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Revolving doors: K&L Gates and Squire Patton Boggs make multiple global hires as Ashurst chair departs for competition court

In the latest round of lateral partner moves, two prominent transatlantic firms in the Global 100, K&L Gates and Squire Patton Boggs, have bolstered their international offices with multiple hires.

K&L Gates has made two senior hires in the City, boosting its asset management and white-collar crime teams. Firstly, Daniel Greenaway joins as a partner from Mishcon de Reya with expertise in advising fund managers on private equity, venture capital, credit, infrastructure and real estate investments. Continue reading “Revolving doors: K&L Gates and Squire Patton Boggs make multiple global hires as Ashurst chair departs for competition court”

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HSF shrugs off Covid concerns to reward staff with bonus as new senior partner is unveiled

Herbert Smith Freehills

After posting resilient financial results  in the wake of the pandemic, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has recognised the efforts of staff worldwide by gifting everyone a 5% bonus at the same time as announcing its new senior partner, Rebecca Maslen-Stannage.

In a statement, HSF chief executive Justin D’Agostino said: ‘The firm is performing well so far this year. In recognition of that, we will be paying all staff globally a one-off financial payment of 5 per cent of salary, payable in March. I am delighted that all our people will be sharing in our good performance. This is an acknowledgement of their dedication and hard work, in the face of the tremendous disruption and challenges experienced in the last year. This special payment is made in addition to our usual 2021 bonus round.’ Continue reading “HSF shrugs off Covid concerns to reward staff with bonus as new senior partner is unveiled”

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Game of two halves

‘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”

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A call to arms for the Bionic Lawyer

‘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”

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The shape of things to come

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”

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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”

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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”

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Guest comment: the global/local leadership conundrum

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”

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Revolving doors: A&O enters La La Land with group hire as DLA Piper lures former Freshfields finance chief

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”

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Sponsored briefing: Flexible and stable: The growing appeal of offshore SPACs

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”

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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?

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.

The legal life cycle

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?”