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Latest news and analysis from Litigation Tracker, including In Court this Week and Judgments of Note.
Interrogate our database of structured Claims data from six courts since January 2020.
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Focused on issues facing the most active UK and US law firms in the City of London
Focused on the UK 200 and the evolving national market including the Big Four accountancy firms and largest law companies
Focused on the biggest law firms and their strategies in Europe and Asia, including China
Focused on the largest global and UK litigation and arbitration practices and top UK Chambers
“My best friend is now retired in the south of France. I’m still trying to work out how he did it…”
“I came to understand that at the level of the business of law perfectionism is far from conducive to innovation and entrepreneurialism.”
“Don’t overthink your career. Do what you love and find your tribe. You will know instinctively whether you can work together in the first few minutes of meeting someone so don’t ignore those niggling doubts.”
“To listen, think and advise at the pace required in an ever-quickening world requires energy and enthusiasm.”
“I’m pretty comfortable being uncomfortable. It goes with the territory. “
Name: David Wolfe QC Organisation: Matrix Chambers Role: Barrister Based: London Trained at: Having studied engineering at Manchester Uni and then done a PhD in Engineering at Cambridge, I did a Diploma in Law (as then called, now GDL) at City University Year qualified: 1992 Read his Hot 100 profile What’s your most vivid […]
“In everything we do in our professional lives we should put our own personal wellbeing, professional integrity and reputation first, the firm’s interests second, and the clients’ third”.
“My mum said ‘Only a boring person is ever bored’ but I suspect she had never experienced a month-long stint in a data room on an M&A deal…”
“I vividly remember my corporate governance seat and learning so much from my lovely supervisor at the time – Rachel Lyne. It was great to see someone loving their job and their clients!”
Judges are, ultimately, just people. It’s important not to forget that.
“I had so much fun with my four closest friends at law school in Perth that the Dean called us the Spice Girls.”
“Credibility is more important than popularity so do not be afraid to tell the business what it needs to hear, not what it wants to hear. “
“You do not need to be an overly aggressive litigator in order to get results; pragmatism and persuasion can be far more effective.”
“Follow what you are passionate about (not where you might see the most lucrative opportunity) and then day in day out keep doing what you consider to be the right thing.”
“To succeed in this profession, you need to be hard working. But so much of this job is about getting along with the people, and that means empathy.”
“If you have to say ‘for the avoidance of doubt’, go back and redraft it to take away the doubt in the first place!”.
“Intellectual skills can be worked on and improved over time, whereas ambition is intrinsic.”
I now can’t even remember half the deals I’ve done but at the time they took over my life. No job is more important than your health, family and friends.
There are two ways to make yourself look big: make everyone else look small, or make everyone look big.
“I’m not sure anything since has been quite as terrifying as the first day on my feet in court.”
‘Life is not a race and if there’s one person you’re competing with, it’s yourself’.
Mayer Brown’s London head on what counts as a ‘difficult’ client, leadership in law firms, and training with a herd of cows.
Name: Fiona Penhallurick Organisation: Birmingham Airport Role: General Counsel and Company Secretary Based: Birmingham Trained at: Pinsent & Co (Now Pinsent Masons) Year qualified: 1992 Read her Hot 100 profile What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Learning by observing from one of the most intelligent and generous men I have met […]
Doyle Clayton’s Peter Daly on bleeding all over bundles and not being criminally prosecuted in Kosovo.
EasyJet’s Helen Lowe on making tough decisions, finding solutions and the importance of empathy.
Ashurst Philip Vernon on Terry Venables and Fargo, North Dakota.
Alison Dennis on tough cases, specialisation, and what became of her law school string quartet.
The Ofgem lawyer on leaving Hogan Lovells on qualification and a dramatic speech at the British Embassy in Tokyo.
Name: Ffion Flockhart Organisation: Norton Rose Fulbright Role: Partner, global co-head of information governance, privacy and cybersecurity Trained at: Norton Rose Year qualified: 2006 Read her Hot 100 profile What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? There are so many! The first that comes to mind is coming off an all-nighter and being […]
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.
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
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.
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.
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?
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 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.
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”.
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.
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 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.
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.
Laura Uberoi is a Council Member at the Law Society and, alongside Kayleigh Leonie, represents junior lawyers of 0-5 years PQE. In October Laura was elected as president of her local law society and in doing so became one of the youngest and most junior solicitor to ever hold such a role across the country. […]
I feel like a tranquillised hippo. My limbs weigh two tonnes and my brain’s too heavy for my head. It’s November and I have 3,000lb-ungulate jet lag, so I must be at MIPIM Asia. For readers who only know MIPIM Cannes, MIPIM Asia is Cannes’ more refined Hong Kongese cousin. Each year about 900 property […]
Julia Salasky, CEO of CrowdJustice, the online crowdfunding platform for legal action, spoke at the Law Society’s Future of Law lecture. In this adapted version she shares her experience using innovative technologies to connect lawyers and clients with funds to take legal action
While firms are beginning to embrace the opportunities that tech can provide, the advice sector remains underfunded when it comes to digitisation.
A few weeks ago, I was asked by a paralegal at my firm whether or not they should apply be applying for vacation schemes or if they should go straight to the training contract applications. To be frank, it stumped me, as it’s something I’d not given much thought to since qualifying. It brought to […]
By Richard Oliphant The market for legal services is highly competitive. The recent report by The Lawyer and Intapp (‘Navigating a new reality in the client-empowered’) revealed how law firms are investing heavily in ‘intelligent automation’ technologies and using data analytics to improve client service and stay ahead of the pack. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning […]
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, […]
After last week’s historic decision by the British people to leave the EU many will want know immediately what the implications are.
From a tiny room in a shared space in Canary Wharf to being labelled the most valuable UK tech startup at the time, Revolut is a success story. This is all down to the hard work behind the scenes of transforming this startup into a high-profile fintech bank. Joining from Herbert Smith Freehills, Tom Hambrett […]
The Missguided app features on many women’s home screens as another fast fashion app to scroll through prior to an important event, party or date. After 18 months of having no general counsel and only using interim options, Missguided hired Phil Clancy in 2019. “It was just too good an opportunity to turn down. I always […]
Seen from the motorway, the warehouses are sheds of a graduated blue. John Lewis, River Island, Amazon are some of the names on the walls. They are all assets operated by logistics company GLP Europe; its general counsel, Rachel Walker, is on a quest to see them one by one. “I have been in most […]
One of Laura Farnworth’s earliest memories of Atom Bank was arriving in a barren boardroom absent of printers and filing cabinets ready to crack on. So much so that her first question to new colleagues was straight to the point: “What do you need me to do?” Seven years on, the mobile-only bank has gone […]
January 2020 and the year was alight with possibility. London-based Ennismore was a young business which had recently debuted its sleek Hoxton-branded hotels in the US and introduced a co-working concept within its hospitality properties. Then travel was suddenly brought to a standstill. “At Ennismore we saw Covid coming from the start of 2020,” says […]
The pandemic has accelerated the shift away from cash to contactless payments. For The Royal Mint and its general counsel, there’s opportunity to diversify.
Alison Coates-Howard, general counsel at Bristol-headquartered tech recruitment business Opus Talent Solutions, is on the lookout for apprentices that want to take a different route into the world of law. They don’t have to have a law degree – what they need is to be enterprising, ambitious and hungry to learn. Coates-Howard joined Bristol-based Opus […]
2020 was the 125th anniversary of the National Trust – a year that was due to be one of celebration culminating in a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Instead, the heritage conservation charity, which was founded in 1895 by a trio made up of social reformer Octavia Hill, solicitor Sir Robert Hunter and clergyman Hardwicke […]
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.
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
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
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.
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 […]
Cathy Pitt is building CMS’ strength in the ever-changing world of funds
Jonathan Berger has found the ideal place to pursue his media work
Dan Oates is helping to build Fried Frank’s London private equity team
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
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 […]