The 60 second interview: How GCs can make a difference
Zoopla Property Group’s general counsel and company secretary Ned Staple shares his three main ways for lawyers to make a difference in their company.
Hot 100 career quiz: Jonathan Blair
Name: Jonathan Blair Position: Co-chair and UK managing partner Firm: Womble Bond Dickinson Trained at: Wragge & Co In Hot 100 for: Leading Bond Dickinson into a major US merger. Read his full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? I did my training at Wragges in Birmingham in the late 1980s and as a […]
Hot 100 career quiz: Elizabeth Bradley
Name: Elizabeth Bradley Position: Partner, global head of tax Firm: Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner Trained at: Berwin Leighton Paisner In Hot 100 for: Taking tax to the top of BCLP’s agenda. Read her full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? While I was a corporate trainee, I was asked to attend a closing meeting […]
The Hot 100 career quiz: Adrian Beltrami
Name: Adrian Beltrami QC Chambers: 3 Verulam Buildings Position: Barrister, Joint head of chambers In Hot 100 for: Defending banks in many of the biggest finance cases in the UK courts. Read his full Hot 100 entry. What’s your most vivid memory from being a pupil? I particularly remember, on my first day, being locked in my pupil […]
The Hot 100 Career Quiz: Sally Davies
Name: Sally Davies Firm: Mayer Brown Position: Partner In Hot 100 for: Becoming Mayer Brown’s first female London senior partner. Read her full Hot 100 entry. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? There was a particularly hideous checking exercise of a trial bundle. There had been some photocopying errors, which meant the whole set […]
The 60 Second Interview: The “million-dollar question” for GCs thinking about tech
Head of transformation for Banco Santander’s legal department Gloria Sánchez Soriano talks to The Lawyer on what the in-house function of the future will look like and the skills lawyers will need to fully take advantage of the legal technology available on the market.
The Hot 100 career quiz: Rod Freeman
Name: Rod Freeman Firm: Cooley Position: Partner In Hot 100 for: Combining product liability law with tech expertise; Grenfell Tower fire public inquiry. Read his full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee/pupil? I started my career in a small high-street firm in the suburbs of Sydney, where I was given […]
Hot 100 career quiz: Julia Boyle
Name: Julia Boyle Organisation: Telefonica Position: Deputy GC Trained at: Norton Rose In Hot 100 for: Work opposing the judicial review of Ofcom’s spectrum auction last year and negotiating renewal of rights to O2 events. Read her full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? The only one I’m prepared to admit […]
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The Hot 100 career quiz: Trevor Griffiths
Name: Trevor Griffiths Firm: Sharpe Pritchard Position: Partner Trained at: Sharpe Pritchard In Hot 100 for: Isle of Wight Council v Platt, the landmark Supreme Court school attendance case. Read his full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? I am actually old enough to have done Articles and therefore was an […]
Hot 100 career quiz: Anna Cook
Name: Anna Cook Firm: Bristows Position: Partner Trained at: Dorman & Co In Hot 100 for: Working on one of last year’s largest advertising technology cases. Read her full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? My most vivid memories involve running. I did my training contract at a shipping […]
60 second interview: “In-house lawyers, don’t be chief blocking officers”
Ahead of his session at The Lawyer’s GC Strategy Summit, Banco Santander’s head of legal global corporate banking for Germany, Austria and Switzerland Timo Mathias Spitzer talks about the role of the modern in-house lawyer and making a difference within your organisation. How can the legal function be a competitive advantage to its company? A […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Nick Kirby
Name: Nick Kirby Firm: Mishcon de Reya Position: Managing associate Trained at: Mishcon de Reya In Hot 100 for: Being at the forefront of Mishcon de Reya’s technology drive. Read his full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Mishcon ran a series of videos for trainee recruitment on its Mishcon Graduates […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Ingrid York
Name: Ingrid York Position: Partner Firm: White & Case In Hot 100 for: Becoming head of White & Case’s derivatives and structured finance group, taking the lead on a novel, precedent-setting matters. Read her full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Reading template contracts and text books for days on end before I […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Caroline Kenny
Name: Caroline Kenny Organisation: Facebook Trained at: Hammonds Position: Associate General Counsel, Marketing and Advertising In Hot 100 for: Managing Facebook’s growing workload. Read her full Hot 100 entry. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Sitting upright in a chair with my head propped up in the corner of an opaque glass office desperately […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Alex Gerbi
Name: Alex Gerbi Firm: Quinn Emanuel Position: Partner In Hot 100 for: Acting for Ukraine as it works through its political and economic troubles. Read his full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Being sent alone to Halifax, Nova Scotia in the depths of winter to interview witnesses relating to a […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Judith Ayling
“The most directly influential person on my career? The mature law student who said I could either give a career change a go or sit around and wait to die in Cambridge.”
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Louisa Ghevaert
Name: Louisa Ghevaert Firm: Michelmores Position: Partner, head of fertility and parenting team Trained at: Hart Brown In Hot 100 for: Cutting-edge fertility law cases. Read her full Hot 100 profile here. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Being taken out of my comfort zone and learning to think on my feet. Being a trainee […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Sean Upson
Name: Sean Upson Firm: Stewarts Position: Partner Trained at: Baker & McKenzie In Hot 100 for: Leading on Stewarts’ big-ticket litigation. Read his full Hot 100 entry. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? As a trainee I was in a team dealing with the Hoover free flights dispute (Hoover offered a free flight to anyone […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Vidisha Joshi
“If time was no object, I’d love to offer the kind of mentoring that I offer some of the lawyers at HJA to female lawyers starting out on their careers.”
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Charles Hayes
Charlie Hayes: “I’d love to spend more time thinking about the law firm of the future and how legal services should evolve to serve our millennial clients.”
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Victoria Gaskell
Name: Victoria Gaskell Firm: CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang Position: Partner Trained at: Olswang In Hot 100 for: Juggling her big media work with the process of integrating Olswang’s media offering into CMS and Nabarro. Read her full Hot 100 profile. What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Well I specifically remember a […]
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Hot 100 Career Quiz: David Green QC
Name: David Green QC Organisation: Serious Fraud Office Position: Director Pupillage: 5 King’s Bench Walk In Hot 100 for: Successfully leading the SFO. Read his full Hot 100 profile here. What’s your most vivid memory from being a pupil? Turning up at 5 King’s Bench Walk on a damp October morning in 1979 to begin my […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Sean Jones QC
Sean Jones QC, 11KBW, who is in The Lawyer Hot 100 for a series of landmark cases in 2018 and his Billable Hour Campaign talks about his early career memories: “I reached a point where I’d had so little sleep I complained to a fellow pupil that his fizzy water was ‘too loud’ and was breaking my concentration.”
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Rachael Heenan
Name: Rachael Heenan Firm: Capsticks Position: Senior partner Trained at: Littleton Chambers In Hot 100 for: Repositioning Capticks in the market. Read her full Hot 100 entry. What’s your most vivid memory from being a pupil? I trained at Littleton Chambers in employment law so was lucky to have superb experience including with John Bowers QC on Smith […]
Hot 100 Career Quiz: Callum Sinclair
This year, we’ve put some career questions to all our Hot 100 and will be running their responses over the coming months. First up, Burness Paull’s Callum Sinclair.
O’Gorman, Daniel – Walker Morris
Daniel O’Gorman joined Walker Morris a little over two years ago after previously working at Travers Smith and DWF. Since then he has taken a leading role on some landmark matters. Simultaneously, he has made a significant contribution to the Yorkshire firm’s ambition of extending its corporate practice internationally. As the relationship partner to many […]
Longworth, Sam – Stewarts
As one of the youngest equity partners at Stewarts, Sam Longworth is fast cementing his reputation as a go-to name in high-stakes divorce claims. From high-net-worth to not-for-profit Acting for clients whose assets run into the billions, Longworth has developed a high-net-worth client base comprised of international families and the City’s power players. However, one […]
Upson, Sean – Stewarts
Commercial litigator Sean Upson is no stranger to the Hot 100. He first made the cut in 2008 when The Lawyer recognised his role in building the start-up Masseys into the successful boutique it became before it merged with Stewarts Law in 2010. Since Upson joined the larger firm, commercial litigation at Stewarts has gone […]
The 60 second interview: We are now competing directly with the Big Four
Baker McKenzie managing partner Alex Chadwick talks to The Lawyer ahead of this year’s Business Leadership Summit in association with Propero Partners, which focuses on the law firm of 2025.
Weightmans’ boss Schorah: We need to be more aggressive
Liverpool headquartered Weightmans has enjoyed a comfortable few years, which has seen it keep hold of its position of as one of the UK’s top 50 firms by revenue.
Ashurst: Overhauling remuneration is not enough
Paul Jenkins was a bold choice for managing partner, and now he’s running the firm during one of the most turbulent periods in its history.
- 15 July: Ashurst partners: ‘We can turn things around’
- 26 July: Ashurst CFO quits
Deloitte Legal: “We want to be the law firm of the future”
The story of the re-entry of the Big Four accountancy firms into legal services has occupied many minds in the last year or so. But in the UK, there is one notable absence – Deloitte. While its rivals EY, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers have all been busy hiring senior lawyers from top private practice firms Deloitte has stayed away from the UK market.
Irwin Mitchell private wealth: Big, but not a threat
Last November Irwin Mitchell announced that it was acquiring southeast firm Thomas Eggar. The deal gave the northern-focused Irwin Mitchell an additional six offices in the south of England and has boosted the firm’s turnover to £250m.
A&O’s new management: turbo-charging strategy
Allen & Overy’s (A&O) new management outlined their strategy to partners last month in the 45-degree Dubai heat. But what were the hot topics on the agenda?
Edmonds Marshall McMahon: The small firm making waves in fraud disputes
Private prosecution boutique Edmonds Marshall McMahon caused a stir earlier this year after it made the biggest lateral hires in its short history.
Orrick’s global boss: Our new strategy to bring London up to scratch
Orrick’s global boss and London head talk about bringing the firm’s base in the capital up to scratch to meet the needs of global clients, Microsoft and Instagram.
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Linklaters’ new boss: I’m reviewing everything
Linklaters’ new managing partner Gideon Moore speaks out about his plans to review everything at the firm to “check that what we’re doing still makes sense”.
Is HSF laying the groundwork for a US merger?
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) launched a new plan of action on Thursday (28 April) that gave an enticing hint at its plans for expansion in the US.
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BLP legal services head: I’ll triple our size in Manchester
Manchester has become a competitive breeding ground for back office-style legal processing centres and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) wants to be one of the city’s biggest players.
Pillsbury chair Rishwain on the firm’s Chinese “hub” strategy
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is among a minority of international firms to have by-passed Hong Kong and entered into Greater China via an office in Shanghai. Six years after its 2006 launch in Shanghai, the firm expanded its mainland China footprint to Beijing and most recently it announced a plan to set up a base in Hong Kong.
KWM bosses: Stability is on the horizon
King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) has had a turbulent few years. Since the merger with SJ Berwin in 2013 created a global firm made up of three separate partnerships, bosses have struggled to keep a hold on ‘big-hitter’ partners in the UK, keep finances in check and integrate 2,800 lawyers including 600 partners worldwide.
More borders, more fees: opportunities for lawyers after Brexit
In the wake of the Brexit vote, there is a need for some clarity on the general subject of globalisation and a law firm’s strategic positioning. First, globalisation is not a decision. It is a force and, for all intents and purposes, a force of nature. It is the movement of people, ideas, products, services, […]
Into the brave, new world: life after Brexit
After last week’s historic decision by the British people to leave the EU many will want know immediately what the implications are.
Let partners leave: restrictive covenants are not helpful
Addleshaw Goddard’s recent announcement that it will be restricting the number of partners who can leave the firm each year is far from unique, but it is a manifestation of a management doctrine I find curious
Art and minds: corporate social responsibility programmes
The Travers Smith Art Programme is at the heart of our new corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme.
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Debunking the myths of pay-to-play networks
Last week the chairman of the legal referral network Interlaw, Michael Siebold, wrote in his opinion piece ‘Pale imitation of a network’ that “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”
Pale imitation of a network
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and I’m more than happy to take the compliment that large firms are paying to legal networks such as ours
Get to grips with the new insurance rules
Imagine you are a general counsel or director in whose department sits the person who buys your company’s insurance policies. You may be about to become a star witness in insurance disputes. Is that news to you? Are you concerned by it?
SFO self-reporting concerns misplaced
Imagine you have a corporate client with a fraud or corruption issue. The client conducts its business responsibly. It has a code of ethics its leadership believes in. It wants to put its house in order and manage the associated risk. What do you advise? You won’t be surprised to read what my recommendation would […]
Anglo American GC: I forced my panel firms to be more diverse
Gender diversity is high on the agenda for Anglo American group GC Richard Price when the mining juggernaut goes prospecting for law firm gold
William Hill’s GC on balancing regulation, the gambling boom and social responsibility
As gambling comes under ever-increasing scrutiny from regulators, internal and external colleagues offer invaluable advice to William Hill’s Michael Leadbeater William Hill is one of the UK’s largest betting companies with annual revenues of nearly £2bn. The group employs 16,000 people and has about 2,300 high street shops nationally. The FTSE 250 company has also […]
The investment bank GC on a mission to tackle Africa
Africa: the final legal frontier. The mission? To explore new economic markets, seeking new investment opportunities and partnerships – to boldly go where no lawyer wanted to go before.
The adrenaline junkie GC on Europe’s largest ever fundraising
Lauren Livingston started off wanting to be a litigator but changed her tune and came round to M&A.
Galliard legal boss: We are solving the social housing problem
Galliard Group is London’s largest privately owned residential developer. It is also among the busiest, with a range of deals including acquisitions, financings or refinancings taking place most weeks.
Dell Greater China GC: “We don’t accept the status quo”
China’s challenging and now-changing legal and regulatory environment has presented obstacles but also opportunities for foreign firms such as Dell, where Gordon Liu is general counsel
Huawei UK legal boss: What Brexit will mean for the business
Chen Yun has helped Huawei build a sizeable legal team in the UK. But her biggest challenges come as the UK leaves the EU.
Deltic’s nightclub GC: I prefer partnerships to panels
Guiding £100m nightclub operator The Deltic Group through everything from licensing to litigation is GC Kelly Young
Hot 100 alumni: Ashley Katz, Fried Frank
At the start of 2016 restructuring partner Ashley Katz became the latest big-hitter to move over to Fried Frank Shriver Harris & Jacobson’s growing London base.
Hot 100 alumni: Shami Chakrabarti
Shami Chakrabarti says she was surprised that the 13 January announcement of her imminent departure from civil rights charity Liberty attracted so much attention. Sandwiched between the deaths of celebrities David Bowie and Alan Rickman, the news still made the front page of several national newspapers, notably left-leaning The Guardian and The Independent
Hot 100 alumni: Tamara Box, Reed Smith
Since appearing in The Lawyer Hot 100 two years ago Reed Smith’s Tamara Box has taken on a new role at the US firm
Hot 100 alumni: John McDonnell QC, Three Stone
John McDonnell QC was named in the Hot 100 in 2005 for his diverse practice, celebrity client roster and the launch of his new chambers, Thirteen Old Square.
Hot 100 alumni: Helen Croke, Travers Smith
Now in her 16th year at Travers Smith, Helen Croke has been key to the success of the firm’s private equity group. One of eight partners in the firm’s dedicated private equity and M&A team, Croke qualified at Travers in 2001 and moved up into partnership seven years later. The team has remained largely unchanged […]
Hot 100 alumni: Cathy Pitt, head of funds, CMS
Cathy Pitt is building CMS’ strength in the ever-changing world of funds
Hot 100 alumni: Jonathan Berger, Harbottle & Lewis
Jonathan Berger has found the ideal place to pursue his media work
Hot 100 alumni: Dan Oates, Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson
Dan Oates is helping to build Fried Frank’s London private equity team
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My career story: “I left law to become a poet”
Mona Arshi is a prize-winning poet and former human rights lawyer. She recently won the Forward prize for best first collection. You began your training contract at JR Jones in the same week that Doreen and Neville Lawrence instructed the firm on the murder of their son Stephen. How did that time influence the rest […]
My career story: “I trained at a high street practice and ended up as GC at a legal recruitment company”
Hays general counsel for UK and Ireland Evelyn Styles tells The Lawyer why she chose a role in-house over private practice. Did you start your career in-house? I trained at a small high street practice and it gave me first hand experience of dealing with all aspects of legal maters, such as contract and commercial […]
My career story: Travis Perkins general counsel Deborah Grimason
Travis Perkins general counsel Deborah Grimason grew up around business – though she’d be the first to admit that her father’s bakery delivery business in rural Northern Ireland was a far cry from the FTSE 100 company she now guides through legal minefields. Grimason knew two things growing up: that she wanted to enter a profession […]
My career story: “I left the criminal bar to become a reputation management lawyer”
Natalie Sherborn left the criminal bar and is now a senior associate at defamation and reputation management firm Schillings. She tells us about how and why she made the move. What’s your background? I went to a state comprehensive school in Essex. I don’t know if anyone in our family even knew what a barrister was, […]
My career story: “I moved into private practice after being an in-house GC”
Maclay Murray & Spens partner Jill Reid entered private practice after 25 years in-house with Chevron UK, Shell and Dana Petroleum. Why did you make the move into private practice? I feel that my role [at Dana] as General Counsel and Company Secretary in an oil and gas operating company having assets in multiple jurisdictions with […]
My career story: “I moved into management”
Travers Smith’s David Patient gives his advice for those moving into a management role. Was moving into a management position always a career objective for you? It has certainly not always been a career objective for me, but something that evolved over time. I had the good fortune to have the opportunity to open our […]