Late into the night at Côte Brasserie in Barbican, two lawyers are deep in quiet conversation. The topic: what Boies Schiller’s London office does next. It was early December 2021. It had been a few weeks since Natasha Harrison, once touted as the heir apparent to prominent founder David Boies, announced she was leaving the […]
The richest partners save hundreds of thousands a year because of the national insurance rules.
This week marked a year since the Supreme Court’s decision in Lloyd v Google in which a multibillion-pound data protection claim brought against the tech giant was thrown out. The immediate aftermath saw a long pipeline of data claims dropped in a flash. But 12 months on and claimant firms are anticipating a bounce-back. Here are […]
Meetings between law firm leaders can be casual, just a polite meeting to chew the fat over a cup of coffee, or they can have a serious intent. Last month, when Dickson Minto’s de facto managing partner Jordan Simpson met with a delegation from New York’s Fried Frank, it was the latter. Make no mistake, […]
UK law firm revenues are up for the first half of the 2022/23 financial year, but many leaders are beginning to feel the squeeze.
While the gender debate rages on between family and friends, on social media and now in the workplace, a growing number of women have been fighting their employers tooth-and-nail over the right to hold gender-critical beliefs without being subject to workplace discrimination. In 2021, the Employment Appeal Tribunal ruled that think-tank researcher Maya Forstater […]
Let’s do some maths. If you take away weekends, bank holidays and a 25-day holiday allowance, full-time employees are likely to work 227 days a year. Given that a usual working day lasts 7.5 hours, you should be putting in at least 1,702 hours in total. Any lawyer with a billable hours target of over […]
After the row over Shearman’s perceived closeness to Kirkland on the Access refinancing, is the law firm designation model on private equity deals about to crumble?
Situated in the Yorkshire Dales, a restoration project spearheaded by Brabners is expected to prevent the loss of at least 450 tonnes of carbon per year.
Anthony Mason has just made history. The sign-writer has finished altering the slatted nameboard outside commercial chambers 5KBW, making a crucial change to its list of silks. The QC titles have been painted over, replaced with a new suffix: KC, for King’s Counsel. For Mason, who’s been in the business for over 30 years, it’s […]
Cryptocurrency, summer getaways, university tales, new-borns, paternity leave, and her own upcoming wedding are among the canteen conversation topics recently encountered by Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner associate Nazia Sohail. Sohail, who joined the transatlantic firm in February 2020, welcomes the office chit chat having worked almost entirely remotely throughout her training contract. “I don’t think […]
A search on The Lawyer’s jobs site reveals the wide pay disparity within the legal sector. Away from the headline-grabbing £100,000 NQ figures, there are business services positions listed from £18,000 and solicitor roles in the regions from £45,000. As highlighted by the Criminal Bar’s ongoing action, there are significant sections within the industry working […]
Mobile infrastructure company Cornerstone tasked Osborne Clarke (OC) to create a bespoke system to support their business with managing and reporting on legal instructions. The firm had senior sponsorship of the project from both sides, with head of legal and compliance Phil Warren leading at Cornerstone, and property disputes partner Leona Briggs and property partner […]
LOD delivered an ambitious plan to simplify how the alternative legal service (ALS) discovered, vetted, on-boarded and retained global talent, along with solving the age-old challenge of time-recording. It involved a complete revision the firm’s existing systems and some uncompromising delivery milestones. The goal of the project was to provide a global legal workforce via […]
When DAC Beachcroft’s commercial and household recovery team started to recognise an increasing need for digitised processes among clients, it identified the potential growth opportunities in the volume of recoveries that might be realised with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Led by partner and head of the firm’s Innovations Lab Pete Allchorne, the team […]
Global business is increasingly familiar with the prospect of short-notice public investigatory attention, whether from regulators, law enforcement, political forces or as a consequence of sanctions, and this can – in in some cases – devastate individual and corporate reputation.
Despite the fact that the threat of an investigation alone can be enough to paralyse a business, early warning signs are often missed and businesses can mistake an investigation risk for a reputation risk. Those who handle serious issues well are able to triage the issue at an early stage and identify its potential impact, […]
Analysis of recent fines suggests that environmental prosecutions are resulting in more substantial fines, especially for ‘very large organisations’.
On September 22, 2021, the Quebec government adopted Bill 64, An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information, enacting significant changes to the requirements governing the use and protection of personal information under various statutes, including notably the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector and the Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the Protection of personal information.
The Data Protection Authority in Hungary (Nemzeti Adatvédelmi és Információszabadság Hatóság), recently published its annual report which included details of a fine of €670,000 (HUF 250,000,000) being imposed on a bank. To date, this fine is the highest imposed by the Hungarian Authority.
Environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) alongside sustainability are hot topics in business right now. Employees are increasingly scrutinising what employers are doing to promote sustainability, not least in the benefits they offer.
In this podcast, Gowling joins leading global infrastructure and renewables market analysts Inspiratia to discuss innovation in the UK power purchase agreement (PPA) market, and whether the prices we see today are transitionary and if so, how PPAs can make such prices sustainable and meet the ever-changing needs of both offtakers and sellers.
Angolan Central Bank (Banco Nacional de Angola) Notice no. 9/22 of 6 April was recently published to establish special schemes for mortgage credit and construction credit.
After a challenging year, UK cities are gaining foreign investment and developing their presence on the global stage. How has the pandemic, COP-26 and officially leaving the EU impacted the value of investment in the UK from a global standpoint?
On April 7, 2022, Ontario released its first-ever Hydrogen Strategy (the Ontario Strategy), making it the latest province to address Canadian hydrogen sector growth through policy.
Ferry company P&O hit the headlines last month when it made 800 workers redundant via an online video call and with almost no notice.
Build to rent is a rapidly growing sector – and one with a lot of potential for developers and investors.