Let the awards season begin

A tried and tested coping strategy to make it through January’s gloom is to book a summer holiday to give yourself something to look forward to on those cold, dark mornings.

Unfortunately, law firms can’t take holidays (even if one or two on the Continent appear to) but The Lawyer Awards in association with Travelers – easily the next best thing - is on hand to give firms something equally exciting to set their minds to, and it’s open for entry now.

This year’s awards look set to be the biggest yet. There are two new categories – Funds Team of the Year and Client Partner of the Year – with in-house counsel being given the opportunity to have their say on who should win the latter. Also for the first time certain shortlisted firms and individuals will be asked to attend roundtable discussions on specific topics.

One feature of the glittering 2012 awards, which saw London’s Grosvenor House Hotel packed to the rafters with the great and good of the legal profession, that will probably not return in 2013 is Mishcon de Reya’s in-house band, The Enlightened Tenacitists, which shared the night’s billing with Berwin Leighton Paisner’s Real State. The group is on hiatus after losing its frontman, who also did a bit of property law for the firm when the mood took him, to Field Fisher Waterhouse.

It was a bit rum of FFW to deprive Mishcon of such a vital cog in its machine, but then all’s fair in love and law.

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Also on The Lawyer.com:

• Simmons completes its German Triangle, launching its third office in the country in Munich

• Follett Stock managing partner accused of bullying a female solicitor at the firm

• 10 Chambers have signed up to the new Barco scheme, which provide a way for barristers to accept client money directly and makes direct access to the bar easier for clients