11 June 2012

Whining out

Ex-Dewey partners gather their strength… in a wine bar It started two and a half years ago as a group of former Dewey & LeBoeuf City partners who met occasionally to drink and share memories, but things are getting more serious now. As the US firm’s dissolution sinks in, the group has expanded. Around 10 […]

1

Game excuses

Firms unveil their tactics for dealing with the Olympic rush hour Everything gets overstated amid the buzz of an event like the Olympics. The Family and Parenting Institute charity, for instance, has predicted that this summer’s Games will be a watershed moment for flexible working practices in the UK. But a quick survey of law […]

We can Birkett out

Birketts and Birkett Long rivalry intensifies with tit-for-tat mergers There is a war going on in the Essex legal market. It dates back to 1995, when Birketts and Birkett Long demerged. Fifteen years later Ipswich-based Birketts combined with Chelmsford firm Wollastons, meaning Birketts and Birkett Long were back in competition in Chelmsford for the first […]

2

Winsor not?

Top cops in blue funk as Home Secretary’s golden boy lined up for chief inspector role White & Case partner Tom Winsor’s review of police pay and conditions sparked a 30,000-strong protest in London last month. Unsurprisingly, the announcement that he has been named by Home Secretary Theresa May as first choice to land one […]

Tim Jones
4

Pooling talent

The biggest event on earth needs the biggest and best legal support. Meet the lawyers taking on the Olympian task In the BBC sitcom Twenty Twelve, the team tasked with delivering ­infrastructure for the London 2012 Olympic Games operates in an environment of barely managed panic and semi-chaos. Luckily for London, the atmosphere in the […]

Simon Clark

Tech support

The TMT category in The Lawyer Awards this year has thrown up some outstanding work, with law firms breaking new ground in this fast-moving sector. By Sam Chadderton Some of the legal work being done in the field of TMT is, quite literally, out of this world. The practice area is so cutting edge that […]

Legion in the regions

All eyes will be on London this summer, as this Olympics issue illustrates, but when it comes to legal market action, you’d best watch the regions. Over the past year a number of firms have been reshaping themselves and the competitive environment in the regional mid-tier, and they’ve done it without any grandiloquent plans of […]

Marie McMorrow

Moves: 11 June 2012

Fulbright & Jaworski has appointed former Dewey & LeBoeuf partner and co-chair of international litigation and arbitration groups Deborah Ruff as a partner. Move of the week   Ruff boosts the London office’s disputes practice and international arbitration capabilities, and brings experience in multijurisdictional disputes, particularly in high-value and complex international arbitration in the energy, […]

Eve Giles

Move On Up: Kingsley Napley

A strong HR policy and engagement strategy has paid dividends for staff retention at the London firm London firm Kingsley Napley is a year into its 2011-2014 business plan, which focuses heavily on HR and staff retention. The firm is starting out from a strong base. Over the past six years, it has promoted 13 […]

Job Watch: Employment

Employment law is always popular, but what are the job prospects like? “There’s a lot of work around and lawyers are busy,” notes Mark Walters, an associate director at Argyll Scott. “The appetite to hire, however, is tempered by firms’ lack of budget and a lower level of deal-related employment work.” Gerry Arbuckle, a senior […]

Golvala Charez

Work Life Quiz: Charez Golvala, Chadbourne & Parke

What was your first-ever job?   Newspaper boy. What was your worst experience as a trainee? Briefing clients in person, on Jonathan Sumption’s arguments on the law of restitution during the Ferranti litigation, in my first seat, without any time to prepare. What do you do at weekends? Talk with my wife, walk the dogs, […]

Tulkinghorn: Rockin’ around the clock

It was surely only a matter of time. Late last month Tulkinghorn heard a rumour that Law Rocks, the legal market’s very own battle of the bands, had been put on hold while one of the competitors wrapped up a work-related conference call. Over to Law Rocks organiser Nick Child of Keating Chambers for the […]