As we go to press on Legal Business’ third annual ESG report, the data points gathered on firms’ ethnicity and gender diversity make for disheartening reading, not least because they are entirely predictable in their lack of substantive progress from last year. In truth, the continued lack of engagement on diversity data as part of …
The most enjoyable part of analysing the proposed merger of Allen & Overy (A&O) and Shearman & Sterling has been hearing the reactions of leaders at peer firms to the video featuring senior partners Wim Dejonghe and Adam Hakki. Hot-takes from around the City have been often amusing. Says one US firm leader: ‘It’s clearly …
Continue reading “A&O Shearman is a marriage of necessity, not convenience”
Easily the most enjoyable part about analysing the proposed merger of Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling has been hearing the reactions of leaders at peer firms around the City on the video featuring senior partners Wim Dejonghe and Adam Hakki on the new A&O Shearman website. Hot-take reactions from the c-suite around the …
I certainly didn’t have a burning desire to be a lawyer from the age of five years old. I definitely wasn’t one of those! I wanted to be an architect but you’ve got to be quite good at maths. I wasn’t. My parents instilled in me a real work ethic from a young age and …
Terra Potter (whose middle name is Cotta – LB has seen the proof) proudly proclaims on LinkedIn that she originally hails from a cornfield outside Chicago and, while many lawyers claim to have had an unconventional path into a legal career, hers has been more so than most. Growing up in Rochelle, Illinois, she started …
Continue reading “The Client Profile: Terra Potter, Hexcel Corporation”
It’s surprising how much conversations around social media have shifted over the last three years. There used to be a tacit understanding that LinkedIn was for professional posts only, deal announcements, partner moves, conferences, market commentary and the like, while Facebook (and Twitter, if you really must) was for everything else. Hilarious memes and posts …
Continue reading “Oversharing? Navigating social media can be fraught but there is much to admire”
‘In the event of a recession, the lawyers will be fine. They always are. Unless you work at Ince.’ Reflecting now on this remark made by a senior contact last August, it is clear that the writing has been on the wall for Ince for quite some time and that its parent company, Ince Group, …
Continue reading “Cautionary tales: The downfall of Ince – a lesson in how not to run your law firm”
I didn’t study law at university. I studied history at Oxford. A huge love. I’ve loved debating since a young age. My mother would despair of my father and me, telling us to stop arguing. We’d say: ‘It’s not arguing! It’s a healthy discussion!’
Nathalie Tidman, Legal Business: Is it an oversimplification to say that inflationary pressure, if it eases, will kick-start M&A again? Eric Knai, Eversheds Sutherland: We have been having a lot of discussions with our clients but also with investment bankers, bankers and economists. They say that inflation is a factor, but only one of a …
Continue reading “The M&A debate: Wrestling the bear – negotiating deals in the current market”
While Ireland’s competitive legal market has enjoyed a buoyant period post-Covid, fresh challenges have emerged to challenge this optimism. Ireland has not been insulated from the overheated recruitment market and is as alive as global peers to reversals wrought by the cost-of-living crisis, the war in Ukraine and a slowing of deals as concerns over …
