Welcome to the 2024 Life Sciences Yearbook from the Legal 500 and Legal Business, sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills. This yearly publication will offer insight into the issues facing life sciences companies in the wake of Brexit, as well as interviews with leading private practice lawyers in the sector and a data-driven snapshot of the …
Continue reading “Life Sciences Yearbook 2024 – Editor’s letter”
Welcome to the first-ever Employment Yearbook from The Legal 500 and Legal Business. This annual publication aims to provide a one-stop shop of interviews, insights, legal developments and data, looking at everything on the agenda for employment advisers and their clients.
A global pandemic, the war in Ukraine, soaring energy prices and inflation, as well as interest rate hikes significantly pushing up the cost of debt – it is no wonder M&A markets are struggling right now. Against this backdrop of instability, arguably the bigger questions are how activity levels managed to hold up for as …
Continue reading “M&A veterans: Got the T-shirt – M&A Hall of Famers on closing deals in a crisis”
Karen Davies – Ashurst London corporate partner and global chair Why did you decide to become an M&A lawyer? It was law or medicine, and halfway through my science A-Levels I realised that reasoning and debate was where my passion lay. I’ve never regretted it. I was initially drawn to M&A by the buzz of …
Talking about diversity in law is hard. While there has been widespread progress when it comes to driving up the number of women in law, it is clear there is still much to be achieved with regards to other underrepresented groups. It is a particularly challenging task given both the scarcity of useful data and …
Continue reading “Success or failure? The push for gender equality is no longer a binary matter”
UK editors Georgina Stanley (pictured) and Ben Wheway take a deep dive into the performance of the Legal Business 100 firms in the most recent UK Legal 500 research Spotting trends across research as vast and wide-ranging as The Legal 500 UK Solicitors isn’t always straightforward. The research by Legal Business’s sibling title is unique …
‘Sitting on your computer in your bedroom all day isn’t culturally enriching. When we see how our junior lawyers operate now, you can tell they’ve been trained during the pandemic. They’ve missed out on the day-to-day, hearing the titbits of conversations, the lift discussions, the conversations on the way to and from meetings,’ laments Slaughter …
Continue reading “Face value – mentoring in the hybrid work era”
Despite intense scrutiny of the SFO and a slowdown in new cases, the market for white-collar expertise is as hot as ever, as Georgina Stanley discovers The last 12 months may not have been as busy as they could have been for the white-collar community, but that has not stopped the practice grabbing more than …
‘Ten years ago, PE didn’t do take-privates that often; what’s changed over the last five years in particular is that they are now completely accepted as buyers of public businesses. All the regulatory authorities get it, the banks understand it, so there’s no limit on the deals.’ So comments David Higgins, Kirkland & Ellis private …
What has been the absolute deal highlight of your career so far and why? The refinancing of Eddie Stobart plc in late 2019 was a real highlight. Being able to navigate a complex situation, working as an integrated team with our financing colleagues, and deliver a great result for our client was very satisfying, doing …
Continue reading “Deals Yearbook 2022: Nick Withers, Shearman & Sterling – partner since 2020”
