The Lawyer
Catrin Griffiths Editorial
-
Revealed: two-thirds of solicitors would take in-house role
2-Apr-2012
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
2-Apr-2012
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
12 March 2012
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
27-Feb-2012
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
20-Feb-2012
LawVest has signed up 12 silks for its legal services offering Riverview Law, which launches today.
-
Brand new bromantics
13 February 2012
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
13 February 2012
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
23 January 2012
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?
28 November 2011
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
26-Oct-2011
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
24 October 2011
You wait months for a good judicial speech, then four come along at once.
-
White & Case: no loitering
17 October 2011
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
10 October 2011
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
The UK200 2011
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
14-Sep-2011
First profession-wide work experience scheme unveiled as 23 top firms sign up
-
Slaughters puts emphasis on China after chief’s exit
12 September 2011
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
8-Sep-2011
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
15 August 2011
Largest membership since 2008 as Ashurst reappears and Clydes joins
-
Linklaters on board as Eircom heads for major restructure
25 July 2011
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
22-Jul-2011
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
18 July 2011
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
18 July 2011
IMO, European Directories and WorldPay have done little to sort out intercreditor disagreements.
-
Broken news
11 July 2011
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
11 July 2011
US firm aims to complement its financial restructuring strength with a serious litigation player in the City.
-
WFW partner is a true Renaissance woman
4 July 2011
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
22-Jun-2011
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
20 June 2011
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
20 June 2011
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
20 June 2011
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
16-Jun-2011
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
13 June 2011
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
30 May 2011
The restating of sector guidelines on retail structured products is politically well-timed, says Catrin Griffiths
-
Called to account
23 May 2011
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
23 May 2011
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
23 May 2011
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
17-May-2011
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
9 May 2011
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
2 May 2011
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
28-Apr-2011
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
25 April 2011
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
25 April 2011
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
13-Apr-2011
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
04 April 2011
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?
04 April 2011
Most managing partners would kill to have Andrew Lilley’s problems.
-
Dickie Dees’ growth drive kicks off structural shift
28 March 2011
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
28 March 2011
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
21-Mar-2011
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
21 March 2011
One of the biggest issues in litigation management at the moment is e-disclosure.
-
IP rights: Dyson
18-Mar-2011
Gill Smith
-
IP rights: FT
18-Mar-2011
Tim Bratton
-
Workplace: Old Mutual
18-Mar-2011
Meekal Hashmi
-
Bribery/Anti-corruption: Shell
18-Mar-2011
Richard WIseman
-
Regulation: Bank of America Merrill Lynch
18-Mar-2011
Janet Wood
-
Data protection: Heinz
18-Mar-2011
Janice More
-
Industry stars to judge The Lawyer Awards 2011
14 March 2011
The Lawyer has assembled a stellar list of judges for The Lawyer Awards 2011 this summer.
-
How blogs plug the legal drain
21 February 2011
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
14 February 2011
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
7 February 2011
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
31 January 2011
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
31 January 2011
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
24 January 2011
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
17 January 2011
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
3 January 2011
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
13 December 2010
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
29 November 2010
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
22 November 2010
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
8 November 2010
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
25 October 2010
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
18 October 2010
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
4-Oct-2010
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
4 October 2010
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…
13 September 2010
…despite five-year trend revealing gradual decline in number of owners
-
Focus: Equity partnership and EPP: Slash and earn
13 September 2010
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
13 September 2010
I always smile when partners complain about how radically different things are from a decade ago.
-
DAC targets Brazil with insurance firm link-up
6 September 2010
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
9 August 2010
Kingsley Napley is on an expansion drive.
-
Pride 2010: all equal in love and law
12 July 2010
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
12 July 2010
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
28 June 2010
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
21 June 2010
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
21 June 2010
“There’s a lot of similarity between acting and the law,” says Victoria Ross.
-
Dispute resolution laid bare by top panel
14 June 2010
?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
31 May 2010
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
24 May 2010
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
24 May 2010
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
17 May 2010
US firms go head-to-head with magic circle establishment.
-
Things can only get better
3 May 2010
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
26 April 2010
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
29 March 2010
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
22 March 2010
Finding your own conversational gambits used to be the mark of the averagely socially skilled lawyer.
-
Coming back to haunt you
15 March 2010
“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
8 March 2010
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
8 March 2010
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?
15 February 2010
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
8 February 2010
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
8 February 2010
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…
1 February 2010
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
29-Jan-2010
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
11 January 2010
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
14 December 2009
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
7 December 2009
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
7 December 2009
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
30 November 2009
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?
30 November 2009
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?
23 November 2009
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
16 November 2009
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
16 November 2009
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
09 November 2009
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
09 November 2009
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
09 November 2009
In-house lawyers have called for greater and more creative collaboration with external counsel for the benefit of all parties.
-
Age of reason
26 October 2009
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
26 October 2009
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
22-Oct-2009
Ropes & Gray has hired finance partners Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz to spearhead its London office launch.
-
Cult of responsibility
19 October 2009
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
19 October 2009
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
12 October 2009
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
12 October 2009
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
28 September 2009
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
28 September 2009
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
21 September 2009
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
21 September 2009
?Opening speech sparks debate on civil recovery orders as Alderman defends new pragmatic direction
-
Big four to become tax players?
14 September 2009
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
UK200 2009
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
7 September
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
1-Sep-2009
Kirkland & Ellis is to open in Shanghai in November to create its second Asia office.
-
Cobbetts’ hidden agenda
10 August 2009
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
10 August 2009
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?
3 August 2009
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
13 July 2009
His £22m bill attracted all the wrong headlines, but Charles Randell has kept his cool. By Catrin Griffiths
-
Magic portions
6 July 2009
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
29 June 2009
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
22 June 2009
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'
15 June 2009
US giant in retreat from Olswang alliance as it launches in London with former Mayer Brown star
-
Maher puts his name to his claim
15 June 2009
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?
8 June 2009
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
18 May 2009
Battle commences as one partner rejects £2.3m cash call following collapse of volume business
-
The Transatlantic Elite 2009: Ups and downs
The Lawyer Transatlantic Elite
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
11 May 2009
The Lawyer Awards Corporate Team of the Year shortlist was again inundated with worthy winners, says Catrin Griffiths
-
It's tough at the top
4 May 2009
Who on earth would choose to be a managing partner nowadays?
-
SJ Berwin emerges from the wings to make most of insolvency boom
4 May 2009
Key hire Mike Woollard credited with putting firm in the running for big-ticket contracts.
-
Travers’ chief decision imminent
4 May 2009
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...
27 April 2009
I’m not sure why, but a large proportion of the lawyers I meet are frustrated musicians.
-
A welcome end to rigidity
6 April 2009
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
6 April 2009
Chief puts internal communication at top of agenda ahead of major shake-up
-
Fried Frank makes 99 redundant
30-Mar-2009
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
30 March 2009
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
30 March 2009
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
23 March 2009
No longer the glam drink ticket, Mipim may be changing its spots – and about time too, says Catrin Griffiths
-
Putting life into law
23 March 2009
If there’s one topic that elicits more comment on TheLawyer.com than any other, it’s education.cat
