Welcome to this week’s edition of The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the UK litigation market. This week, the UK Government wants more people to say they’re sorry, while we consider Monckton Chambers’ strange collection of celebrity tenants. But first, Monday saw the opening day of another Russian oligarch mega-battle in London’s Commercial Court. […]
Dentons has promoted 12 lawyers to partner in the UK, Ireland and Middle East (UKIME) this year, including nine partners in London. Of the remaining three promotions, two were made in Glasgow and one was made in Abu Dhabi. Most of the promotions have been made in the projects team, with Claudia Thomas and Graham […]
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has made up 23 lawyers to partner globally in its smallest round for three years. Last year, the magic circle promoted 30 to partnership worldwide, with 27 making the grade in 2022. There were 22 elevations in 2021. As a result, the London set is also slightly smaller than in previous years. […]
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 […]
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 […]
Scores of lawyers are set to take the hot seat over the coming months as the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry looks deeper into the conduct of practitioners involved in the private prosecutions of sub-postmasters and of the group litigation that saw 555 sub-postmasters take their case to the High Court. As in-housers, private practice […]
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 […]
On Tuesday last week (9 April), the SRA sought to quell a rising tide of discontent around the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE). In its most recent SQE annual report, SRA chief executive Paul Philip said the public and profession could have “confidence” in this “rigorous assessment”. That confidence was short-lived. Yesterday (15 April), Philip was […]
For one firm, the pan-Nordic dream is dead. For another, it’s just begun. Hannes Snellman’s announcement that its Stockholm and Helsinki offices will be going their separate ways later this year represented the end of a strategic gamble that started 16 years ago. Back then, its leadership bet that opening in Stockholm (2008) and Copenhagen […]
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 […]
General counsels are well placed to be chief people officers, top lawyers say, becoming powerful and trusted advisers on the workforce, legal matters and risk.
London: As a construction and energy disputes boutique, Fenwick Elliott is naturally one of the more internationally-minded small firms in the UK market and it is entering a new phase of overseas planning. The firm is currently in the process of applying for a licence to practise in Saudi Arabia. That is still underway, but […]
A solicitor-turned-barrister and the Bar’s newest doctor KC; The Lawyer speaks to six of the Bar’s newest silks. The group was announced as KCs-in-waiting earlier this year, with 95 barristers in total getting the nod. Among the 95 were Crucible Law’s Clea Topolski – who having been called in 2014 – is the most junior of the set. […]
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, […]
Law firms leaders love saying they don’t want growth for growth’s sake, but the truth is, without any growth at all they soon find themselves floundering. So as the financial year draws to a close, litigation editor Christian Smith and deputy editor Rich Simmons are joined by head of insight Matt Byrne, Horizon editor Katy […]
Debevoise & Plimpton is hiring from Goodwin Procter as it adds a new partner to its London investment funds team. Shawn D’Aguiar is switching to a new US firm in London eight years after joining Goodwin from King & Wood Mallesons (KWM). He was part of a four-partner team move led by then funds head Michael […]
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 […]
Barclays lost 44 lawyers in its legal team over 2023, almost four times the average number of leavers across the UK’s top banks. The banks with the second highest number of leavers is tied between HSBC and NatWest, with 12 lawyer exits each, according to indicative data. On the other end of the scale, Royal […]
Two Swiss powerhouses have collaborated to offer their in-house legal teams a two-way secondment programme. Private bank UBS and insurer Zurich Insurance have agreed to swap two secondees each for a three-month placement. Intakes happen in the spring and autumn of each year, meaning that four secondment swaps occur per year. The programme is spearheaded […]
European bank Société Générale has lost its general counsel after 17 years at the business. Sarah Linstead has announced that she has left the bank for financial services firm TP ICAP as general counsel for EMEA. Lindsay Sides, chief operating officer in the London legal department at Société Générale, has stepped up to fill the […]
Santander has cut its UK panel by five following the bank’s latest review of its roster. Originally a panel of 19, the roster of firms has been cut to 14. Firms that have made the cut include Slaughter and May and Allen & Overy, as well as Hogan Lovells and Addleshaw Goddard. A source told […]
Dr Martens gives Temu the boot in new IP claim AirWair, the company behind Dr Martens, is taking on budget online marketplace Temu, registered as “Whaleco”, in a new part 7 “passing off and trade marks” claim filed in the High Court’s Intellectual Property List on 9 April. AirWair is represented by Lewis Silkin in […]
Mammoth SKAT case finally hits Commercial Court for longest-ever hearing The Danish Customs and Tax Administration (SKAT) begins its trial in the Commercial Court today (15 April), marking what is due to be the longest scheduled hearing in the Court’s history. One of The Lawyer’s Top 20 Cases of 2024, the 12-month trial will tackle […]
This week on Spotlight, we take a look at the global investigations, white collar and fraud (IWCF) practice group at Hogan Lovells. Hogan Lovells’ investigations, white collar and fraud practice: Globally, the practice group holds over 120 lawyers and operates in the UK, the US, Germany, Spain, France, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Australia, Mexico and Brazil. Many lawyers […]
Kirkland & Ellis and Reed Smith have taken leading roles in the settlement of the UK’s first “implementer-led” Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory (FRAND) action. The settlement was reached on 4 April and decided via a Tomlin Order, rendering the details of the parties’ settlement confidential. A first instance trial was set to heard tomorrow (12 […]
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. […]
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 […]
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 […]