The value of UK-related deals tumbled over 2019, though there are signs that 2020 may be different. The question is, which firms can hold their nerve over the next 12 months? On last year’s showing, there are some good signs for UK outfits in particular.
Barclays’ legal team was once among the most influential in the UK. That power has diminished over the last decade, yet the banking giant still packs a punch when it comes to talent management. Some 40 lawyers are understood to have left Barclays in the UK last year. There are cost-cutting measures at play here, […]
Keystone Law, the poster child for the platform firm, is likely to break the psychologically important £100m revenue barrier in 2025. The success of this firm has spawned a new market, which is challenging traditional firms on the talent front. More than 3,500 lawyers now work across a variety of fee-sharing outfits, research from Atlas […]
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, Gowling WLG and Norton Rose Fulbright’s London offices will all be under water in a few decades. This trio shares idyllic views overlooking the Thames, but they will all be submerged in the river by the year 2100 as climate change-induced sea level rises occur. And this is based on the […]
Talent churn is accelerating among the junior ranks with today’s associates more mobile than the generations before them. The concept of long-term professional loyalty is fading as Gen Z rises. These lawyers ask not what they can do for you, but what your firm can do for them. This generational shift in working attitudes is […]
Hooray, big-ticket M&A is having a mini-revival and so are the firms that make so much of their money out of it. Already in 2024, major European M&A deals to have been announced include International Paper’s £5.8bn planned acquisition of London-listed packaging company DS Smith, which trumped another offer from rival Mondi. Other significant matters […]
Partnership promotions are continuing apace, with three City firms announcing a fresh new set of partners for 2024. Addleshaw Goddard has bumped up 26 lawyers this promotions round, which is the largest number of lawyers to make partner in one go in the firm’s history. The international firm’s partner count now stands at 429. Nine […]
Cooley is set to defend LGBTQ+ social networking and dating app Grindr in a High Court class action launched by Austen Hays, a new collective actions firm owned by Gateley. The claim alleges that Grindr is in breach of UK data protection laws for sharing sensitive data with third parties for commercial purposes without their […]
Norway’s Sands has suffered one of the largest mass defections in its history after six partners left to join Big Five firm Wiersholm in Trondheim. The hires bolster Wiersholm in a range of the firm’s key sectors, including marine law, renewables, technology, real estate and tax. The firm has committed to further growth over the […]
Staff at Baker McKenzie are being encouraged to sit next to co-workers outside their teams, in a bid to stop people from flocking to familiar faces on office days. Bakers’ seating scheme at its new London headquarters 280 Bishopsgate is intended to encourage workers to meet people with whom they would not normally interact. While […]
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of all the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition, CMS Wistrand recently went live and its drivers were myriad, but one in particular stood out for us; Poland is dangerously underlawyered in one very particular area; and Pinsents has embarked on […]
