The news last Friday that Addleshaw Goddard is clambering aboard the flexible resourcing juggernaut underlines how quickly this part of the legal services market is moving. Over the past couple of years or so a growing number of traditional law firms have followed the trail blazed by Berwin Leighton Paisner, which launched Lawyers on Demand […]
Loss of PE star Oliver Felsenstein must surely force firm’s hand over lockstep reform. “Of course, if we lose a partner it does concern us – some partners more, and some partners less,” Clifford Chance’s co-head of private equity Oliver Felsenstein told The Lawyer last October. It’s likely that Felsenstein’s own resignation last week will […]
BLP’s Lisa Mayhew joins a select few women running law firms. A raft of City firms over the last year or so have signed up to various initiatives and targets designed to improve the still-woeful gender diversity in the UK’s legal market. Many, including Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), have set ambitious aims of dramatically improving the […]
Clifford Chance’s top of equity pay lags behind its peers yet partners have so far resisted change. They may not for much longer. Last month Clifford Chance (CC) confirmed that it was beginning a comprehensive review of its global lockstep remuneration system. It’s a timely move coming as it does amidst a continuing series of […]
Northern cities will need more than token devolved power if they are to become an economic Powerhouse to rival the South-east. The Chancellor recently expanded on his vision of a “Northern Powerhouse”, a hub of commercial activity concentrated around the north of England’s largest cities. This overarching vision forms part of a larger economic goal […]
Move of the week Thomas Eggar has hired Ursula Danagher to be the firm’s new London-based private client practice head. Danagher joined from Mishcon de Reya, where she was a partner in the firm’s family team since 2013. She will lead Thomas Eggar’s 100-strong private client team, and will work on creating a strong family […]
While deal numbers were up last year, their value rocketed – and this time it’s not the US firms taking the lion’s share. The past few years have been stormy to say the least for European M&A. But finally in 2014, some rays of sunlight were starting to break through. According to Thomson Reuters, there […]
Tough international competition means that diversification is the watchword in the Turkish legal market. Turkey’s promise of a fast-growing economy and its location as a gateway to the East has turned it into a coveted go-to destination for international firms. The slowing down of the economy, however, has meant that independent firms have had to […]
Litigation funding continues to gain in popularity and the market is diversifying. Have you seen any fallout yet from Lord Justice Christopher Clarke’s October decision to hand indemnity costs in the Excalibur case to the litigation funders? What do you think the impact will be for the industry? Tim Hardy, commercial litigation head, CMS: The […]
After a surge of activity including a restructure that scattered legal services across the business and deep cuts to the panel roster, the EDF Energy team say they are the stronger for it. Over the past year the legal team at EDF Energy has grappled with a company-wide restructure, intense scrutiny from the energy regulator […]