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 […]
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 – […]
Firms are missing out on the benefits of smoothing the path to retirement for their partners. But partners could also help themselves by being better prepared
The profession has a problem
Public interest cases take centre stage this year, with Uber and the NHS among those to have their day in court. Meanwhile, rows over Harvey Weinstein and Brexit wait in the wings
The lawyers and firms taking on the biggest mandates this year
Nestling somewhere near the core of Linklaters’ new global strategy is China, a market that, according to the firm’s calculations, is set to see outbound investment grow to around $1.5trn over the next decade.
The launch of BonelliErede in Egypt, Ethopia and Dubai marked a significant shift in the views of Italian firms towards internationalisation.
Since 2013, the Top 30 firms in China has taken giant strides forward, with average revenue and headcounts soaring.
Legal tech in Germany is not at such an advanced stage as it is in UK and US law firms. As one IT director at a leading Germany firm admits: “It’s not a secret that we in Germany are a little bit behind developments in the US and UK markets.” They are, however, paying particularly close attention to […]
A new breed of legal professional could revolutionise the business Both tech and legal specialists, they are fee-generating and on track for partner status
Go back a couple of years and you could not chuck a stone without hitting a high-profile private equity lawyer heading from one firm to another. The streets were thick with them, lured away from their firms by the promise of greener pastures. As one big-name partner says, “private equity was the poster boy for […]
As lawyers pack their bags for Mipim next week, you can feel the ripples of unease that this year they will be the focus of unprecedented public scrutiny.
Financial pressures, crystal ball gazing and market uncertainty all play their part in making the job of leading a legal department a huge challenge. In this roundtable, lawyers from FTSE 100 companies debate legal operations efficiencies in the face of the challenge to ‘do more with less’. At a morning roundtable in London in association with […]
The idea of offering partner retirement assistance is heartily supported by top law firms. However, the results of our survey reveal that what they actually provide lacks the structure and innovative thinking found at the big accountacy firms. “To what extent do you think that both firms and partners nearing retirement benefit if the former […]
The Lawyer Litigation Tracker 2017 reveals a ground-breaking year for the English courts, with landmark judgments reached in a number of areas of law that have set precedents and reformulated long-standing legal principles. However, it was also a year in which fewer cases went all the way to judgment. Some 2,412 judgments were tracked by […]
Successful silks in the latest QC appointments list discuss their application challenges, greater gender diversity and common class misconceptions.
In a highly competitive and low-growth market, firms are increasingly turning to technology and innovation to stay ahead of competition while boosting efficiency and profitability. Asia-based firms are no exception. Those in Australia and Singapore, where growth has been harder to achieve, are leading the charge. Over the past few years, ‘legal hackathon’ and ‘design […]
FTSE 100 legal departments may be changing, with more female representation, but the ever-increasing pressure on external firms is a familiar story