London headcount: 144 lawyers, 28 partners
Lawyer headcount change since 2014: 15% (-7% partners)
London head: Pranav Trivedi
Office specialities: M&A, arbitration, litigation and white collar Continue reading “Firm focus: Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom”
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The ongoing #MeToo saga within in the legal profession was only a few chapters old last year when our annual risk and professional indemnity report with broker Marsh went to press. Fast forward a year and law firm risk managers and general counsel (GCs) are faced with a harsher environment to navigate on many fronts. Not least is the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)’s tougher stance on sexual misconduct allegations and calls for firms to have better procedures in place for handling internal complaints, as laid out in the regulator’s new Standards and Regulations (StaRs) rulebook last September.
As Stephen Morton, senior vice-president for professional risks at Marsh, observes: ‘It is striking how human the risks are now, compared to ten years ago after the financial crash when [they] were very much measured against loss strategies. There has been a shift to realising that the legal profession is fundamentally built on people.’ Continue reading “Risk management survey 2020 – Crooked timber”
Early March 2018 looked like the best of times to be a lawyer at Latham & Watkins. At the end of February the Los Angeles-bred giant had become the first law firm to report revenues above $3bn. This distinction crowned two decades in which it had been the most upwardly mobile firm in BigLaw, smoothly transitioning from West Coast challenger to global trailblazer, upsetting established hierarchies in New York and London along the way.
But by the end of the month, its 700 partners spread across 30 offices throughout the world were to get an email summoning them to a conference call. Latham’s two vice-chairs Richard Trobman and Ora Fisher informed the global partnership that the firm’s executive committee had accepted the resignation of global chair and managing partner, William Voge. Only three years into his role, Voge was leaving with immediate effect following a series of ‘voluntary disclosures’ relating to personal conduct. Continue reading “Heavy hangs the crown – Can Latham remain the global firm to beat?”
Skadden Arps, Clifford Chance, Linklaters and, currently, Kirkland & Ellis – over the last 30 years these firms have all at one time had claims to have been the most influential law firms of their age, the pioneers that defined the top of the profession through dash, ambition and imagination.
And many senior lawyers would think that list is missing the name of the institution that looked unchallenged until the Kirkland effect gripped the market in the last three years. Continue reading “Latham vs K&E means that everyone else loses”
The longer you do this job, the more your mind wanders to the big moments – recessions, terrorist attacks, political shocks, wars. Yet as I sit here typing this leader in a near-deserted London office, the majority of our team working from home as we try to put this issue to bed, it is a struggle to recall anything that compares to the coronavirus pandemic spreading through the world.
We face unprecedented times – hyperbole typically flung around with abandon until you realise with shock that this time it applies. As I write, London and New York, those famous global cities and the world’s two dominant legal hubs, look within days of total lockdown. Continue reading “For the profession, as the world, the coronavirus is a moment of truth”
We had Skadden’s 30th anniversary party at Kensington Palace. Very cool. I’ve been here most of those 30 years.
I took a year and a half off between high school and college in the States. I spent most of my youth surfing and had a dream to finish high school in Hawaii. Continue reading “Life During Law: Scott Simpson”
‘I think – and I say this as the pessimist – we will easily move ahead on our strategy.’ Frances Murphy, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
To mark the launch of our 2020 Global London report, we ask senior figures at leading US firms for a progress report
Emily Bernstein demonstrates how Investec can help to find personal banking solutions for clients in the legal industry
The legal partners I work with have unique careers and unique incomes to match. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: It’s the little things that count”
The team at GGP gives an overview of the firm’s offering including a focus on how it is meeting the needs of clients during the coronavirus crisis
Gajski, Grlić, Prka & Partners Law Firm (GGP) is a Croatian full-service law firm with extensive experience in litigation, corporate and commercial law, M&A, labour law, insolvency law, privatisation and restructuring proceedings, public procurement, competition policy and state aid as well as intellectual property. We have a special department for criminal law with an emphasis on most complex white-collar crimes where we lean on our multidisciplinary approach and a wide knowledge covering criminal, commercial and tax law. Continue reading “Sponsored profile: Gajski, Grlic, Prka & Partners, Zagreb, Croatia”
The success of Latham & Watkins’ expansion globally in recent years is backed up by Legal 500 data. Fifty-seven of its practices have achieved top-tier rankings globally across The Legal 500 in 2019/20, compared to 40 in 2014-15. While only one of these 17 new top-tier rankings is in the UK, the firm’s growing dominance in London is still supported by the UK Legal 500 data. Continue reading “Legal 500 Data: Behind the story”
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 long-standing 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 “Sponsored spotlight: Dispute resolution: Strategic case management with legal acumen”
Legal Business (LB): Eighteen months in the group general counsel role, what have been some of the key projects since you landed? The wider business has been through a lot of transformation, how is legal keeping up?
Sabine Chalmers (SC), group GC, BT: When I joined, Gavin Patterson was my boss. He’s since left the business and we’ve transitioned to Philip Jansen from Worldpay. During that time the focus has been on learning the company and industry, getting to know and work with a new CEO, new board, my team, and as a result of all that identifying as quickly as possible what the strategic priorities for the function are and how to best support the business. Early on I reorganised my leadership team to mirror the evolving structure of the business, to ensure we had GCs reporting to me that were lined up with each of the business and corporate units: we announced that in June 2018. Continue reading “The BT interview – ideas from the bath”
Rising temperatures and sea levels, shrinking ice sheets and sea ice, extreme weather events. They’re all mainstays of today’s news cycles with a worrying – and growing – frequency.
‘The more you read about the shape of our planet, it’s inevitable you become concerned, it’s inevitable that you want to do something. The only way you can exist nowadays in an unengaged way, as a non-activist, is by shutting yourself off completely from all this information,’ says Jasper Teulings, general counsel of Greenpeace International. Continue reading “The imagination gap – Meet the GCs on the frontline of the climate change battle”
Thomas Alan finds revenue growth tempered at many US firms with 2019 proving a sterner test for the global elite
It would have been difficult to match the rampant advances of US firms among the Global 100 in 2018 and so it has proven. A handful of the largest players endured quieter years with uncertainty identified as the primary culprit, but the big picture is still one of global growth, as Kirkland & Ellis became the first law firm in the world to hit $4bn, just two years after breaking the $3bn barrier. Continue reading “‘Universal slowdown’ adds up to a less dynamic year but Kirkland becomes first $4bn law firm”
Kirkland & Ellis topped M&A rankings for Europe last year, bringing in a total of $224.2bn in deals, while Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer came in second at $221.7bn. Little wonder then that rival Latham & Watkins has targeted Freshfields for its most significant London lateral hire in some time, bringing in public M&A rising star Sam Newhouse.
It is inevitable that public M&A work in London – long-considered the preserve of the Magic Circle – has become the latest hunting ground for ambitious US players as an alternative to private equity and funds-driven corporate work. White & Case is well-established in the area and Weil, Gotshal & Manges has made no secret of its desire to find talented company for veteran Mike Francies, as it did with the hire of David Avery-Gee from Linklaters last year. Continue reading “Corporate losses continue for Freshfields as Latham makes public M&A play in London”
Thomas Alan assesses the fresh controversy around SFO tactics
It claims it is a public service hamstrung by archaic laws and deserves more sympathy; its critics make unfavourable comparisons to the civil service and question the competency of its lawyers. Continue reading “Barclays acquittal draws flak for flawed SFO prosecutions despite record Airbus win”
With real estate investment moving out of paralysis post-election, Muna Abdi asks which firms are best prepared to take advantage
The enduring political and economic quagmire in the UK, initially shaped by the 2016 Brexit referendum, provided much of the framework for pessimistic commentary towards the end of the decade on many sectors, not least real estate. But the start of 2020 has brought fresh impetus: ‘The end of Corbynism will encourage most in the real estate market, which is not known for its left-wing leanings. It will also see a return of the uber-rich to London with high-end and luxury residential already experiencing a massive boost,’ predicts Eversheds Sutherland head of London real estate, Bruce Dear. Continue reading “Cranes in the sky: UK real estate market rebuilds”
The world’s largest law firms are continuing to get bigger. Last year the combined number of lawyers across the Global 100 rose to almost 150,000, with Dentons – the world’s largest by headcount – housing more than 10,000 globally.
But while these international giants now cater to most commercial legal needs, in most corners of the globe, groundbreaking new analysis of the views of the people these firms care about most – their clients – has found conclusive evidence that smaller, specialist practices are outstripping them on quality of service. Continue reading “Client service uncovered: The best-rated firms revealed”
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‘Heavy hangs the crown – Can Latham remain the global firm to beat?’
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