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 […]
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 […]
Critics insist Bird & Bird is a dictatorship, with CEO David Kerr ensconced at the top. It could make discussing succession a bit tricky
The day of the corporate big beast is over. What can the magic circle do to nurture its next crop of superstars?
Boards expect their general counsel to play a pivotal role in Brexit planning. But does reality match expectations? Despite recent Brexit developments, uncertainty remains over the UK’s future relationship with the EU. Large companies are responding to this uncertainty by triggering their contingency plans. According to a survey of 100 large UK listed and unlisted […]
How do you drive efficiency and create engagement in a dispersed team? Get them to suggest small changes.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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 – […]
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.
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?
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.
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 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.
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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.
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.
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 partners have voted to extend the firm’s lockstep ladder once again this week. But who is going to benefit from this change?
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.
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?
By Richard Fear, partner and Maree Martin, head professional support lawyer Since our Cayman Islands Beneficial Ownership Regime Alert in May 2017, the Cayman Islands Government has amended the beneficial ownership regime, and has issued further regulations. The Amending Laws modify who must comply with the beneficial ownership regime and impose new filing obligations on […]
On 14 April 2018, the changes to the Federal Law ‘On Currency Regulation and Currency Control’ (the ‘Currency Regulation Law’) and the Code of the Russian Federation ‘On Administrative Offenses’ introduced by Federal Law No. 64-FZ dated 3 April 2018 became effective, which provide for the obligation of Russian residents to repatriate to their accounts […]
By Shaimerden Chikanayev As Central Asia’s largest and richest country, with a Muslim-majority population of around 18 million people, Kazakhstan wants its local Islamic banking industry, as an alternative source of capital for SMEs, to reach 3-5% of its total banking assets by 2020 from 0.08% in 2015…
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) has settled High Court proceedings brought by two former Athlone Town football players suspended by the FAI for match- xing. The proceedings concerned an appeal by the players Igors Labuts and Dragos Sfrijan against a 12 month suspension imposed by the FAI Independent Disciplinary Committee (Disciplinary Committee). The suspension […]
As reported last year, Government has introduced legislation enabling the introduction of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) in an attempt to reduce the consumption of sugary drinks. This so-called sugar tax came into force earlier this month. A drink is liable for SDIL if it meets all of the following conditions…
The European Commission has issued a Brexit notice to food business operators regarding the legal repercussions of the UK leaving the European Union. The Commission warns that EU food law may cease to apply to the UK from 30 March 2019 onwards. The consequences of this may include that, among other things, labelling on food […]
Whilst it is not possible to eliminate acrylamide completely from foods, it is possible to take steps to try and ensure that acrylamide levels are as low as reasonably possible. This is the reasoning behind the new Commission Regulation (EU) 2017/2158 which came into force this month. As from 11 April 2018, all food business […]
A recent case in the commercial court has highlighted that the change in wording between the 1992 and 2002 ISDA Master Agreements in relation to the calculation of the amount payable on early termination is a significant one. Under the 2002 agreement, the calculation of the close-out amount has to be objectively reasonable and not […]
By Sarah Green The power of the court (or otherwise) to order that a property be sold on divorce during the course of proceedings has often been the subject of debate. The default approach has tended to be to wait until a final hearing, where it is clear that the court has power to make […]
Following an examination by the Competition Protection Agency regarding unfair trading practices in the food supply chain (for further information please see “Unfair trading practices in food supply chain examined”), the government drafted a proposal to amend and supplement the Agriculture Act. The proposal contained some major changes to the food supply sector. Parliament accepted […]
My home is my castle. Unfortunately, the Austrian Supreme Court (“OGH”) doesn’t think so. The Austrian Civil Code (ABGB) entitles property owners to prohibit all emissions that exceed the local norm and have a substantial effect on the customary use of their property. Here are some rulings that the OGH has made since 2011…
The European Commission has just published its comprehensive proposal for the so-called “New Deal for Consumers”, which aims to strengthen EU consumer rights and enforcement. This includes the proposal for a new Directive enabling certain qualified entities to seek redress on behalf of consumers who have been harmed by an unlawful commercial practice. Collective redress […]