Not all revolutions involve mass protest and angry mobs. If you are a lawyer, then you have been living in evolutionary times for the last few years. And now, the pace of that change is picking up with evolution giving way to revolution. Gone are the days of one firm-one career; the days when […]
A good litigator is a silent assassin in seeking settlement but a battle field major when court is the only means to an end. A good litigator, by employing charm and seduction, will keep costs minimal and the timescales of Court a statistic for someone else’s argument. 5 months in to my litigation seat […]
Robert Morfee, partner at Clarke Willmott, discusses the impact that proposed changes to part 2 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill will have on access to justice in the UK. This week (Monday 30th January) Peers will discuss part 2 of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill […]
There is no genre of literature more dismal – more utterly depressing to read – than the letters of litigation solicitors. Every day hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these wearisome missives are compiled and despatched. And many contain the most insincere and heart-sinking language. The authors of this dreadful correspondence will invariably profess themselves “surprised” […]
A law firm takeover is hard to get right, but a partial one can be hell, as Vizards Wyeth is finding out. Vizards is being pursued by its former family law team, which was left out of its partial takeover by Weightmans, for allegedly failing to pay severance. The team also claims racial and sexual […]
It says plenty about Britain that most of the public buzz around Sir Fred Goodwin is about the threat to his knighthood. The former RBS boss is in the proverbial dock after it emerged that his lawyers insisted on removing a reference to his inexperience from the 450-page FSA report on the bank’s 2008 crisis. […]
What’s in a domain name? Everything or nothing, it seems. The merger between DWF and Cobbetts first came to light when the domain name dwfcobbetts. co.uk was registered. DWF, which registered the name, insisted that the blip was the result of an over-zealous IT employee. But just over two months later the duo confirmed they […]
Shipping catastrophes may hit the headlines once in a while, but specialist litigators in this sector are always in demand, both in private practice and in-house. “There’s always a high volume of litigation, whether it’s cargo going missing or being destroyed or ships capsizing, as we recently tragically saw in Italy,” notes James Franklin, manager […]
K&L Gates has hired Addleshaw Goddard corporate crime chief Elizabeth Robertson into its equity partnership. Robertson joined Addleshaws in 2007 from Peters & Peters in a move seen as a boost to the firm’s white-collar crime expertise. Move of the week In 2010 she represented three Pakistani cricketers – Mohammad Amir, Mohammad Asif and […]
Brick Court Chambers heavyweight Mark Hapgood QC has secured the mandate to represent self-exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky in his six-month trial set for October. Berezovsky’s lawyers at Addleshaw Goddard were left without counsel in the build-up to the six-month trial after One Essex Court’s Laurence Rabinowitz QC withdrew, citing prior diary commitments. Addleshaws partner […]
With three academics and only one lawyer on the panel, will the Legal Education and Training Review listen to the needs of private practice? Professional regulators and academics both love a meaty research project, and when the two combine forces, it’s time to sit back and watch the layers of complexity pile up like dung […]
IPOs may often land new clients but they don’t bring in much money and can also fail altogether. Are they worth the bother? Lucky locksteps This all points to a key question: how do firms without a lockstep manage to do IPO work? It would appear impossible for a partner in a firm […]