Merricks/Mastercard is over – or is it? Today’s judgment in Mastercard/Merricks may feel like the end of the line, but it’s far from that. While the result does pave the way for related cases to resume, the verdict in Walter Merricks’ favour means the claim can once again be heard in the Competition Appeal Tribunal, […]
McDermott’s office move is only logical As one of our recent Horizon updates pointed out last month, one of the biggest questions raised by the pandemic is what will happen to firms’ offices? That issue was brought sharply into focus this week with the news that McDermott Will & Emery has decided to leave its […]
If the criminal Bar is suffering death by a thousand cuts, chalk up another little nick Red Lion Chambers will not be recruiting any pupils for September 2022 after the pandemic led to current pupils having to stay on longer. Things will get back to normal for the set from 2023 onwards. Red Lion takes […]
Travers has been in development mode; now for the innovation The headline above refers to Travers Smith’s own rhetoric about its change in leadership, as it revealed Edmund Reed would be taking over from David Patient after he has served his maximum two terms. Reed’s name had been bandied about as Patient’s successor for most […]
Virtual sets may not be the future, but chambers’ reluctance to leave the Inns grows ever more contrary Welcome back Charter Chambers, which dissolved in the summer but which has been reborn, at least in part, as Crucible Law. The new set will work virtually at first and when it does move into new premises, […]
Regardless of a second lockdown, firms are relaxing their financial stance When all this is over (date TBC), businesses will be judged on how they handled the pandemic, their staff and their clients. A few patterns have already emerged in the legal market; the magic circle steering clear of furlough and real estate-heavy practices feeling […]
Cahill’s slowly building its mini-A&O Within the next few months, Cahill Gordon & Reindel’s London partner headcount will have increased by 150 per cent since the end of 2019. The numbers sound enormous because the numbers we’re dealing with are still very small. Cahill had two partners in the City – litigator Richard Kelly and […]
Linklaters’ long-term thinking is why it can make big diversity promises Linklaters has pledged to boost the diversity credentials of its ranks: the magic circle firm wants to reach a 15 per cent Black and underrepresented ethnic minorities representation in its UK and US partnerships by 2025. In addition, it hopes to have five times […]
The issue of how best to reward partners never goes away What are the biggest quandries for law firm leaders right now? It’s a long list: staff wellbeing, business stability, strides in diversity and client satisfaction, but another never-ending problem is how to keep the partnership happy. Often that involves a complete overhaul of a […]
Latham’s lateral loss anomaly It’s not like Latham & Watkins to lose four partners in one go, further still a regional managing partner, but that’s exactly what happened this week, as German head Harald Selzner & Co departed for staunchly independent firm Noerr. Latham’s mortal after all it seems. The move may signify a change […]
Firms’ back to the office plans may have been dealt a blow this week, but City recruitment continued with aplomb for the likes of Goodwin, Skadden and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. Back to the office? Think again. By now, you might be thoroughly happy with your home-working set-up and enjoying a life sans tube, train […]
Back to normal at Norton Rose Fulbright? Back in April, the majority of staff at Norton Rose Fulbright switched to a four-day working week for what seemed like a rather apocalyptic length of time: 12 months. Turns out NRF was just preparing its employees for the worst, as this week it decided to end the […]