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The Business Mark McAteer reports on why now is a good time for US firms to pick up young stars in key practice areas, plus market-leading analysis on the month’s top stories The National Two regional social housing specialists collaborate to take on the national heavyweights. Plus, Weightmans wins its sixth major local government panel appointment in a year The Client profile ITV’s innovative group legal director Andrew Garard reveals why he is determined to abolish the billable hour and drive greater collaboration between in-house legal departments	LB Global 100 After two years, the global market’s recovery is under way. In a special report, the LB team look to the future for the world’s 100 largest firms Read more... Appointments The ultimate partner moves and our special Job of the Month section Pritchard The new age of austerity The Forum A global economic forecast The Last Word Howard Kennedy’s Brian Eagles	Front Rowe Mark McAteer meets Shoosmiths’ Claire Rowe a year after she took over the chief executive role in challenging circumstances, and assesses whether she has begun to reverse the fortunes of a firm that had been rocked by two years of poor financials and a difficult restructuring Read more... Home rule International firms may have seen dollar signs when they began opening offices in Romania, but the reality has been much more difficult. Anthony Notaras reports on how foreign firms are struggling to cope with an economy in flux and fiercely competitive domestic rivals Read more... Voyage of discovery A traditionally conservative market, portugal has suffered more than most in the global meltdown but, as Julian Matteucci finds out, Lisbon’s leading firms are drawing on the nation’s golden age of exploration to discover new opportunities in Brazil and other ex-colonies across lusophone Africa Read more...

A painful lesson learned the hard way

In the boom-and-bust stories of UK law, Shoosmiths’ tale has many familiar hallmarks. An ambitious chief executive encouraged the firm’s partners to target higher-value work from major corporates, raising its sights from its traditional bedrock of volume advice. A Birmingham office, opened in 2003, developed successfully through a string of lateral hires and broadened the firm’s reach beyond its provincial origins.