‘This is my third lockdown at Latham,’ laughs Sam Newhouse, the M&A partner who left Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer a year ago for Latham & Watkins just as the coronavirus pandemic started to tighten its grip. The observation is poignant. In the Covid-19 world, we have all become used to delineating the passage of time in unusual ways as this alternate reality smudges the lines between working and home life. Continue reading “Game of two halves”
‘I am you. I am your colleagues. I am what your customers have always dreamed of. I am The Bionic Lawyer…’ And so began an open letter to the legal industry from the Bionic Lawyer Project. That letter, published on 24 September last year, marked the end of the beginning of our project, as a year of energised collaboration paved the way for releasing 16 ‘levers’. Those 16 levers set, we believe, the design principles for the future legal industry. Continue reading “A call to arms for the Bionic Lawyer”
While we all willed Covid-19 to merrily disappear at the stroke of midnight on 1 January, in 2021 we are still very much living in volatile and unpredictable times. Though tempered by vaccine rollout efforts, the convergence of Brexit and the pandemic has created the perfect storm for white-collar crime to rise in the UK, compelling businesses to revisit their corporate governance and compliance models to assess if they can keep pace with the new order. Continue reading “The shape of things to come”
General counsel and other senior in-house lawyers should not be afraid to show their human side when leading their teams through crises and seeking to deliver on business objectives, prominent figures in the legal market have agreed. Continue reading “Leadership in law in crises requires a human touch”
General counsel and other senior in-house lawyers should not be afraid to show their human side when leading their teams through crises and seeking to deliver on business objectives, prominent figures in the legal market have agreed. Continue reading “Leadership in law in crises requires a human touch”
Legal tech is becoming big business in the Asia Pacific region, so much so that the Singapore Academy of Law (SAL) has opened a legal tech accelerator. But much of the industry’s focus remains on selling to law firms. For GCs and in-house legal teams, making sense of the myriad systems can be a daunting task. Continue reading “In-house technology in Asia Pacific: zero sum gain”
What have we learned since March 2020? For Amar Sundram, head of legal at RBS in India, it is that talk of lawyers being an uncreative species was greatly exaggerated. Continue reading “In-house technology in Asia Pacific: life during lockdown”
‘Institutional male dominance is hard to shift – it isn’t enough to want to change; sometimes these things are structural,’ says Travers Smith disputes partner Caroline Edwards of the difficulties women lawyers can face trying to build their profile in the legal market and the directories that reflect it, including The Legal 500. Continue reading “The gender agenda: the firms making progress on diversity”
‘Institutional male dominance is hard to shift – it isn’t enough to want to change; sometimes these things are structural,’ says Travers Smith disputes partner Caroline Edwards of the difficulties women lawyers can face trying to build their profile in the legal market and the directories that reflect it, including The Legal 500. Continue reading “The gender agenda: the firms making progress on diversity”
Our sister title, Legal Business, celebrates the release of its 300th issue at around the same time this copy of IHL lands on your desks (or more likely in your inbox). Continue reading “Time flies and why in-house legal matters”
Our sister title, Legal Business, celebrates the release of its 300th issue at around the same time this copy of IHL lands on your desks (or more likely in your inbox). Continue reading “Time flies and why in-house legal matters”
Leading a professional firm with offices spread across multiple countries always creates a tension between global and local priorities. Professor Laura Empson and David Morley argue that what feels like a leadership challenge, is actually a deeper and very human struggle.
In our podcast –Leading Professional People – and in these blogs, we find ourselves frequently grappling with a timeless and very human paradox that sits right at the centre of what it means to lead a professional firm. Continue reading “Guest comment: the global/local leadership conundrum”
Allen & Overy has launched a West Coast US practice, acquiring Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s project finance and renewables team in the US.
As a result, the team co-led by partners Dan Sinaiko and John Marciano will establish a new presence in Los Angeles for A&O. The team also comprises partners Greg Lavigne, Matthew Nesburn, Andrea Wang Lucan and Sam Kamyans, as well as ‘a large group of associates and counsel.’ Continue reading “Revolving doors: A&O enters La La Land with group hire as DLA Piper lures former Freshfields finance chief”
Conyers’ Neil Henderson, Anton Goldstein and Matthew Stocker on the resurgence
Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) enjoyed a resurgence in 2020 as an alternative to traditional IPOs. Now, as 2021 begins, investors continue their search for efficient ways to deploy capital and generate attractive returns in the Covid-19 era of low interest rates and market volatility. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Flexible and stable: The growing appeal of offshore SPACs”
English law, courts and lawyers are a popular option for business transactions in the EU. Brexit could possibly change that, not so much because of obstacles to a valid choice of English law or the enforceability of judgments rendered by English courts but because the UK is now outside the many procedures for judicial cooperation within the EU (summoning, taking of evidence and other forms of judicial cooperation) which are vital for effective cross-border litigation.
Continental firms often have their commercial and financial agreements governed by English law even if none of the parties are domiciled in England. This contractual choice of applicable law is invariably combined with a choice of English courts to hear any dispute. While the UK was an EU member state both choices were expressly admitted as valid and enforceable as a matter of EU law under well-known regulations. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Brexit places the UK out of the judicial cooperation area in the EU; will this be the end of English law in the continent?”
Being one of the most powerful industrial countries of the former USSR with a unique geographic location and the biggest territory in the heart of Europe, stretching from Europe in the West towards Russia in the East, Ukraine has entered the independence era with high expectations and significant industrial and scientific potential.
A robust logistics network, including a web of railway, connecting the most remote parts of the country, seaports, energy (including hydro and nuclear), unique defence and air-space companies, large agricultural companies – these are just a few sectors to mention, which have decisively shaped the future of the Ukrainian economy. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Ukraine – successful heir of the Soviet empire or a self-made kid on the block?”
‘We may finally be seeing the end of the “greed is good” mentality, as younger generations demand that their time be dedicated to a larger purpose than the generation of profit.’ Tamara Box, Reed Smith
As we reach our 300th issue, law firm veterans reflect on what has and must change, for better or for worse
The whimpering conclusion to the three-year saga that dragged City law into the middle of #MeToo could hardly have been more frustrating for everyone concerned.
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) announced in January that it had decided to stay proceedings against Allen & Overy employment veteran Mark Mansell (aka Solicitor Z) relating to a non-disclosure agreement drawn up for disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 1998. The grounds for the decision were that Mansell’s ill health meant that continuing with a trial posed a significant risk to his life. Continue reading “Depressing end to Weinstein gagging order narrative means closure for none”
I come from a family of lawyers. My father was a lawyer and a judge, and my brother followed in his footsteps and became a lawyer. So there was a lack of original thought on my part. I just went with the flow and followed them into the profession.
I was born and brought up in India. I went to school there and did my first degree there, in history. When I was at university, law was rarely done as an undergraduate degree and that programme has only just been introduced. When I finished my first degree, I followed in my brother’s footsteps and came to the UK to read law. Continue reading “Life During Law: Anu Balasubramanian”
‘The Covid-19 crisis is creating a lot of learning and insight across the legal sector and the wider communities in which we work and live. Much of this revolves around actions that organisations and their leaders are taking to navigate the crisis – including what leaders should do to manage uncertainty. Continue reading “Getting personal – perspectives on crisis management in the Covid-19 era”
