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New brooms – Asian coup for Bakers as Clydes, HSF and TLT announce leadership changes

David Pester

Anna Cole-Bailey rounds up the latest management reshuffles at home and abroad

The autumn saw significant c-suite changes announced at Global 100 and Legal Business 100 (LB100) players, with Baker McKenzie voting in Milton Cheng as its new chair in a victory for the Asia partnership, while the figureheads of Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), TLT and Clyde & Co will step down to pave the way for successors. Continue reading “New brooms – Asian coup for Bakers as Clydes, HSF and TLT announce leadership changes”

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Firms pile into fast-moving corporate crime sphere but is there enough work to keep all hands busy?

Ali Sallaway

 

Georgina Stanley and Anna Cole-Bailey assess a highly competitive sector in flux

Tesco, Rolls-Royce, Unaoil, Greenergy – as companies face increasing scrutiny of their governance and anti-corruption procedures, the number of law firms striving to corner the lucrative white-collar/corporate crime market shows no sign of abating. Continue reading “Firms pile into fast-moving corporate crime sphere but is there enough work to keep all hands busy?”

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Offshore: Deal or no deal?

UK cliff edge

Protracted arguments over Brexit have led a divided Britain to the point of exhaustion. In the months leading up to the June 2016 referendum, offshore firms were concerned about the potential impact of a ‘Yes’ vote – although perhaps less so than some of their onshore counterparts. Even before the financial crisis, there had been a continued diversification by larger firms in the major offshore jurisdictions away from a reliance on the UK economy.

Since the referendum, offshore firms in the British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories have been dealing with the problems of continued uncertainty that Brexit has created for their clients and advising them in relation to investment opportunities that may arise once it is eventually resolved. Continue reading “Offshore: Deal or no deal?”

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Sponsored briefing: Punching above weight

Richard Baxter (left) and Richard King
You’ve both been at the firm for more than 25 years. What have been your highlights?

Richard King (RK), managing partner, Stevens & Bolton: I’m in my third year as managing partner and speaking as a manager, rather than a litigator, the highlight is our ongoing evolution. There’s a real sense that we’ve never stood still, and yet, for all that we’ve evolved, the foundations have been there from the beginning. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Punching above weight”

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Offshore: The unsilent majority

protests in Hong Kong

Among Asia’s competing financial centres, Hong Kong is the essential place to be for leading offshore law firms. Collectively, their local offices have grown significantly over the past few years to around 300 lawyers, making Hong Kong the third most-heavily lawyered jurisdiction by offshore firms after the Cayman Islands and Jersey.

But in early June, the first visible signs emerged of real discontent with Beijing’s increasing threat to Hong Kong’s freedoms: around 3,000 lawyers took part in a silent protest march in opposition to a government bill that would amend the city’s extradition law – the largest-ever protest by lawyers in history. They argued vehemently that the proposed amendment would allow Hong Kong to handle extradition requests from jurisdictions with no prior agreements, most notably China, and would strike a blow to the rule of law. Since that peaceful march, Hong Kong has deteriorated to become a city in crisis. Several months of much larger pro-democracy protests by millions of its citizens have provoked widespread violence and a sustained fall in business activity. Continue reading “Offshore: The unsilent majority”

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Growth and investment define New Law as frontrunners make big gains

Axiom

Industry pioneers are attracting public and private interest in alternative models

While many lofty predictions of New Law’s rise remain unrealised, the market’s traditional champions have all made major contributions to its growth in recent weeks. Flexible lawyering business Axiom engaged in a surprise private equity (PE) sale; US alternative provider UnitedLex turned over $350m in an impressive year; while Elevate achieved revenues of £76m in another record result. Continue reading “Growth and investment define New Law as frontrunners make big gains”

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Top ranked stories in September and October

Iain Wagstaff

 

Continue reading “Top ranked stories in September and October”

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Dynamic forces – The Legal 500 UK launch unveils new approach

Late last month we published the first Legal 500 UK guide since I took over as editor. While changing something the size of the UK guide is going to take time (for context we include some 1,300 UK and US firms across more than 10,000 individual rankings) readers will have already noticed some improvements.

The legal industry has never had a reputation for being the fastest-moving sector, and the same criticism has at times been levelled against the analysts that assess the profession. As a research business we always start with the quantitative data and tangible evidence as the basis of our research – this means there will inevitably be some time lag between what we are ranking firms on and what is happening within their practice right now. Continue reading “Dynamic forces – The Legal 500 UK launch unveils new approach”

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Double blow for Magic Circle as US leaders Weil and Skadden secure M&A veterans

David Avery-Gee, Linklaters

Leading US firms continue to dominate the London recruitment market with significant appointments from the Magic Circle, as Weil, Gotshal & Manges hired Linklaters’ highly-rated M&A partner David Avery-Gee (pictured) shortly after Allen & Overy (A&O) saw corporate pair Simon Toms and George Knighton jump ship to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.

The hire of Avery-Gee is a coup for Weil, which has struggled against more potent US rivals in recent years in London. The office has had setbacks in corporate, including the loss of London managing partner Mike Francies’ protégé Samantha McGonigle, who left after 13 years to co-found a growth fund in February. Continue reading “Double blow for Magic Circle as US leaders Weil and Skadden secure M&A veterans”

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Significant hires

Marc Florent

Allen & Overy (A&O) suffered another significant loss with the departure of litigation partner Marc Florent to Baker McKenzie. Florent is experienced in banking disputes, particularly in the wholesale and retail banking areas, asset management, funds and sponsors on cross-border matters. A&O also lost its head of fraud Mona Vaswani to US rival Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy.

Alston & Bird launched a City branch, hiring three partners for its UK finance and payments practices. Andrew Petersen joins from K&L Gates where he was head of the finance practice, alongside fellow finance partner James Spencer. The pair have worked together on real estate private equity, commercial mortgage-backed securities deals, restructuring, and debt and equity workouts. James Ashe-Taylor, former head of European antitrust at US boutique Constantine Cannon, also joins the new City office. Continue reading “Significant hires”

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Practice management tech: Made to measure

digital tape measure

The successful application of technology to a law firm’s business ultimately hinges on one key question: is it technology that drives the business or business that drives the technology? Most of the main IT decision makers argue that it must be the latter, while questioning whether technology should even be the main consideration.

‘Technology is an enabler, but being innovative isn’t just about bringing in technology,’ says Bryant Isbell, managing director of Baker McKenzie’s global e-discovery and data advisory group. ‘It can also be about redesigning a process and looking at different ways to reimagine a solution’. Continue reading “Practice management tech: Made to measure”

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E-discovery: Cloud atlas

tech cloud binary concept

No matter how much technology accelerates cumbersome processes like document review, the human element must always be hovering in the background. When it comes to e-discovery, there are five essential stages to the process: find, collect, review, redact and produce. The further up the chain, the greater the need for human judgement and sign-off.

This may reassure lawyers feeling threatened by the rapid proliferation of legal technology, but it comes with one obvious drawback. A carefully crafted algorithm can be undone in seconds by that oldest of human failings: error. Ultimately, nothing is foolproof. ‘This isn’t a situation where robots will replace the attorneys,’ says Dechert partner and e-discovery specialist, Ben Barnett. ‘Even with all the advances in machine learning, the algorithms are predicting relevance based on human input (coding). You still need smart people who can distinguish a smoking gun document from one that is merely relevant and current programs can’t do that. The potential pitfalls from over-reliance on machine learning run the gamut from missing key documents to production of privileged documents.’ Continue reading “E-discovery: Cloud atlas”

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Beckwith ruling a wake-up call for profession as regulators close in on #MeToo complaints

Solicitors Regulation Authority

Ruling sends strong message but Nathalie Tidman finds unease over watchdog’s shifting remit

October’s prosecution of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner Ryan Beckwith highlights awkward truths for the profession as regulators increasingly target claims of harassment and sexual misconduct in law. The ruling on 10 October, the most high-profile scalp yet after a string of embarrassing post-#MeToo disclosures for the UK legal profession over the last 18 months, has already produced a bout of soul searching across the City along with many lurid headlines. Continue reading “Beckwith ruling a wake-up call for profession as regulators close in on #MeToo complaints”

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Whatever happened to the PR as managing partner consigliere?

Alex Novarese

For a pundit often claimed to be dismissive of the PR community, the subject of this leader may surprise. The reputation was never that accurate – I’ve always said skilled comms professionals are an asset to major law firms – but let’s put that to one side for now. The topic is something I’ve been noticing for some time: the slow decline of the PR professional as consigliere to law firm leaders. While the breed was never plentiful, it wasn’t that long ago that there was a sizeable group of battle-hardened comms hands that had judgement, integrity, long contact lists and who were effective as support and sources of information to managing partners. Plenty had worked outside the legal industry – indeed, they were usually more adept if they had in their junior years – but they had built strong knowledge of the dynamics of the profession and the realities of working for partnerships. They could make things happen and tell partners what they didn’t want to hear.

At their best they were a useful bridge to the outside world and there to help the firm push the message outwards, ever outwards, be that to clients, potential clients, or the wider industry. The best were also facilitators, focused on hooking up management and a Praetorian guard of headline-friendly partners with the better, relevant journalists and helping relationships flourish. Continue reading “Whatever happened to the PR as managing partner consigliere?”

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The Last Word: The values are everything

Ray Berg

Law firm leaders discuss the challenges of putting values on their corporate agenda and how to balance purpose with the profit motive

Heads out of the sand

‘Most firms realise the importance of values. I don’t think I’ve spoken to a single managing partner who isn’t doing these things. There are two basic drivers – what are your clients asking of you and what are your people asking of you. Anyone who thinks this isn’t important is burying their head in the sand.’
Continue reading “The Last Word: The values are everything”

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Israel: Anti-fragile

Tel Aviv

Thriving in the face of adversity as politics and security play an integral part in everyday life is a default position for Israel. The data backs this up: recent OECD reports describe Israel as stable with strong economic growth: annual GDP has consistently risen by three to four percent over recent years to reach nearly $400bn in 2019. This, despite a protracted leadership battle taking place with two general elections in six months bringing the nation no closer to a conclusive result.

Michael Barnea, managing partner of Barnea, Jaffa, Lande & Co, develops the point: ‘The environment is surprisingly robust considering the political instability that we’ve experienced for a considerable time. Investment, both from overseas into Israel and in the local market, is extremely strong and gives every appearance of being confident in the future.’ Continue reading “Israel: Anti-fragile”

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New Law needs a new dictionary to get that promised break through

Man looking at walkie talkie

For more than a decade now technology and innovation jargon has been pushing its way inelegantly into the legal sphere. But with what result? Certainly, it has led to industrial levels of hype as cloying Silicon Valley-speak took hold in even the most inhospitable arenas. But more to the point for the development of the industry is the endemic confusion it has sown. Without re-treading this month’s cover feature on the substance of law firms’ New Law divisions, it is clear that the industry struggles enormously to articulate these services, both at conventional law firms and pure-play providers.

This explains the widespread confusion in the minds of general counsel about what is on offer and how it differs from Old Law. ‘Platforms’, ‘solutions’, ‘suites’ and an avalanche of weird brand names are present, but as to explaining the products on offer, it is just not cutting through. Continue reading “New Law needs a new dictionary to get that promised break through”

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Dentons rejigs US structure in bid to create first ‘truly national’ American dream team

Joe Andrew

He may have overseen more than 50 law firm combinations over the last decade – 12 since July alone – but Dentons chair Joe Andrew (pictured) is adamant that the double US tie-up his firm pulled off at the beginning of October is something completely different.

Pending approval by the partnerships, the 10,000-lawyer globetrotter will in January add another 300 bodies to its sprawling verein as it combines with 175-lawyer midwest firm Bingham Greenebaum Doll and 140-strong Pennsylvania-bred Cohen & Grigsby. Continue reading “Dentons rejigs US structure in bid to create first ‘truly national’ American dream team”