Name: Rebecca Williams Firm: Watson Farley & Williams Role: Partner Year qualified: 1997 Read her Hot 100 profile What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? I qualified in Australia in 1997 and practised in New South Wales for four and a half years before moving to the UK in 2001. I have many […]
The largest 200 UK law firms are revealed in The Lawyer’s UK 200 latest report.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer’s ex-corporate chief Simon Marchant is joining Shearman & Sterling as a senior adviser on firm and client strategy. Marchant joins Shearman after two years away from the magic circle firm, which he retired from in 2018. This is his second strategic gig at a law firm, travelling out to Australia over 2018/19 […]
The Prime Minister’s Attorney General is facing criticism over her decision to seek advice on planned changes to the Withdrawal Agreement from individuals not on the UK Government’s panels, including a “baby barrister” from Brick Court. The debate concerns advice given to Suella Braverman and solicitor general Michael Ellis, who provided legal opinion on government legislation […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will begin recruiting 100 trainees per year for the first time since 2009, reversing years of decreases. The qualifying cohort of 2022 was only 73 strong, but the firm has been gradually expanding its recruitment levels once more. Last year it was on the hunt for 90 trainees to begin in 2024, […]
Allen & Overy is set to replenish its infrastructure and private equity ranks with the hire of a partner from CMS. Edward Holmes has spent a year and a half at CMS and joined in January 2022 as a partner. He previously spent nearly 12 years at Clifford Chance, where he was a senior associate. His […]
DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Kirkland & Ellis have all advised on the £4.5bn cash buyout of veterinary pharmaceutical company Dechra. EQT and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority subsidiary Luxinva have purchased Dechra in one of the largest private deals of the year to date. Kirkland corporate partners Roger Johnson, Dipak Bhundia and Francesca Harris […]
DAC Beachcroft is reconsidering the sale of its Claims Solutions Group (CSG) following the news the firm was in talks with a private equity fund. The firm was in negotiations with London-based Limerston Capital in April over buying the CSG following a strategic review. However, a firm spokesperson has now said: “Following a strategic review […]
Despite a febrile mood across the equity capital markets sector, Latham & Watkins and Clifford Chance have won one of the largest listing mandates for 2023. We Soda this week announced its intention to apply for admission of its shares to the premium segment of the official list of the FCA and trading on the […]
This report contains: analysis of the financial performance of the largest US firms by UK-generated revenue key metrics highlighting the fragmentation of the market individual firm profiles highlighting financial performance and strategy, hirings and exits, and deals and cases
Identify key recruitment trends in the corporate legal market across all sectors from The Lawyer’s proprietary jobs data Get critical data on firms that have hired most corporate lawyers and firms that have lost most corporate lawyers. Also see where a firm’s hires have come from and where a firm’s lawyers have gone to Compare the […]
This report contains: a brief look at the latest trends in life sciences sparked or accelerated by Covid-19 analysis of the main law firms working in the area across the spectrum of contentious and non-contentious practices insight into the 100 largest UK life sciences deals since 2020
This report contains stratification of the market by firmwide headcount at the domestic Italian firms comparison to the international firms that are present there context for how the market has reached this point following the era of mass privatisation in Italy
This report contains: a ranking of the largest chambers by tenant headcount in the last financial year a look at the changes in headcount over the past year, barristers’ year of call, retention rates and gender diversity data from The Lawyer‘s Litigation Tracker offering insight into which chambers feature most in some of the main […]
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Employee ownership makes for more successful firms
You need a couple of attempts to crack America. For Allen & Overy, the O’Melveny negotiation was simply the appetiser before the main course. Ashurst, though, has had a few too many sharing plates. Who can forget the rejection of Latham? The talks with Fried Frank that led to the Ashurst managing partner defecting to […]
Hybrid working has been a significant success for Big Law, with lawyers now used to being able to switch between meetings and the domestic chores. Yes, the working day might be longer, but it’s been more productive for both home and work life. Sadly, the washing may begin to pile up again, as new research […]
All the magic circle’s partner promotions are in for 2023, so what’s interesting about those made up in London this year? Here are a few points that jump out. The magic circle is even less Oxbridgey than ever Just 30 per cent of the 46 new magic circle partners this year hailed from Cambridge (seven) […]
Dodgy-looking characters losing thousands in the casino, sky-high fountain displays dancing in front of glitzy hotels, and George Clooney with his 11-strong mob breaking into vaults are sights you expect to witness in Las Vegas. And a recent holiday to Sin City did not disappoint – except the Clooney part, unfortunately. What was unexpected was […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer will begin recruiting 100 trainees per year for the first time since 2009, reversing years of decreases. The qualifying cohort of 2022 was only 73 strong, but the firm has been gradually expanding its recruitment levels once more. Last year it was on the hunt for 90 trainees to begin in 2024, […]
Allen & Overy is set to replenish its infrastructure and private equity ranks with the hire of a partner from CMS. Edward Holmes has spent a year and a half at CMS and joined in January 2022 as a partner. He previously spent nearly 12 years at Clifford Chance, where he was a senior associate. His […]
DLA Piper, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Kirkland & Ellis have all advised on the £4.5bn cash buyout of veterinary pharmaceutical company Dechra. EQT and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority subsidiary Luxinva have purchased Dechra in one of the largest private deals of the year to date. Kirkland corporate partners Roger Johnson, Dipak Bhundia and Francesca Harris […]
DAC Beachcroft is reconsidering the sale of its Claims Solutions Group (CSG) following the news the firm was in talks with a private equity fund. The firm was in negotiations with London-based Limerston Capital in April over buying the CSG following a strategic review. However, a firm spokesperson has now said: “Following a strategic review […]
Despite a febrile mood across the equity capital markets sector, Latham & Watkins and Clifford Chance have won one of the largest listing mandates for 2023. We Soda this week announced its intention to apply for admission of its shares to the premium segment of the official list of the FCA and trading on the […]
