Today’s savvy General Counsel (GCs) are facing a raft of challenges posed by tech, resourcing, and budget constraints, with in-house teams stretched beyond capacity. While some challenges offer opportunities for GCs to change their organisation’s approach – for example resourcing – how can GCs justify investment in their function when budgets are being slashed? […]
White & Case has hired a partner from Linklaters’ corporate practice in the latest move from the magic circle firm. Savi Hebbur joins White & Case’s London office. He acts on M&A deals and is also set to expand the firm’s India country practice. White & Case global M&A head John Reiss said: “Indian companies remain […]
Name: Gurminder Kaur Nijjar Organisation: Irwin Mitchell Role: Group Deputy General Counsel Based: Birmingham Trained at: Harvey McKibbin Solicitors Year qualified: 2011 What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Attending a hearing on behalf of client for their alcohol/premises licence application. The client found the whole process confusing and was completely reliant on […]
We’re all watching eagerly for the changes coming at Allen & Overy on 1 May as its merger with Shearman & Sterling finally goes live. But Addleshaws has its own significant change that day. Next Wednesday, Andrew Johnston will officially kick off his tenure as managing partner with longstanding incumbent John Joyce stepping aside. Addleshaws […]
On Monday, an explosive trial between IBM UK and Swiss software developer LzLabs is set to commence for nine weeks, with Quinn Emanuel and Clifford Chance going head-to-head for their respective clients. Quinn Emanuel-backed IBM brought the lawsuit in 2021, alleging it is “inconceivable” that LzLabs could have developed its rival technology – which can […]
For this week’s Spotlight, we’re highlighting Baker McKenzie’s employment law team to see how rising industrial action, new technologies and regulations are changing the field. The market Unfair dismissal claims and misconduct remain the bread and butter of defendant side employment lawyers. However, whistleblowing claims, involving regulatory angles are taking on a growing role in […]
We’re all watching eagerly for the changes coming at Allen & Overy on 1 May as its merger with Shearman & Sterling finally goes live. But Addleshaws has its own significant change that day. Next Wednesday, Andrew Johnston will officially kick off his tenure as managing partner with longstanding incumbent John Joyce stepping aside. Addleshaws […]
There’s no doubt that firms are using non-UK growth to power their global figures. Of the 35 Top 50 firms for which The Lawyer has historical global revenue data, all but four saw higher growth outside the UK in the five years since 2019. Included in this group is Herbert Smith Freehillls (HSF), where London remains […]
Which law firms are private equity houses looking to invest in? The answer, if the conversations we’re having with managing partners are anything to go by, is ‘pretty much all of them’. Most regional firms of note have had speculative approaches at some time in the last five years or so, as private equity gradually […]
Over two decades Peter Jackson has steered his firm through mergers, spin-offs and redundancies to growth
Corporate teams at Slaughter and May and Travers Smith are relying on larger – and younger – teams of associates to power up their revenues. According to data collected by The Lawyer’s Practice Analysis service, firms housing a larger number of junior lawyers help to grow revenues quicker compared to firms with a more senior […]
Leeds: Leeds’ legal industry has been going through a resurgence. The city, once known for being the largest legal hub outside of London a couple decades ago, had fallen behind the bustling centres of Manchester and Bristol in the years that followed. But with seven UK100 firms having opened in Leeds since the Covid-19 pandemic […]
Addleshaw Goddard’s energy practice has come a long way from doing the “weird renewables stuff” in the 90s, now aiming for £70m in revenue by the decade’s end.
North West: As revealed in The Lawyer on Tuesday, Brabners has kicked off a new three-year strategy. The last one certainly paid dividends, and newly-reelected managing partner Nik White was in ebullient spirits when he talked to Beyond the Bubble earlier this week. “It’s the power of 24,” he says cryptically, before explaining that “it […]
The wait is finally over. In just under a week, the transformational merger between Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling will go live. But while the deal is done, the job is only just beginning. On this episode of The Lawyer Podcast, editor Catrin Griffiths and litigation editor Christian Smith look at how the […]
The Lawyer‘s Christian Smith, Catrin Griffiths, Richard Simmons, Katy Dowell and Charlotte Lear are joined by College of Legal Practice CEO Giles Proctor for this emergency episode of The Lawyer Podcast as they discuss the latest Solicitors Qualification Exam debacle: marking errors that led to 175 students being incorrectly told they had failed. What went […]
Regional offices have long been critical to some of the UK’s biggest law firms. The essential components of today’s DLA Piper came from across the country, legacy Eversheds was formed of four firms from outside London, and Pinsent Masons has Birmingham and Leeds heritage. But in recent years, some of those firms’ regional offerings have […]
The new episode of The Lawyer Podcast is out now! Grabbing the attention of aspiring solicitors and spectators alike, criticism of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination has torn through the media over the weeks following the most recent set of results. From City firms dropping training contracts from offer holders after failing on their first attempt, […]
A duo from Travers Smith is leaving for Goodwin Procter, as exits from the UK firm’s corporate team continue. Partners Ian Keefe and George Weavil are joining Goodwin’s private equity team. Their arrivals follow the exit of a team from Goodwin to Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, led by partner Christian Iwasko. Both Weavil […]
Costs management has been in place for nearly 11 years now. Few commercial litigators have expressed much love for it but last year’s report of the Civil Justice Council’s costs working party made clear that it is not going anywhere. Headed by Lord Justice Birss, the deputy head of civil justice, it said costs budgeting […]
The ex-general counsel of Haleon has announced that he has joined energy and chemicals business Aramco, which is based in Saudi Arabia. Bjarne Tellman was hired by GSK four years ago to prepare the company for the creation of Haleon, one of the UK’s largest corporate demergers in 20 years. The purpose of the demerger […]
Since Katja Roth Pellanda joined Zurich Insurance in 2020, a lot has changed. The GC has broken down the silos in the 700-person legal function, reducing the distance between the regions and the corporate centre. Zurich Insurance is a Swiss-based insurance company that has a presence in approximately 80 countries. With such a large business, […]
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, […]
Name: Shikha Sethi Organisation: Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Role: Director & Legal Counsel, EMEA Based: London Trained at: Allens (Sydney, Australia) Year qualified: 2012 What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Making my first court appearance to request a stay of proceedings. I spent the entire morning nervously rehearsing the three sentences I […]
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Hearing, your insider’s guide to the UK litigation market. As the Lords and the Commons finally settled on the new Safety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Bill in the early hours of Tuesday morning, attention began to shift to how the Government planned, both practically and legally, to […]
Womble Bond Dickinson is facing a multimillion-pound negligence claim filed by former clients over a failed real estate redevelopment project in Kensington. The claimants, businessman Kristian Siem, property developer Steven Wake and his company Chapters, were advised by WBD senior counsel (then partner) Robert Drewett in their redevelopment project in 2017. They allege that the […]
Ryanair launches fresh battle for the skies Budget air travel behemoth Ryanair launched a part 7 claim against the UK’s air traffic control operator, NATS (National Air Traffic Services) in the Commercial Court on Friday (19 April). The part 7 claim, which seeks monetary redress for claimed damages, is set to tackle “general commercial contracts […]
Moderna takes on Pfizer in Covid-19 patent clash Pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Moderna are due to go head to head in the Patents Court tomorrow (23 April) for a 16-day trial concerning the Covid-19 vaccines they developed during the pandemic. Freshfields is representing the claimant Moderna, while Pfizer is being represented by Taylor Wessing for […]
Timothy Wilkins, global partner for client sustainability at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, talks to The Lawyer about key ESG trends that will land on general counsel’s desks in the near future as well as the unique opportunities ESG present for lawyers to add value to their organisation.
Thomson Reuters’ chief product officer for legal tech Kriti Sharma talks to The Lawyer about holding technology and tech companies more accountable for user needs, what can be done to reduce tech waste and getting tech companies to work better together.
Emma Carr, partner at Gowling WLG, talks to The Lawyer about how the in-house function has changed over the past 10-15 years and shared her views on what the legal team of the future might look like.
Independents The Lawyer’s last part of the UK 200 – The Independents – which focuses on the firms in the lower half of the UK 200 is out now! The Independents account for just 6 per cent of the total UK 200 revenue and we talk about some of the pressures that The Independents are facing […]
Here’s a rundown by litigation reporters Annabel Tinson and Maria Ward-Brennan on the new weekly content on The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker, which started in October 2022. As Litigation Tracker subscribers already know, on Monday, In court this week comes out, which details some of the most interesting cases hitting the courts that week. On Wednesday, Claim Spotter is released, which looks […]
China top 30 The China Top 30 features the ranking of the top 30 firms based on revenue, and in-depth analysis of financial performance, headcount and growth. The report highlights that despite an extraordinary 2021, the China top 30 are bracing for 2022 to be their first year of downturn after three decades of growth. […]
Name: Paddy Linighan Organisation: Clyde & Co Role: Chief Sustainability Officer Based: London Trained at: Robson Rhodes Chartered Accountants Year qualified: 1990, ACA, ICAEW What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? I pursued an accountancy training contract not because I wanted to be an accountant per se, but to see and experience how […]
Name: Matthew Merkle Organisation: Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison Role: Partner and head of European capital markets Based: London Trained at: N/A (US-qualified lawyer) Year qualified: 2009 What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee/pupil? As a junior associate in New York, my most vivid impression was a sense of being overwhelmed by […]
Nearly 200 law students were incorrectly told they had failed their first set of Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE) exams, in what the chief executive of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has called “the most serious operational mistake that we’ve made in the last two and half years.” Kaplan, the exam administrator for the SQE, has […]
The legal landscape in England and Wales is rapidly transforming with the introduction of the Solicitors Qualifying Exam (SQE). This shift in the qualification process for legal professionals is reshaping the traditional route to becoming a solicitor, and by 2032, all existing routes will be officially phased out, making it the sole option for aspiring […]