The 22nd annual Legal Business Awards featured more than 1,000 guests in a gala ceremony on 28 March, hosted by comedian, writer and actress Meera Syal.
Before the Awards, in-house guests gathered for the launch of our seventh annual GC Powerlist, with key representatives from FTSE 100 companies such as BAE Systems, Anglo American and Rolls-Royce in attendance. Continue reading “The Legal Business Awards – Night to shine”
Law firm culture is again under the spotlight after a survey of almost 7,000 lawyers across 135 countries found sexual harassment and bullying is rife within the legal industry, with the UK reporting above average levels of bullying.
The report, carried out by the International Bar Association, found 62% of female respondents in the UK reported they had been bullied in relation to their employment, alongside 41% of male respondents. These were both ahead of the international levels of bullying, at 55% and 30% respectively. Continue reading “UK legal industry plagued by sexual harassment and bullying, IBA survey finds”
The #MeToo debate continues to garner stories with a legal slant as the Law Society’s recent practice note on the use of legal gagging contracts has been criticised for being vague to the point of unethical.
Crispin Passmore, the former executive director of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), this week slammed The Law Society’s practice note on non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in sexual harassment cases, calling for the guidance to be scrapped altogether. Continue reading “‘Mealy mouthed’ – Law Society draws fire for ethically ‘weak’ guidance on #MeToo gagging deals”
DeeDee Kato of Foxit Software details the benefits of going digital and how firms can do so efficiently
Paperless initiatives are happening everywhere, whether you are a federal or state court system with e-filing requirements, or a hospital with fax-elimination/paper-elimination objectives. Law offices are no different. While there is doubt that firms will ever be entirely paperless, many have set high goals for paper reduction. Yet there are many things to consider, such as: Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Going paperless – how to do it and what you will gain”
Muthmainur Rahman on the increasing threat of sophisticated, personalised phishing
It is a depressingly familiar experience – a message pops into the recipient’s inbox demanding that they log-in to their bank account, office systems or email provider urgently. Badly written, often featuring a generic salutation (‘Dear Valued Customer’) and frequently purporting to be from a bank or other organisation that the recipient is not even a customer of, most of these messages are instantly deleted. Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Spear phishing – Carefully targeted, extremely damaging and fast increasing”
Simplify, automate and expedite contract amendment and remediation (repapering)
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became effective on 25 May 2018. An important part of GDPR compliance is amending or ‘repapering’ vendor contracts, which can be time consuming and expensive. Our digitally powered approach to repapering can save you 40-80%.1 Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: GDPR contract amendment and remediation”
Muthmainur Rahman on the dangers posed by the Dark Web and what firms must do to protect their data and that of their clients
It is the section of the internet that is unknown to the vast majority of people. The Dark Web is a network of websites and servers that use encryption in an attempt to keep their activities secret. It is not indexed by search engines but it is where fraudsters buy drugs, guns, credit card details and personal information. In fact, when researchers at King’s College, London, looked at the contents of nearly 3,000 sites on the Dark Web, they discovered that 57% were hosting illicit material. Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: Tracing crime on the Dark Web”
Luminance’s Emily Foges on the advance of legal tech
In 2019, relationships between different legal service providers are a driving force for the adoption of legal technology. Following the emergence of true artificial intelligence (AI) within the market, the rate of adoption is gathering speed in firms and organisations as technology has increasingly become a competitive necessity. True AI harnesses the latest advances in machine learning solutions to empower lawyers to return to the first principles of law; fulfilling the time-honoured role of trusted adviser. This ground-breaking technology also serves to eliminate some of the historic barriers to adoption. Flexible, ‘learning’ algorithms are able to adapt to any document set and law firm, regardless of language, jurisdiction or specialism. This delivers value from day one, eliminating the need for resource and time-sapping configuration periods needed by extraction and rules-based systems. The real difference this time is that lawyers no longer need to adapt their professional processes to accommodate new solutions. Continue reading “Legal technology sponsored briefing: The Network Effect – How the AI-powered legal profession is gathering pace”
A firm more progressive than many in the City on gender diversity, Travers Smith has made up just one female partner in a four-strong promotion round that is significantly scaled back from last year.
The City stalwart made up half the number of new partners as in 2018, when eight new partners were promoted, of which three were women. Continue reading “Travers female partner promotions suffer amid scaled back round”
Disputes heavyweight Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has revamped its City leadership team, with Richard East vacating the co-managing partner role to become senior partner in London. Ted Greeno, meanwhile, has moved into the co-managing partner position to head the firm alongside longstanding co-head Sue Prevezer QC.
East had been the co-managing partner alongside Prevezer since the firm launched its London office in 2008. Under East’s joint stewardship, Quinn’s ascent has been impressive, with the LA-born litigation outfit growing revenues 220% between 2008 and 2018 throughout Asia and Europe. Continue reading “Ted at the wheel – all change at Quinn in the City as East becomes senior partner as Greeno joins leadership”
Clyde & Co has become the latest UK firm to enter the Republic of Ireland, opening a base in Dublin for its Irish law insurance practice.
In a move announced today (13 May), insurance partner Garrett Moore has relocated from London to Dublin to ensure he continues practising Irish law ‘whatever the outcomes of Brexit’. Continue reading “‘Makes sense’ – Clyde & Co becomes latest English firm to launch in Dublin”
Irwin Mitchell has fired a number of partners following ‘a review of the future needs’ of the firm.
According to RollOnFriday, the firm has asked at least a dozen partners across its business to leave. Continue reading “Irwin Mitchell axes ‘small number’ of partners following business review”
Highly-respected M&A practitioner Steve Cooke (pictured) has had his term as senior partner at Slaughter and May extended until 2024.
Cooke was first elected to senior partner at the City institution in 2016 for a five-year term after a long stint spearheading the firm’s M&A practice. His current term runs until 2021, with the extension meaning Cooke will have been in the role for eight years. Continue reading “‘Keep doing it better’: Slaughters senior partner Cooke gets another three years”
A further nine law firms have signed up to the Mindful Business Charter, an initiative devised by banking giant Barclays alongside Pinsent Masons and Addleshaw Goddard to try to mitigate unnecessary stress for in-house and external lawyers.
Capsticks, CMS, DWF, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Herbert Smith Freehills, Michelmores, Osborne Clarke, Stone King and Weightmans have today (9 May) signed up to the charter – six months after it launched – bringing the total number of signatories to 20. Continue reading “Out of office: Freshfields, HSF among nine new Mindful Business Charter signatories”
The news this week that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer was to push through the highest real-terms pay rises by a major City firm for a decade is a significant moment for the London legal market.
The decision to hike its associate pay scale, raising its benchmark rate for newly-qualified solicitors from £85,000 to £100,000 is a bold and expensive step for the City giant. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest such a move, which will put Freshfields well ahead of its Magic Circle peers, comes at an annual cost of more than £10m. Continue reading “City paywars: a history lesson – Freshfields hikes hark back to era of Magic Circle domination”
Addleshaw Goddard will open its first continental European office in Hamburg with the hire of a five-partner team from Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner (BCLP).
Addleshaws said today (8 May) it will open its sixth office outside the UK next month, with five lawyers joining partners Exkart Budelmann, Michael Leue, Martin Lüderitz, Maximilian Karacz and Hubertus Schröder in the move from BCLP. Continue reading “Addleshaws launches first European base in Hamburg with five-partner BCLP hire”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is fighting the war for talent by becoming the first Magic Circle firm to raise its pay for newly-qualified (NQ) solicitors to £100,000.
The £15,000 salary uptick is symbolic, given the pressures imposed on the City elite by US competitors in recent years. There will also be a discretionary bonus on top of the new NQ salary. Continue reading “Shades of 2007: Freshfields sends NQ salaries soaring above £100k to head off talent threat from US rivals”
Long-rumoured to be on their way out of the US giant, Kirkland & Ellis private equity duo David Arnold and Gavin Gordon are set to join Willkie Farr & Gallagher.
The pair joined Kirkland from Ashurst in 2010 in one of the firm’s first major laterals in private equity in the City. Clients Gordon has worked with include Cinven, ABRY Partners, KKR and Vista, while Arnold’s list include CapVest Partners and Montagu Private Equity. Continue reading “Kirkland private equity duo quit for Willkie Farr”
Revenue at Keystone Law rose by more than a third to £42.7m as the listed legal platform’s principal lawyer headcount rose 14%.
The firm’s financial results for the year to 31 January 2019 – its first full set since becoming the third UK law firm to float in late 2017 – also show a strong 57% increase in net profit before tax to £5.1m. Continue reading “Stronger than expected recruitment track adds 35% to Keystone’s top line”
