Tech incubator schemes: too many start-ups, not enough ideas
The massive investment from big organisations into legal tech startups is just the beginning. They have to prove it’s worth it, Matilda Munro reports.
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Making partner – should firms pick up the pace to promotion?
As the road to partnership gets longer, some law firms are creating alternative career pathways to manage talent retention.
High society: Canada braces for cannabis M&A boom
The recreational drugs trade is rarely thought of as a sector for M&A lawyers to capitalise on, but in Canada that is exactly what is happening. The Canadian government has just introduced laws that will legalise marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes, creating opportunities for lawyers to act on M&A deals for companies looking to […]
In the shadow of Slaughter and May: how is Luminance winning clients?
Last week, South African firm Webber Wentzel announced that it was partnering with AI platform Luminance in order to automate its M&A document review. Herein lie two households, both alike in dignity: Webber Wentzel is in alliance with Linklaters, while one of Linklaters’ biggest corporate rivals, Slaughter and May, has a 5 per cent stake […]
The awkward question of succession at Bird & Bird
Critics insist Bird & Bird is a dictatorship, with CEO David Kerr ensconced at the top. It could make discussing succession a bit tricky
Network Rail challenge: 100 changes in 100 days
How do you drive efficiency and create engagement in a dispersed team? Get them to suggest small changes.
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Hyundai case study: Car trouble
Hyundai’s legal team turned a problem with greydealers into a brand and financial win-win for its customers and the business. Here’s how In early 2016, members of the sales department at car manufacturer Hyundai began to notice something odd: the official registration data from various countries, in particular France, showed a significant increase in the […]
The Invicta story: How Geoff Wild revolutionised public sector legal services
Rooting out the legal team’s civil servant mentality and spendthrift ways was head of Kent County Council in-house team Geoff Wild’s original intention. Twenty years on and he has revolutionised public sector provision. This is the story of Invicta Law Invicta Law’s journey from troubled in-house legal team to profitable alternative business structure (ABS) providing […]
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A&O veteran Philip Wood: What I learned from 50 years in law
Allen & Overy’s (A&O) former banking head Philip Wood QC is retiring at the end of this month after half a century in the magic circle firm.
Bird & Bird’s succession taboo rings alarm bells
Politics is the juice of law firms. Publicly, lawyers will disdain discussions of partnership hierarchies and the individuals within them; privately, they relish them. And why not? Firm politics, the distillation of the personal and organisational, both illuminates and shapes strategy. It’s worth, then, paying attention to the terms people use when describing their firm’s […]
A&O and O’Melveny: At last some realism about global mergers
Oh, this is cute. A&O’s overture to O’Melveny & Myers yet again underlines the magic circle firm’s reputation for lateral thinking. For the last five years A&O has been consistently rumoured to be on the verge of doing a deal with Shearman & Sterling. Bypassing New York in favour of a West Coast play – […]
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Gender pay gap reporting: a Wombat?
As the deadline for gender pay gap reporting draws to a close, the question is whether it will help the legal profession to progress towards achieving widely-shared objectives or whether it is just another regulatory burden with which solicitors must cope.
Law firms, wake up. It’s time to report partner gender pay gap figures
If the likes of sprawling global firms like DLA Piper or Reed Smith can do it, what’s the excuse for the 40-odd firms that haven’t?
Latham succession: Trobman may have London clout, but he’ll have to convince the Americans
This isn’t the first time Richard Trobman has been flown in to save the day for Latham & Watkins. As a fresh-faced partner in 2001, Trobman was brought over to Latham’s City outpost to revive the firm’s capital markets offering.
Latham: The rise and very public fall of Bill Voge
What a way to go. If anyone was wondering what it would take for the global chair of a $3bn law firm to stand down from his position, yesterday’s shock revelation, which has since been updated as more details have emerged, provided the answer. For it to have happened to the global law’s golden firm […]
MIPIM 2018 blog: DLA Piper’s Antoine Mercier
MIPIM 2018 has begun and The Lawyer’s MIPIM columns are back. The first installment comes from DLA Piper global co-chair of real estate, Antoine Mercier.
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Comment: Flexible working isn’t just for women – inclusion in law firms is about age too
Gender, gender, gender: how firms retain female talent is a board-level discussion point. The born-again evangelism among managing partners isn’t feigned, I grant you, but it’s pretty one-note, as if the rhetoric of anxiety makes up for the distinct lack of solutions. To complicate matters further, other diversity issues are beginning to emerge. Just as […]
The legal profession’s men: a pure and noble breed?
One of the questions The Lawyer asked in our recent sexual harassment survey, the first findings of which were revealed yesterday, was whether lawyers had reconsidered any of their past actions in the workplace in a new light, given the emergence of the #MeToo movement and the sexual harassment revelations that have been splashed over the […]
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Law firms and access to justice: Why the 1% should pay 1%
In a letter to major companies in January, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink said: “To prosper over time, every company must not only deliver financial performance but also show how it makes a positive contribution to society. “Companies must benefit all their stakeholders, including shareholders, employees, customers and the communities in which they operate.” Such […]
Career clinic: How to progress your career after a law firm merger
The Lawyer’s Career Clinic panel advises on how to continue to thrive in a new structure when your law firm merges with a larger one. “I’m a newly qualified solicitor and my firm is about to merge. I’ve built up an amount of goodwill in my firm during my training contract but I’m not sure […]
Global growth obsession: Six firms that are setting the trend
In 2016 Global 200 billings totalled $128.4bn – a 3 per cent increase on 2015’s $124.4bn. A large part of that growth is thanks to six ambitious firms.
Herbert Smith Freehills tops mammoth settlements in 2017
If settlements are conducted behind closed doors then they seldom achieve the attention and excitement of the cases that make it to trial, for the fact there is no binary winner or loser. That may have to change, because so far, three of The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases for this year have settled.
The sad story of Cobbetts
As it emerges that eight former Cobbetts lawyers have been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal, we recall the story of an ambitious firm caught out by the recession.
Clifford Chance lances the boil with lockstep review
Clifford Chance partners have voted to extend the firm’s lockstep ladder once again this week. But who is going to benefit from this change?
LIA SocGen settlement: This saga is nowhere near over
As far as litigation is concerned, settlements are supposed to be the gentle way out. But in the case between the Libyan Investment Authority and Societe Generale, it has come to signify the end of one headache and the beginning of another.
How partner exits sparked Ashurst’s strategy u-turn
Last year Ashurst’s mounting partner exits signalled serious trouble within its ranks. But as firms prepare to release their year-end financials, the consensus is that the storm at Ashurst has calmed. Will it last?
Nigeria’s power sector weathers the bankability storm
By Nicholas Okafor, Adeola Sunmola and Martins Inyang Credit enhancement tools, a programme involving the World Bank Group and foreign exchange reforms are intended to boost Nigeria’s electricity supply industry…
Artificial intelligence in the workplace: Employment law perspective
By Darran Brennan As with any change to workplaces, employment law will follow. Employment lawyers and the Irish legislature need to consider how current employment law in Ireland may need to adapt to harness the full potential of AI for Irish businesses and, also, to protect employees. William Fry will investigate these issues in a series […]
Age discrimination: RTÉ and University College Dublin
Age discrimination in the workplace is becoming a topical discussion point. Recent cases, involving RTÉ and University College Dublin have added to the debate…
Push Payment Fraud: Update Spring 2018
On 7 November 2017, the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) issued a consultation paper in relation to ‘authorised push payments’ [1], which considered how financial institutions deal with push payment fraud, as well as how customers are compensated once a fraud has taken place. (The paper referred to all ‘payment service providers’, who enable the transfer of […]
The right to be forgotten: What we know now
By Jane Ashford-Thom There are still significant uncertainties as to the scope of the right to be forgotten. One of these uncertainties was whether it applies to historic convictions, particularly where they are deemed ‘spent’ under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act. The position has been clarified in the widely publicised case of ‘NT1’ and ‘NT2’ […]
Embracing change: a critical element to Guernsey’s success
Guernsey has continued to be an exceptionally successful jurisdiction with a high standard of living, enviable quality of life and buoyant economy throughout the vast majority of the last four decades… …That outward facing posture led to Guernsey introducing a comprehensive regulatory framework for all investment activities and investment funds as far back as 1987, […]
New Serbian law on foreigners adopted
In March 2018, the new Serbian Law on Foreigners was adopted, replacing the 2008 version of this law in force until recently without any amendments. The new law will enter into force on 3 October 2018. While retaining the general concept of the previous law, the new legislation introduces certain novelties in terms of […]
Was 2017 another difficult year for Kazakhstan?
In this article, Shaimerden Chikanayev outlines some of the key legal developments and challenges faced by the Islamic finance market in Kazakhstan in 2017 and provides an overview of some of the major factors that will shape the Islamic finance industry’s growth and trends in Kazakhstan in 2018…
Russia: Federal law sanctions against the US
On 16 April 2018, the Council of the State Duma approved for consideration the draft Federal Law ‘On the Measures (Countermeasures) in Response to Unfriendly Actions of the USA and (or) other Foreign States’ developed by a group of deputies…
Ontario court upholds choice by Alberta guarantors
By Olivia Lifman In a recent decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, the Court addressed whether or not it could assume jurisdiction over two guarantors in Alberta who had signed guarantees in favour of an Ontario lender company…
Indigenous banking: A new niche
By Kelly Campagnola As First Nations continue to settle outstanding grievances with the federal government, and enter into lucrative revenue sharing agreements, the fastemerging niche of Indigenous or Aboriginal banking has become an incredibly competitive segment of business for Canadian financial institutions…
British Columbia: Employment Standards Amendment Act 2018
By Jonathan J. Lam On April 12, 2018, Bill 6, Employment Standards Amendment Act 2018 passed third reading in the BC Legislature and will come into force on royal assent. The bill contains amendments to the BC Employment Standards Act (“ESA”), including the introduction of new and extended statutorilyprotected leaves of absence. This bulletin will provide […]