Profit, delusion and how Big Law became obsessed with the wrong things

Posted on |

K&L’s Tony Griffiths says the father of business theory has lessons Big Law would do well to learn

Many centuries ago while studying law as an undergraduate, a particularly inspiring corporate law lecturer suggested that I might want to read a book on management theory, as well as immersing myself in case law and precedent. I still have no idea why he suggested it and I believe I was the only one in the company law class who took him up on it.

Continue reading “Profit, delusion and how Big Law became obsessed with the wrong things”

Bespoke, mobile and plugged in – the tech tools clients and staff will demand

Posted on |

CMS’s Duncan Weston argues that a new attitude to technology will be essential for the best law firms

Against a backdrop of a fast-changing technology environment; value-conscious clients, rising rents, and the need to provide meaningful alternative fee arrangements, law firms are being challenged to deliver innovative services and efficiencies like never before. Embracing new technologies, LPOs and alternative business structures just goes with the territory.

Continue reading “Bespoke, mobile and plugged in – the tech tools clients and staff will demand”

The Last Word: Fighting your corner

Posted on |

Our recent International Arbitration Summit in London provoked lively discussion and, ahead of a full report on the debate next month, here is a taster of some of the key points

SELF-AWARENESS REQUIRED

‘The once preoccupying debate about what issues you can arbitrate has become of ever-diminishing relevance in the modern world. Almost all commercial disputes today are now arbitral, with fewer and fewer exceptions.

We need to ask ourselves again and again why users are complaining that modern arbitration is, all too often, failing to fulfil the promise of international arbitration as a flexible and streamlined form of dispute resolution, in which the particular process is tailored to the particular issues in play, in a particular case. We need to ask ourselves why mainstream public opinion is often expressing a very open level of criticism about the legitimacy of investment arbitration, which is inevitably spilling over into the commercial arbitration mainstream.’

Constantine Partasides QC, founder, Three Crowns

Continue reading “The Last Word: Fighting your corner”

Forget the trusted adviser – the sacred cows of the modern GC

Posted on |

As an opinionated and jaded observer of the legal industry, it’s rare I read commentary so on point that it not only strikes a chord but that I wished I’d written it. We bring you one such piece this month from LBC Wise Counsel founder Paul Gilbert, tackling head-on much of what remains culturally unsound in many in-house legal teams.

Paul’s case is that too many in-house counsel, craving individual affirmation from businesses that view them as biddable providers of legal wallpaper, rely far too heavily on personal graft and commitment when they should be thinking about process and infrastructure to manage legal risk. He goes as far as to state: ‘The legal team is a team in name only. It is individual contribution that motivates the majority of lawyers. Self-serving internal networks are set up to validate their individual contribution.’

Continue reading “Forget the trusted adviser – the sacred cows of the modern GC”

NYLon – if you can make it there…

Posted on |


If there is one big trend in the analysis of Legal Business in recent years it is the encroaching existential threat represented by US-bred law firms. That could be termed ludicrous simplification given the differences between individual law firms both US and homegrown but in many respects it remains a generalisation that speaks to profound transatlantic differences in approach covering the majority of the world’s largest law firms. There is a US model built on individualism, intense focus on profitability and higher pay for stars, and a resistance to bureaucracy. In contrast the UK’s brand of internationalism, backed by a far more institutionalised approach, had been startlingly successful until the banking crisis flipped the market.

Since then, pretty much everything has been flowing in the direction of US firms, which obviously have the huge advantage of feasting on the world’s largest legal market and biggest economy. The key issue – as highlighted in this month’s Global London debate – is that while US firms have shown some ability to appropriate elements of the UK approach to strengthen their global advance, London firms are doing their US rivals the huge service of not returning the favour.

Continue reading “NYLon – if you can make it there…”

What can you be sure of as the LB100 goes down the rabbit hole?

Posted on |

It’s common in the legal industry to talk about unprecedented change but there are many rules of professional gravity unchanged for 20 years to keep feet on the ground and most lawyers in their place. For one: top-tier City firms were far larger, more international and at least twice as profitable as their mid-tier and smaller London cousins. They also generally outgrew the also-rans, carried on winds of transactional booms. These rules couldn’t be challenged. Except, for the first time in recent memory, such notions are being challenged, and with an intensity that few in the profession have fully grasped.

There have been many years in which major UK firms have been predicted to post disastrous results only to collectively grind out perfectly respectable numbers. This year, with a reviving domestic economy, busy deal markets and plenty of regulatory and disputes activity, larger UK firms have unveiled numbers that are at best disappointing. London’s Big Four City firms are barely tracking inflation over five years (a time horizon that takes out the reset year of 2009/10).

Continue reading “What can you be sure of as the LB100 goes down the rabbit hole?”

The wellness crisis for in-house counsel – you must sort it out

Posted on |

Paul Gilbert argues that general counsel’s failure to act as a team has heaped a rising burden on stressed in-house lawyers

As a consultant spending most of my professional time working with general counsel (GCs), so concerned have I become at the pressures and strain on the mental health of in-house counsel, that this summer I authored a report on what I see as the crisis in well-being in-house. In this article I won’t repeat those concerns – nor dwell on how poorly I believe some GCs are addressing the issue – but I will try to identify the root causes of the problems I have found and some simple steps to rectify them.

Continue reading “The wellness crisis for in-house counsel – you must sort it out”

The Last Word: Through the looking glass

Posted on |

From a successful UK focus to consolidation, LB100 management figures give their reflections on the market

So far so good

‘A number of businesses like us have adopted a strong sector proposition in the UK and that has been welcomed by the market. It reflects a general improvement in the UK economy and those businesses with a strong imprint in the UK market will benefit from that. We have grounds for confidence but the main challenges I see are around the uncertainty that remains at a macro level in a number of economies where we trade. It remains to be seen how clients respond and adapt to the EU referendum in the UK. There is continuing uncertainty in the eurozone, brought about by the position of Greece – I still see that limping along.’

John Cleland, managing partner, Pinsent Masons

Continue reading “The Last Word: Through the looking glass”

Momentum – the little-discussed magic that can lead to legal success

Posted on |

Momentum versus quality. That’s the question for the upper reaches of the legal industry that is never on the lips of managing partners but probably should be. The industry likes to focus on partnership models, strategies, practices, geographic spread and culture. These are all fine up to a point but as major determinants of success, they get too much air time. But momentum – well, the impact of that is dramatically, empirically startling in law. When firms have it they are capable of achieving staggering levels of growth and market repositioning.

Momentum can come as focused application of a counter-intuitive playbook – Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, Latham & Watkins, Clyde & Co or Mishcon de Reya. It can come in the form of aggressive expansion via mergers and lateral recruitment, as seen in the emergence of DLA Piper. But look at what firms can achieve if they have it. Quinn Emanuel, for example, was the fastest-growing firm in the Global 100, with revenues growing by 163% in just five years. Continue reading “Momentum – the little-discussed magic that can lead to legal success”

Can CC live up to the legacy?

Posted on |

Will the real Clifford Chance (CC) stand up? It is, after all, a key moment for what was not that long ago the world’s most influential law firm but working out what it stands for now can be a challenge.

Taking the long view post-2000, a chasm steadily opened up between its celebrated reputation for vision, meritocracy and entrepreneurialism and a reality that too often meant bureaucracy, strategic drift and an indulgent attitude towards individual contribution.

An excess of management would be one thing if CC was delivering operational excellence and rigour but in too many regards the firm did not. The last 15 years saw the disastrous non-integration of Rogers & Wells, an ill-fated move into California and a continual avoidance of important strategic issues on remuneration and performance management. This allowed others to steal its playbook and execute it more clearly. Continue reading “Can CC live up to the legacy?”