Linklaters edges revenue up despite global slump as City results start flowing in

Posted on | Blogs Covid-19 |
Linklaters edges revenue up despite global slump as City results start flowing in

Traditionally, like the proverbial London transit, you wait ages for one set of Magic Circle results and then they start coming in like buses. Hot on the heels of Allen & Overy (A&O)’s financial results, City peer Linklaters has just unveiled its 2019/20 numbers, with a similarly resilient showing in the face of the coronavirus …

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Allen & Overy’s election delivered an all-star line-up but have the big issues been resolved?

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Allen & Overy’s election delivered an all-star line-up but have the big issues been resolved?

Towards the end of 2019, Legal Business remarked that the issue at the heart of Allen & Overy (A&O)’s looming leadership election was if the process would resolve whether the winners could achieve the right to genuinely lead the City giant. Now that the election has concluded, with the re-election of Wim Dejonghe (pictured) as …

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Comment: Coronavirus will brutally strip away the profession’s illusions

Posted on | Blogs Covid-19 |
Comment: Coronavirus will brutally strip away the profession’s illusions

The longer you do this job, the more your mind wanders to the big moments – recessions, terrorist attacks, political shocks, wars. Yet as I sit here typing this leader in a near-deserted London office, the majority of our team working from home as we try to put this issue to bed, it is a …

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The vision thing – Sizing up the big issues set to shape law through the 2020s

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The vision thing – Sizing up the big issues set to shape law through the 2020s

The last decade emerged with the shockwaves of the banking crisis still making themselves felt on the profession. Having just made a series of job cuts in major markets the like of which had never been seen in the legal industry, the mood was infused by uncertainty, the brutal realities of austerity and the sudden …

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Cracking Wall St is the prize of the decade for City leaders

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Cracking Wall St is the prize of the decade for City leaders

If much of the commentary in this issue focuses on what has gone awry for major UK law firms in the previous decade, this column will tackle one big opportunity ahead and there is no bigger opportunity for City firms than the US. Now for many, the received wisdom is that the London elite have …

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The training debate – The fear of freedom

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The training debate – The fear of freedom

Julie Brannan, Solicitors Regulation Authority: It certainly is an important moment for the training of the profession, so it is sensible to start with a reminder of what it is all about. First, better assurance of high professional standards is at the heart of this. Protecting consumers of legal services by making sure everybody we …

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Remembering Mr Disruption – The innovator’s legacy for the profession

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Remembering Mr Disruption – The innovator’s legacy for the profession

Barely into 2020 and news came that probably the most influential business thinker of the last 20 years had passed away. Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, who died on 23 January at the age of 67, entered the business world and then popular culture with his concept of ‘disruptive innovation’, which was first outlined …

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The Addleshaws Interview – The rebound guy

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The Addleshaws Interview – The rebound guy

Legal Business (LB): Looking at the finances of the firm over the past five years, you are one of the LB100’s top performers. What’s the secret? John Joyce, managing partner, Addleshaw Goddard: We’ve always had a good business. It lost its way, undoubtedly, and all we’ve done is refocus our efforts. We reintroduced focus on …

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Comment: 2020 forecast – City giants forced to offer flexible partnership

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Comment: 2020 forecast – City giants forced to offer flexible partnership

I’m going to resist the urge to bang on about the year in review, Brexit or even offer a 2010s retrospective. Not much changed in the profession during the decade – apart from the much-documented onslaught of US law firms – and one way or another we will still be facing another Brexit cliff edge …

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Comment: #MeToo is law’s Libor-rigging moment – Unheralded comes regulation of City law

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Comment: #MeToo is law’s Libor-rigging moment – Unheralded comes regulation of City law

Ask senior figures in the profession what has materially changed in the legal industry over the last decade and answers will likely include musings on technology, innovation and, for more pragmatic souls, the growth of American law firms in Europe. Such woolly answers speak to the reality that the law looks much like it did …

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