Elite indies carve out role as the one-stop shop shuts in Europe

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Much like British voters ahead of this month’s vote on EU membership, City law firms have been shaped in recent decades by mainland Europe, even as they have become increasingly ambivalent about that mingled destiny. It was the huge bet on European integration that gave birth to the global law firm as pioneered by London’s legal elite through the 1990s. At the turn of the millennium, the key strategic battles among City law firms were as likely to be fought in Frankfurt or Milan as London.

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Not ‘looming’, the judiciary is already in crisis

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If there was much to celebrate amid the continued rise of London as an international disputes centre at Legal Business‘ second Commercial Litigation Summit on 24 May, the cloud on the horizon was apparent: the mounting conviction that the UK judiciary is near crisis.

Growing administrative burdens, earlier retirements, cuts to judges’ pensions and court funding – not to mention far higher earnings on offer for commercial silks. Chairing our debate on the state of the judiciary, Sir Bernard Eder remarked: ’80-100-hour working weeks are nothing to commercial judges.’ Ashurst partner Ed Sparrow picked up the theme, highlighting terrible morale in the 2014 judicial attitudes survey – a report which the veteran litigator branded a ‘terrifying document’ for those concerned with the reputation of the London courts. Sparrow added that thanks to the loss of kudos for judges in austerity Britain: ‘Judges feel that they are treated like assets and I would say sweated like assets.’

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The Legal 500 view on EMEA – more ways than ever to skin a cat

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The shifting interests of international business are echoed in recent law firm moves across Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and reflected in the recently published 2016 The Legal 500 EMEA, which added 15 countries to its coverage over the past two years to address growing interest in Africa, as well as the return of international work to jurisdictions such as Iran and Iraq.

Looking at EMEA results, two core themes emerge: a realignment of priorities among international practices and an emergence of firms positioned as the go-to contender for regional work.

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The last word – Eurovision

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To mark our inaugural Euro Elite report, management at leading independent firms give us their market views


CO-OPERATION IS KEY

‘Some international firms have been more open to co-operating with domestic Italian firms; others have not. The first category has been more successful.’

Francesco Gianni, founding partner, Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners


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GCs have arrived and all we have to welcome them are platitudes

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Two books of note have just been published by veteran lawyers – The Inside Counsel Revolution: Resolving the Partner-Guardian Tension by former GE legal head Ben Heineman and The Future of the In-House Lawyer: The General Counsel Revolution, a collection of essays edited by Carillion’s Richard Tapp. The common ground is obvious in charting the wresting of power and resource over the last 25 years from law firm to corporate legal teams.

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The bottom line is, well, the bottom line – numbers always settle the score

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At a recent drinks evening with a leading City law firm, Legal Business heard a familiar refrain from a veteran corporate partner about how the team he leads is doing very well but has had its reputation – and that of the firm as a whole – dragged down by the sniping of ex-partners. Several weeks previously at a dinner, another major firm had run through its strategy and performance, making a great play of the claim that, though the firm had clearly suffered a few reverses since the banking crisis, it was performing ahead of peers.

 

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As the Bar elite thrives, New Law wobbles – scratch some more predictions

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It is a recurring theme in Legal Business commentary that the received wisdom and forecasting for the profession do not age like fine wine and 2016 is proof once more that no one knows anything. Take the Bar, which has supposedly been in the last-chance saloon for a generation and yet in the commercial sector keeps thriving.

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It’s a risky world out there… and a big chance for a new kind of lawyer

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Ashurst’s Ben Tidswell argues a volatile, globalising risk landscape is a call to arms for the modern law firm

One of the many lasting consequences of the downturn has been a prolonged expansion of the globalised compliance framework. Increased oversight of financial markets has been at the forefront of this development, as reflected by the passage of the US Dodd-Frank Act in 2010 and a succession of EU directives. This trend has also witnessed a heightened focus on white-collar crime, targeting areas such as fraud, corruption, tax evasion, terrorism financing and money laundering. Existing laws, such as Canada’s Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, have been strengthened, and new legislation, such as the UK Bribery Act, has been introduced.

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We wanted diversity, we got box-ticking – real change on diversity needs leadership in law

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Fieldfisher’s Michael Chissick says progress on gay inclusion masks a wider diversity failure in law

‘Did you see the game at the weekend?’ is the type of question I am often asked at events. I know my answer, ‘no, I don’t really follow sport’ – will kill the conversation dead, and I don’t have the skills or required knowledge to blag my way through the small talk of the weekend’s fixture list.

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The last word – Charlie says

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In response to an opinion piece from Gibson Dunn’s Charlie Geffen in our last issue, we ask management if firms must decide whether they are advisory or legal process driven

 

US PITCH

‘Geffen is right, but I wonder if he would have said it if he’d been at his old firm [Ashurst] as it’s a pitch for US firms in London. Clients are increasingly separating what is strategic and what is process-driven. I don’t agree that the UK firms aren’t capable of giving both, and no client out there will go to law firm A for their strategic work then take it off them and give law firm B the process work. Clients are looking to us to ensure the process end is done efficiently.’

Colin Passmore, senior partner, Simmons & Simmons

 

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