Here’s a confession. For the past few weeks I’ve been reading every single issue of The Lawyer ever published.
This isn’t some bout of deranged masochism, rather it is in preparation for our 20th anniversary special next month and for 2008, when we turn 21.
The practice of law has changed more in two decades than in the previous two centuries. In the late 1980s there was clamour around the impending Courts & Legal Services Bill – a hugely important reform.
Twenty years on, the Legal Services Bill has just received Royal Assent.
As part of our celebrations, we’re publishing The Lawyer Hall of Fame next month. We’ve already drawn up a long list through our research, but we want your thoughts too.
We don’t just want the big billers, by the way – that would be lazy thinking.
We’re canvassing for a list of pioneers, innovators, and campaigners; the lawyers who have actually changed the way the law is practised. Time for some of the unsung heroes to take a bow.
Here are some of the suggestions that readers have made so far:
– Tony Angel: for turning Linklaters into a “world class firm”.
– Lord Woolf: for having an enormous impact, “whether or not you agree with his reforms”.
And…
– Ally McBeal: for being “more responsible than anyone for attracting a generation into the profession”.
To post your suggestions for The Lawyer Hall of Fame, click the ‘Add your own comment’ funtion below.
Catrin Griffiths, editor
TO SEE THE FINALISED HALL OF FAME, click here.
Hall of Fame
Karl Mackie should be nominated for having taken the bold and innovative decision to establish CEDR with his colleagues, which has undoubtedly changed the face of dispute resolution in this country.
20th anniversary hall of fame
Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers.
It was Lord Phillips who was responsible for overseeing the work of the Civil Justice Council in resolving a number of thorny issues over legal costs, including the introduction of fixed recoverable costs in RTA claims and fixed success fees in RTA, EL and disease cases. As Master of the Rolls and chairman of the CJC, Lord Phillips was quietly effective in persuading the parties to keep talking when the going got tough.
hall of fame
What about Lord Woolf? Whether or not you agree with his reforms, he had an enormous impact.
Other suggestions – Nigel Knowles and Tony Angel (for being visionary managing partners), Anthony Saltz and Nigel Boardman for services to M&A, Clementi for opening up the law to Tesco and others, and not forgetting Jonathan Sumption for having a brain the size of a planet.
Hall of fame
Tony Angel – He took Linklaters from a very good firm and turned it into a world class firm. He was the first magic circle managing partner with true global presence to take average PEP over £1m. He’s made a serious effort to
establish the firm in the US.
Mike Francies – he has single-handed managed, for whichever firm he has been a partner at, to implement a global and top end capital markets practice. He’s an unbelievable operator with a reputation that’s second to none.
Hall of Fame/Shame
Alan Hodgart whose 3 core area focus strategy, one size fits all report has defined so many firms
hall of fame
Ally McBeal. She made the public realise (as we lawyers already knew) that law is fun and sexy. She was probably more responsible than anyone for attracting a generation into the profession.
hall of fame
20 years ago banking and insolvency were the poor relations and now they’ve become global products, so I’m confining my remarks to my sector.
Mike Duncan, A&O : he has dominated the Global loans market for 20 years and
created the A&O global loans machine
Gordon Stewart, A&O: he made debt collecting (now called ‘insolvency’) fashionable
Charles Leeming, Wilde Sapte: whilst he retired in 95, he was the dominant restructuring lawyer in the great depression of the early 90s and those jobs spawned a new industry in the legal world
Mark Stewart, CC : the man smart enough to be first to spot the power of the private equity houses and to use banking expertise as a product differentiator for those clients, off the back of which CC have based
their global practice
Hall of Fame
John Crabtree, Wragge & Co – leading light of Midlands legal community and architect of Wragge & Co’s success;
Ron Burley – old school king of clerks;
Lord Woolf – designed the most radical reforms to the civil justice system in the last 20 years, the greatest success of which was to impose mediation on litigators;
Sir Sydney Kentridge QC – Most famously acted for the family of South African black consciousness leader Steve Biko, but has been a member of the UK Bar since the late 70s. Now its elder statesman, he is still a force to be reckoned with;
David Pannick QC – the most brilliant public lawyer of his generation; Nigel Knowles, DLA Piper – a force of nature and must be credited for making DLA the firm it is today;
Janet Gaymer – Simmons & Simmons.
hall of fame
Shami Chakrabarti, Liberty
Sahar Hashemi – lawyer who founded Coffee Republic
Tony Blair
Cherie Booth
Jack Straw
Neville Eisenberg
Michael Mansfield
Glanville Williams
Stanley Berwin (for setting up the two Berwin law firms)
Atticus Finch (from To Kill a Mockingbird)
Geoffrey Bindman
Angela Mason, founder of Stonewall Lesbian and Gay Group
Andrew Hochhauser
Gareth Quarry (for creating whole portability thing)
hall of fame
Edward Smethurst – he rejeuvenated the C&I group and set it on its current track
Hall of Fame
Guy Beringer, senior partner A&O; for having the courage to suggest that profit per partner may not necessarily be the best way for a firm to measure success; and for a genuine and visible commitment to pro bono and community work.
Shankari Chandran, pro bono manager, A&O; for her determination and ambition in making a pro bono programme truly international, and for her enthusiasm and commitment to pro bono as a force for good. A&O’s best ever Aussie import.
Hall of Fame
PETER SHERATT-BARRISTER,VICE CHAIRMAN LEHMAN BROTHERS – he is an outstanding lawyer, and has made significant contributions in the field of education in deprived areas of the city.
GUY MORTON; SNR PARTNER, FRESHFIELDS – an outstanding regulatory lawyer and has led Freshfields through a period of reconstruction.
STUART POPHAM-LED AS SNR PARTNER OF CLIFFORD CHANCE- led an unrivalled expansion o fthe firm overseas, strategi, urbane and a very good lawyer.
LAWRENCE KERSHEN QC- helped devlop mediation in this country as a form of ADR. Is particularly strong in international human rights arena.
JOHN COLLINS-ABN AMRO GENERAL COUNSEL- a transactional lawyer with a risk understanding better than anyone I have ever known.
I don’t know how you do it?
Those women who have managed to manage successful careers with motherhood and keep a sense of style and perspective and press for more flexible working and attitudes The Editor, Cat, is a leading candidate for this category. Others are Shami Chakrabarti, Pam Bryan LG, Marian Boyle at DWS.
Jonathan Blake for hall of fame
Jonathan Blake – legend in the Private Equity market.
Hall of Fame
Mike Duncan? Give me a break! What about Stephen Gillespie? The most genreous, selfless mentor and coach of people I’ve ever known. There is no-one more willing to give up his own time for the sake of the development and advancement of others. A whole gernation of A&O partners righrt across the globe are indebted to him for the time and energy he invested in them and their careers, and now he is doing the same thing at K&E. He is an usung hero.
hall of fame
Of course Stephen Gillespie!!! He is the number one hero of his generation from A & O and now K & E. A & O have never recognized his selfless contribution to the development of countless associates and clients, and never will of course now that he is at K & E. Clients love him, associates love him, the market loves him! About time he is recognized.
Anon —now partner thanks to Gillespie.
Alan Steinfeld QC
Alan Steinfeld QC – may not be a headline grabber like some but gave the best and most consummate performance I have ever seen in court.
Black Solicitors’ Network Hall of Fame nominations
(1) Yvonne Brown. Yvonne was a founder member of the Black Solicitors’ Network and its first chair when it received a recognised status from the Law Society in 2003/2004. Yvonne Brown ran her own successful family
childcare and Education practice in Shoreditch for many years before becoming a consultant.
(2)We would also nominate Trevor Faure, Vice President & General Counsel, Tyco International, a Legal pioneer.
Faure fired the 300 law firms working for him and invited them to re-tender on the basis of diversity, none were re-selected. He’s founded a social fund in South Africa and was privately received by Nelson Mandela for its launch. Trevor was identified at number 6 in the top 100 most influential black people in Britain by the new Nation/Observer in August 2007. He was also formally a general counsel EMEA and former European Councillor of Apple Computers.
(3) Oba Nsugbe QC, Head at 3 Pump Court Chambers. Oba is one of the select band of lawyers who is both a QC and a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. Oba is a founder of the Carter Diversity Group that has brought together a number of organisations such as the Black Solicitors Network, the Society of Asian Lawyers and the Association of Muslim Lawyers to lobby on behalf of BME Groups in relation to the proposed Legal Aid Reforms. Oba is also the leading member of the British Nigeria Lawyers Forum.
In addition to community work, Oba is top ranked in Chambers for his work within Health and Safety and Prosecution and has also been instructed in
environmental law, insolvency, Directors disqualifications. Oba has sat on many professional boards including the Bar Council, Professional Conduct Committee and the Glidewell Committee on Judicial Appointments for Silks.
Gareth Pierce and Helena Kennedy
Gareth Pierce obviously – reminding us that the rule of law is right up there with democracy and civil liberties as the marks of a civilised society and that to be a lawyer can be a noble calling; Helena Kennedy for keeping on with a feminist perspective in a period when to be a feminist (as I unashamedly am) is unfashionable but doing so in an irresistably intelligent and engaging way.
hall of fame
Lord Denning ….a man always ahead of his time who had a fundamental impact on developing the law for Everyman (and remembering the deserted wife’s equity) Everywoman.
Hall of Fame nomination
Geoffrey Voss QC. Obviously he is very eminent now in a whole variety of ways. He has transformed his own practise, and in some respects the reputation of the Chancery Bar, from something obscure and old fashioned to something modern and commercial.
Hall of Fame
Lord Mackay – The last proper lord chancellor we have had for 20 years
ALLY McBEAL??????
Hardly!!! If ever there was a creature who was single handedly responsible for the diabolical myth that intelligent women can only work in a professional environment with a dizzy unfocussed mind merely by wearing a short skirt and setting her clutches on the married and/or senior partners in the firm, then she was it.
Hall of Fame – Don’t forget ILEX!
With their profile (and numbers) ever increasing how about acknowledging the role that Legal Executives have managed to carve out for themselves? Studying whilst working, often women returning to work with few formal qualifications, they have managed to build careers despite the many hurdles, lack of recognition and career advancement that has been on offer. In particular, Caroline Greathead, one of the founder members of the Solicitors for the Elderly. She has become recognised as a champion and leader in the fight for the protection of the rights of elderly clients.
Working with organisations such as Age Concern, Alzheimer’s Disease, Multiple Sclerosis and Downs Syndrome.
She is a fine example to us all, demonstrating that at its core law should never be all about the money!
Sir Arthur Watts
Simply the best