TL 4 August 2014

Cat Griffiths index
1

A distinctive future for the bar

In a typically provocative opinion piece this week, Mark Brandon muses on the research by US consultant Bruce MacEwen, which finds (and I paraphrase) that fiddling around with financial levers does not lead to increased performance. Brandon rightly argues that tinkering with metrics is not the path to success. It’s knowing who you are and […]

watmough

RPC’s next challenge

Culture will absorb management’s attention now the corporate business is rooted Last month when RPC reported its first fall in net profit in five years, managing partner Jonathan Watmough insisted the culprit was his firm’s long-term investments. The profit dip in the all-equity partnership also meant a fall in average profit per equity partner (PEP), […]

gaza

Lawyers tough it out in a troubled world

Stoic lawyers who keep the wheels of business turning in conflict zones With the headlines dominated by news of bombs in Gaza, continuing  violence in Ukraine and multiple crises in other parts of the world, it can sometimes be forgotten that, for those who are living in these regions and often facing terrible conditions, normal […]

Brandon
3

Mark Brandon: The cultural costs of those sky-high salaries

Why is lawyers’ pay so high? Not because it benefits the business, say the stats Ah, summer. A time to kick back, to look at law firms’ numbers coming in ahead of The Lawyer’s annual UK 200 analysis and wonder what I would do if I earned £400,000, £500,000 or £600,000 – or even £1.4m […]

the bar
9

The bar 2020: Divide and rule

Jackson, legal aid cuts and pressure on fees have put the bar on course for a fractured future where commercial stars race ahead and others hit a dead end The bar is anything but immune from the changes coursing through the UK legal market and, as new data for The Lawyer’s UK 200 reveals, there […]

PPI
2

Professional indemnity insurance – A survival guide

Navigating the renewals maze for PII has only got harder. We provide a guide to the sector’s underwriters while brokers advise on the best line of action As hundreds of firms prepare to renew their insurance cover for the next year, so many will discover this is a market that has been subjected, once again, […]

Israel

Israel – Law in a war zone

Israel’s conflict with Hamas-controlled Gaza is escalating. Is this a place where lawyers can still do international business? The only certainty around Israel is that nothing is certain – the geo-political picture is evolving by the day. As one Israeli lawyer comments when asked to forecast practice trends for the next six months, “In some […]

Ashurst

Funds – Social climbers

Entries for this year’s Lawyer Awards Funds Team of the Year saw innovative structures and many firsts for good causes Investment funds cover a multitude of areas, and the flexibility of the structures on offer these days means this is one practice area that really rewards innovation. That was the single uniting factor among the […]

Flemming

Moves 4 August 2014

Move of the week Hogan Lovells has recruited real estate finance partners Andrew Flemming and Jo Solomon to join its London finance practice. The pair join from Berwin Leighton Paisner, where they were both partners. Flemming’s transactional experience includes advising Barclays Capital on a £660m loan-on-loan to Maybourne Finance while Solomon’s deals include advising on […]

Daniels
1

In-house interview: CPA Global GC Ruth Daniels

As you might expect from a legal outsourcer, value and efficiency are compulsory for CPA Global’s GC Ruth Daniels International intellectual property (IP) management business CPA Global has built much of its business by pitching IP and legal services outsourcing (LSO) direct to multinational companies. While most of the work CPA handles in the LSO space […]

Toronto
2

Canada – The long trail

A&O is the first magic circle firm to tiptoe into Canada but despite the strong economy, there is good reason why local players are not expecting a stampede When Allen & Overy’s (A&O) Casablanca founding partner François Duquette voiced his intention to return to Canada nine months ago the firm was left in a pickle. […]