hall debate on dispute resolution took place last week (8 June), with a stellar panel and an audience of general counsel and City litigators.
It’s time for human resources to get creative, says HR Strategy conference
Human resources strategy is no longer just about managing redundancies; it now requires a creative engagement with a new legal world. That was the message from The Lawyer’s annual HR Strategy conference last week.
Source of Doubt
The experience of CMS Cameron McKenna is a lesson for anyone who assumes that reorganisation of business processes can lead us to the sunlit uplands.
The Hogan Lovells love-in continues – but don’t mention remuneration
AT THE Hogan Lovells annual press party last week co-chief executive David Harris gave a short speech. As always, there was a strategic theme. This time the new American partners were in town, and three weeks into the merger Harris was keen to push the firm’s perennial line that this was a deal between equals. “I know this looks like a coalition,” he said, “but neither of us is the Nick Clegg in this relationship.”
Lawyer Awards banking & finance line-up go big on restructurings
US firms go head-to-head with magic circle establishment.
Things can only get better
The financial year ended last week in the usual flurry of bill-chasing, but the mood was more relaxed than I’ve seen for a while.
SJ Berwin’s Statesmanship
You can’t fault Ralph Baxter’s tenacity. It’s a standing joke among managing partners that at some point they will have received a call from the Orrick chairman, but a decade on from its failed talks with Bird & Bird the US firm’s obsession with completing a London merger has still never been realised.
Travers Smith names Carroll as new senior partner
Former Travers Smith managing partner Chris Carroll is to take over as the firm’s senior partner. He will replace Alasdair Douglas, who is understood to be retiring in June after 25 years as a partner at the silver circle firm and nearly five years as senior partner.
Unnatural selection
Finding your own conversational gambits used to be the mark of the averagely socially skilled lawyer.
Coming back to haunt you
“I woke up and heard the news on the radio on Friday morning,” says a magic circle partner, “and thought, ’Christ, I hope that law firm they’re talking about isn’t us’.”
Orchestral manoeuvres make their mark at Bakers
David Pyatt doesn’t get to meet his audience too much. The principal French horn player of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) tends to spend his life shuttling between rehearsal rooms and the Barbican concert hall.
Say hello to the Mexican wave
You’re running a mid-sized regional firm and the pressure is on. The systems are there, the staff are there, but the work’s drying up. Can you find new revenue streams? Here’s a niche: pitching for the standardised work the big names deem too unprofitable.
The next world power?
Too often the magic circle firms are lumped together as if they were strategically homogenous. Allen & Overy’s (A&O) decision to open in Australia, taking 17 partners, mostly from Clayton Utz, is a tacit endorsement of Clifford Chance’s world view.
BLG dumps partner lockstep in firmwide rejig
Barlow Lyde & Gilbert (BLG) is set to abandon its modified lockstep for an entirely merit-based partner remuneration system, while also considering a move away from associate lockstep as part of a firmwide shake-up of performance.
Hoff’s scoff at libel reform
After years railing against Mr Justice Eady’s judgments, has the Daily Mail found a judge it actually likes?
Focus: Flexible Working - Now you see me…
Flexible working is no barrier to promotion, as these women - all working mothers at the top of their game - can testify
Ropes raids Weil for restructuring hire
Weil Gotshal & Manges restructuring partner Tony Horspool is leaving the firm to join Ropes & Gray less than two years after defecting from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft.
The future of litigation
If 2008 was the year of Buncefield and 2009 the year of professional negligence, then 2010 is the year of bank-on-bank litigation.
Testing times for future lawyers
In a year of chronicling the recession, it’s fitting that our final issue of 2009 leads on the effect of the downturn on the future members of the legal profession.
Cash and candour
Ralph Cohen is being perfectly upfront. It’s been a tough year for SJ Berwin; if it makes its next quarterly partner payments next February that’ll be the first in 12 months.
Innovators and communicators dominate HR Awards shortlist
Workplace issues have dominated 2009, and not always in a good way. As The Lawyer Legal JobWatch recounted, there were more than 4,200 redundancies in The Lawyer’s UK 200 list - and those were just the official ones.
GTM adds to London restructuring team
Former Kirkland & Ellis restructuring specialist Lyndon Norley is to join Greenberg Traurig Maher (GTM) in London next month as the US-headquartered firm continues to build its UK operation.
How was it for you?
As this year nears its close, The Lawyer will be running a number of analysis pieces on the impact of the recession on private practice, having already taken the temp-erature among clients this year with our research related to charge-out rates and fee discounts.
Education: a bad business?
It’s hard to escape the suspicion that legal education is becoming a soap opera. It has all the required elements: a closed community, loads of bitching, a dollop of social realism - and my, here’s the obligatory cliffhanger.
Carter-Ruck defends 1849 libel rule against reform campaigners
It was an unusual invitation. When Carter-Ruck partners Nigel Tait and Guy Martin arrived at the Free Word Centre in Farringdon on 10 November, they were hardly surrounded by fans.
CC London chief to judge partner teamwork
New Clifford Chance London managing partner David Bickerton is exploring how to create an appraisal process that will measure how well partners collaborate with each other, in what he has dubbed a “balanced scorecard”.
BAE counsel urges in-housers to address reputational risk
BAE Systems chief counsel Roger Wiltshire has urged in-house lawyers to take a proactive approach to reframing their ethical and compliance programmes.
Cisco to use BLP’s Lawyers on Demand
CISCO Europe has indicated that it will start using Berwin Leighton Paisner’s (BLP) interim lawyer service Lawyers on Demand to cope with spikes in work.
In-house lawyers push for closer ties with advisers
In-house lawyers have called for greater and more creative collaboration with external counsel for the benefit of all parties.
Age of reason
Here’s a very modern tale. Last week we were contacted by someone claiming to be a client of Shoosmiths partner Andy Ballard who took exception to a gag he had made in our pages.
CC rolls out sector approach to associates
Clifford Chance is to ask its senior associates to choose one of 13 nominated industry sectors as part of its organisational shake-up.
Allen and Goetz to launch UK base for Boston's Ropes & Gray
Ropes & Gray has hired finance partners Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz to spearhead its London office launch.
Cult of responsibility
Cynics, begone. So much for all those glum predictions that the recession will put paid to law firms’ fancy corporate responsibility (CR) programmes.
Eastwell to join Links spin-off firm
Linklaters’ former capital markets head Nick Eastwell is joining Kinstellar, the Central and Eastern European (CEE) practice spun off by the magic circle firm in November 2008.
Law firms and in-housers give deal bibles a bashing
A joint working party of in-house and private practice lawyers has thrashed out a common standardised approach for the exchange of electronic deal bibles. The new approach is intended to enable in-house departments to access important post-transaction documents.
Simpson Thacher names new KKR link
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acquisition finance veteran Tony Keal is retiring at the end of this calendar year, with the firm nominating recently promoted partner Ian Barratt to take over the key Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR) relationship in London.
A&O, Sidley’s work on Lloyds RMBS deal gives hope to battered market
Residential mortgage-backed securities issue creates buzz in the market as investors flood in. By Catrin Griffiths
Ex-Slaughters and SJ Berwin chiefs team up
Former Slaughter and May senior partner Tim Clark and former SJ Berwin senior partner David Harrel are teaming up to launch a global investigative company called Proven.
SEC beefs up cross-border cooperation in blitz on fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is gearing up for closer cooperation with overseas prosecutors as the fight against financial crime gains momentum during the recession.
The Lawyer Fraud Prosecution Conference: SFO chief: educate, don’t just prosecute
?Opening speech sparks debate on civil recovery orders as Alderman defends new pragmatic direction
Big four to become tax players?
Tax lawyers are no longer on the sidelines. In June the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development announced it was considering forcing multinationals to reveal how much tax they pay in each jurisdiction.
The power of 10
The past decade has brought recession, consolidation and a cultural revolution to the legal sector in the UK. Catrin Griffiths and Margaret Taylor assess how the top firms have evolved and defined the changing times
BLP boosts tax and trusts with CC arrival
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) is continuing to build its tax and trusts department with another recruit from Clifford Chance in the shape of private client partner Murray North.
Kirkland & Ellis launches in Shanghai
Kirkland & Ellis is to open in Shanghai in November to create its second Asia office.
Cobbetts’ hidden agenda
Nobody takes pleasure in firms’ bad results, but it’s hard not to smile at what’s going on at Cobbetts. Not because of the firm’s poor financials, but because it thinks it can deflect attention by, er, not declaring its profits this year. This is the law firm equivalent of sticking your fingers in your ears and saying “La, la, la, la, la”.
Freshfields’ banking ambition takes further knock as duo quits
Just one day after TheLawyer.com reported (3 August) that Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz were leaving Freshfields Bruckhaus Derigner, a headhunter was already emailing senior City banking lawyers about a position that was available in a firm with a £1.44m average profit per equity partner (PEP) - the exact number that Freshfields posted this year.
Time to ditch the LPC?
The LPC is a ludicrous anachronism that ought to be scrapped: discuss. Our report last week (27 July) that the Law Society was launching a campaign to warn students off a law career came just a week after the publication of the Milburn report, which criticised the legal profession for being a closed shop.
How Treasury work thrust publicity shy Slaughters into the spotlight
His £22m bill attracted all the wrong headlines, but Charles Randell has kept his cool. By Catrin Griffiths
Magic portions
I’m not quite sure who Ted Burke thinks he’s kidding. Freshfields’ spin on its financials is cute, but not terribly convincing.
The prudent path: merger lite
It was entirely coincidental, but last week’s announcement by Norton Rose that it was merging with Australia’s Deacons came on the morning of The Lawyer Awards, where the former won Law Firm of the Year. Nice timing.
Focus: Greenberg Traurig Maher
Finally, Maher gets to run his own show - with his name on the door. The best thing about setting up Greenberg Traurig’s European operation, says Paul Maher, is the autonomy.
Exclusive: Greenberg hires Maher to build '21st century firm'
US giant in retreat from Olswang alliance as it launches in London with former Mayer Brown star
Maher puts his name to his claim
Let me break it to Olswang. Greenberg Traurig may be saying nice things about its relationship with you, but the days of your cooperation are numbered.
Are we there yet?
There’s an old cliché routinely advanced by history undergraduates that the middle class is rising, whatever the century. It’s easy to find the legal market equivalent: whatever the political circumstances, the Indian market is about to open up.
Hammonds Direct partners set for court showdown
Battle commences as one partner rejects £2.3m cash call following collapse of volume business
The Transatlantic Elite 2009: Ups and downs
London is no longer the promised land for US firms. By Catrin Griffiths
All firms great and small remain wise and wonderful despite recession woes
The Lawyer Awards Corporate Team of the Year shortlist was again inundated with worthy winners, says Catrin Griffiths
It's tough at the top
Who on earth would choose to be a managing partner nowadays?
SJ Berwin emerges from the wings to make most of insolvency boom
Key hire Mike Woollard credited with putting firm in the running for big-ticket contracts.
Travers’ chief decision imminent
THE CONSULTATION for the next managing partner at Travers Smith is entering the final stages, with a decision expected at the end of this month.
If music be the food of law...
I’m not sure why, but a large proportion of the lawyers I meet are frustrated musicians.
A welcome end to rigidity
Now that recession panic appears to have lost its stranglehold on the collective consciousness of lawyers, something interesting is starting to emerge. It’s an anti-strategy trend; the freedom to be opportunistic without three sets of position papers and a partner vote.
Davies to Linklaters: it’s good to talk
Chief puts internal communication at top of agenda ahead of major shake-up
Fried Frank makes 99 redundant
Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson has confirmed it is laying off lawyers and staff as a result of the economic downturn.
Keep calm and carry on
Ever since the onset of the recession there’s been talk of a paradigm shift within the law. This week Matt Byrne interviews managing partners of mainly transatlantic firms for their views, but that’s not the whole story:
Punching above its weight: Norton Rose holds it own in corporate ring
HSBC rights issue has seen Norton Rose steal a march on its magic circle rivals.
No whining as Mipim waves au revoir to bacchanalian excess
No longer the glam drink ticket, Mipim may be changing its spots – and about time too, says Catrin Griffiths
Putting life into law
If there’s one topic that elicits more comment on TheLawyer.com than any other, it’s education.cat
