The accountants are making some lawyers jittery. Some, but not all. There are still plenty of lawyers – mostly transactional – who think the accountants’ return to the legal sector is irrelevant to their business. More fool them; they said the same about the Legal Services Act. The new entrants only threaten the volume end, […]
Success of firm’s daring Eurocentric expansion policy silences sceptics Rewind to March 2012. The economy was in the doldrums and many firms were looking for ways to reboot growth. At the 2008/09 year-end Osborne Clarke (OC) saw revenue fall by a staggering 11.9 per cent. It wasn’t alone, many mid-tier firms were suffering the after-effects […]
Move of the week Weil Gotshal & Manges has hired Latham & Watkins finance partner Reena Gogna. Her practice is focused on advising on acquisition finance deals. Recent clients include Hayfin Capital Management, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. UK London Druces has recruited Nicholas Fisher as a partner. He was previously a partner […]
Tailoring a patched up legal function into a bespoke unit was the task facing Lindsay Beardsell when she took over as GC at Supergroup, parent of fashion company Superdry Even in a profession where ‘dress-down Fridays’ have become the norm and the tie an endangered species, most lawyers would not skip into the office kitted […]
A flair for innovation sets apart the banking and finance teams on this year’s shortlist for top honours at The Lawyer Awards The improved financial landscape in 2013 was a gift to banking and finance lawyers, offering an abundance of opportunities to get creative with their advice to clients. That is reflected in The Lawyer […]
A responsive stance to EU legislation has led to a thriving Maltese funds market. Is it enough to make rumours of a global firm’s move there come true? Voters in Europe’s big beast countries may have sent a strongly sceptical message to their leaders in the union-wide parliamentary elections last month, and given the keepers […]
More power to gender diversity initiatives, as Linklaters gets on board Did Pinsent Masons think it would be a trendsetter when it adopted gender diversity targets in March? They are certainly a must-have now. Linklaters is the first of the magic circle to adopt the initiative. By 2018 it wants 30 per cent of its […]
The big auditors are targeting the legal sector again, and this time the mid-market had better be prepared The accountants’ previous assault on the legal market might have turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, but this time around law firms could really have something to worry about. With PricewaterhouseCoopers’ legal arm […]
Once the microphones are turned off, what are the big questions UK and US lawyers are asking the Chinese? Here they are – and the answers too Not long ago I attended a gathering of senior lawyers from the region to talk about the state of the Asian legal market and key trends and developments […]