Sponsored briefing: Tracing assets – what you need to know

Sponsored briefing: Tracing assets – what you need to know

K2 Intelligence’s Darren Matthews on what successful asset search and recovery looks like

Understanding the form, value and recoverability of an adversary’s assets is an essential part of legal strategy in any dispute. What may appear relatively simple – locating material assets and determining their value – invariably turns complex when assets are held through multi-level corporate structures layered over multiple jurisdictions. Methods used to hide assets are becoming more sophisticated and asset-recovery experts must keep up to date with the latest asset-searching techniques, practices and technologies. Understanding the form, value and recoverability of an adversary’s assets is an essential part of legal strategy in any dispute. What may appear relatively simple – locating material assets and determining their value – invariably turns complex when assets are held through multi-level corporate structures layered over multiple jurisdictions. Methods used to hide assets are becoming more sophisticated and asset-recovery experts must keep up to date with the latest asset-searching techniques, practices and technologies. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Tracing assets – what you need to know”

Practice Area Spotlight: Dispute resolution – Strategic case management with legal acumen

Practice Area Spotlight: Dispute resolution – Strategic case management with legal acumen

State court litigation and private arbitration proceedings require practitioners to combine legal thoroughness and the management of evidence with strategic ingenuity. Understanding court processes, legal practice and tactical procedural advantages all add up to sound advice in contentious legal matters.

Dispute resolution in all its appearances enjoys a longstanding tradition at Prager Dreifuss. Our attorneys represent parties before local state courts as well as administrative authorities. Debt collection and bankruptcy matters are strong areas of our practice, in particular in disputes involving foreign parties. International arbitration has attained special significance in our firm, and a number of our attorneys are regularly appointed as arbitrators in institutional and ad hoc arbitration tribunals. Continue reading “Practice Area Spotlight: Dispute resolution – Strategic case management with legal acumen”

Sponsored briefing: ‘Fantastic boutique CM Murray dominates the market in the partnership space’

Sponsored briefing: ‘Fantastic boutique CM Murray dominates the market in the partnership space’

CM Murray is a leading specialist partnership and employment law firm based in London. The firm is ranked by the legal directories as Tier 1 for both of its practice areas, and enjoys a market-leading reputation for advising professional and financial services firms on sensitive and complex cross-border partnership and employment law issues.

The breadth and depth of the firm’s partnership practice encompasses the 360-degree life cycle of partnership businesses, offering both contentious and non-contentious partnership law advice. The firm’s non-contentious law firm expertise includes establishing law firm LLPs/partnerships and alternative business structures, drafting and reviewing LLP/partnership agreements, advising on partnership and governance structures, partner remuneration and contribution, LLP conversions and internal restructuring, international network structures (including Swiss Verein structures), and associations and law firm M&A. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: ‘Fantastic boutique CM Murray dominates the market in the partnership space’”

Sponsored briefing: Regulatory challenges in the year ahead

Sponsored briefing: Regulatory challenges in the year ahead

Ten years ago, very few large law firms needed external legal advice on dealing with their regulator. This was because the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) would normally only take action against an individual within a firm rather than the firm itself. Since then, the SRA has increasingly used its powers to regulate entities and shown a much greater interest in how law firms are run. With that has come the era of big fines for firms that have breached the SRA’s Handbook.

While all large law firms will have experts in-house that deal with regulatory and risk issues, they are unlikely to have had extensive experience of the SRA’s investigation and enforcement procedures. In addition, external advisers can act as a sounding board on difficult issues, such as if, how and when to report a matter to the SRA. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Regulatory challenges in the year ahead”

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Legal IT – standing still is not an option

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Legal IT – standing still is not an option

 

Legal IT is going through a period of unprecedented change and CIOs need to be leading from the front. Peter Owen of The Intuity Alliance/Lights-On explains

Since the 1990s, IT in legal has been relatively steady and split between volume and traditional legal services, with volume areas consuming most of the technology and time.

Transactional and advisory practice areas have been content with a solid IT platform, thin laptops, smartphones, a strong document management system and a client portal. Litigation adds ‘discovery’ to this if they transact large matters, but in the main, this status quo has been maintained for many years. Today and in the future, all practice groups will be knocking on IT’s door demanding legal tech in order to compete in the age of digital legal services. Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Legal IT – standing still is not an option”

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Successful law firms in the digital age

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Successful law firms in the digital age

 

Derek Southall of The Intuity Alliance/Hyperscale Group assesses how successful law firms are adapting to the new digital reality

More has happened in legal tech in the last three years than in the 20 that went before. It is now a $15.9bn market with only 20% market penetration. Many law firms are shell shocked by the rate of change. What steps are the successful digital firms (SDFs) of tomorrow taking? Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Successful law firms in the digital age”

Legal technology sponsored briefing: The anatomy of a digital-age legal service business

Legal technology sponsored briefing: The anatomy of a digital-age legal service business

 

Chris Bull of The Intuity Alliance/Kingsmead Square considers the structure, funding and skills needed for a legal service business in the digital age

Note I am talking about ‘legal service business’, not ‘law firm’. ‘Law firm’ suggests a partnership – too outdated and narrow a term in an era when very few new partnerships are being created, and more existing firms are converting to corporate structures. Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: The anatomy of a digital-age legal service business”

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Four ways to slash IT support costs

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Four ways to slash IT support costs

Stone Group’s Paul Flack explains how to reduce maintenance costs without sacrificing support quality

How much are you spending to support all the equipment in your company? Depending on your company size, IT hardware support costs can potentially consume up to two-thirds of the IT budget. So how can you drastically reduce the costs of maintaining your hardware without sacrificing the quality of support you receive? Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Four ways to slash IT support costs”

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Pillars of cyber security

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Pillars of cyber security

 

Andrew Stanton of Palisade Secure outlines the steps law firms should be taking to reduce threats

According to a 2017 PwC law firm survey, 60% of law firms reported an information security incident in the last year, up from 42% in 2014. The financial and reputational damage of a cyber incident is significant. Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Pillars of cyber security”

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Cross-border e-discovery in an age of change

Legal technology sponsored briefing: Cross-border e-discovery in an age of change

 

Brian Stuart of FTI Consulting details the challenges facing legal teams and how they can be overcome

Technology in the legal industry has advanced to such a degree that the global e-discovery landscape today would be unrecognisable to a lawyer from five years ago. New licensing deals offered by the mature software vendors (eg ‘software as a service’ and cloud hosting) have made it attractive for law firms to bring e-discovery software in-house. With automation, e-discovery processes have become more scalable and repeatable. Market pressure will often draw clients to the cheapest vendor rather than the right partner for the circumstances. Whether it is e-discovery in support of a legal dispute, an internal investigation or a regulatory inquiry, conducting such an exercise across international borders brings added complexity. Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Cross-border e-discovery in an age of change”