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Perspectives: Clive Zietman, Stewarts

Clive Zietman

I got into law almost by default. I didn’t even like it when I started with Herbert Smith where I was doing non-contentious stuff, but when I did my final seat in litigation I decided this was for me. I’m a games person: I like sport, I like Scrabble, I like fighting. It was only at that point when I decided I wanted to be a lawyer.

It was always going to be litigation. If you look at my profile on our website it says: ‘Clive’s hobby is litigation.’ It’s absolutely true. If I go on holiday and have a bad holiday, I sue the holiday company. Which is, in fact, almost inevitable. We were building a house down in Cornwall and we were entering into a building contract that my wife was helping to draft. I said: ‘Why are you calling in the builders? They’re the defendants!’ Continue reading “Perspectives: Clive Zietman, Stewarts”

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The Silk Round: One fine day

Sophie Lamb QC and Louis Flannery QC

Legal Business writes many high-minded pieces focused on the finer analytical points of the legal industry. This is not one of those pieces.

In an intensively people-driven business like the law, there cannot be many more resonant and personal experiences than becoming a Queen’s Counsel (QC). Firstly, there is the trial of the arduous application process and the agonising wait to find if you have secured the favour of peers and the selection panel. Continue reading “The Silk Round: One fine day”

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The International Arbitration Summit: Trusting the cowboys

Stephen Jagusch QC

I am going to take a narrow view of a narrow subject: less of a keynote speech, more of a keyhole speech. Indeed, it is through a keyhole that I will ask you to join me in a voyeuristic peer into the room of what I call broken arbitrations, the room into which I have stuffed myriad examples of how the process of arbitration can too easily become corrupted.

And ‘keyhole’ is apt, in that privacy and confidentiality – and I hope we understand that they are very different things – prevent the door to arbitration from ever fully opening. It is merely through a keyhole that we form our impressions and understandings of what happens in actual cases. Continue reading “The International Arbitration Summit: Trusting the cowboys”

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Sponsored briefing: Why choose Belgrade as a seat of arbitration?

Mihaj, Ilić & Milanović

Senka Mihaj, Nemanja Ilić and Marko Milanović of Mihaj, Ilić & Milanović explain the advantages of carrying out arbitration proceedings in Serbia

One of the key issues when it comes to drafting an arbitration clause, apart from selecting the applicable rules, is the seat of arbitration. The seat is much more than a technical issue. It determines which legal jurisdiction is the arbitration tied, decides on lex arbitri, and determines which national courts may intervene in the arbitration proceedings and the extent of such intervention. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Why choose Belgrade as a seat of arbitration?”

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Sponsored briefing: CRCICA – ‘the granddaddy of arbitration in the region’

The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration

Ismail Selim and Dalia Hussein of The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration provide a detailed breakdown of the centre’s work

The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA) is an independent, non-profit, international organisation established in 1979 under the auspices of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO). The Headquarters Agreement concluded in 1987 between AALCO and the Egyptian government recognised CRCICA’s status as an international organisation, and accorded the centre and its staff privileges and immunities, insuring its independence. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: CRCICA – ‘the granddaddy of arbitration in the region’”

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Sponsored briefing: Managing the cost of an arbitration – you may have more options than you think

TheJudge

As third-party funding becomes increasingly mainstream, this article highlights the importance of considering both funding and insurance when looking for a cost-effective way to manage legal spend

There has been a lot of hype about the increased use of third-party funding by companies keen to manage the rising cost of arbitration. Funders are attracted to the arbitration arena by the high-value claims, perceived finality of awards and the enforcement regime provided by the New York Convention. In return, the arbitration community has shown its support by adopting it as a common cost tool encouraged, perhaps, by jurisdictions such as Singapore and Hong Kong lifting their prohibition of its use in arbitrations. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Managing the cost of an arbitration – you may have more options than you think”

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Global leaders sponsor profile: KNOETZL

KNOETZL

KNOETZL is a leading Austrian law firm of effective, experienced and perceptive legal minds, providing the highest quality of advocacy in dispute resolution and corporate crisis. KNOETZL finds optimal outcomes for corporate, financial and governmental clients in their most significant and complex disputes. With an all-star team, combined with a diversity of styles and specialisations, the firm represents new standards of excellence in the market.

KNOETZL is Austria’s first large-scale dispute resolution powerhouse dedicated to high-profile and significant cases that matter. The firm is best known for taking the unique approach in Austria to provide a diverse team of highly-skilled lawyers and legal advisers, included from four continents, to offer international, focused advice in dispute resolution. The firm’s dispute resolution specialists have raised the bar to a new, higher level to litigate in Austrian and regional courts, to mediate and to arbitrate across the CEE region and globally. Leading international law firms value work with KNOETZL and the firm is engaged as Austrian disputes counsel by elite international advisers, corporate decision makers and general counsel. Continue reading “Global leaders sponsor profile: KNOETZL”

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Global leaders sponsor profile: Hui Zhong Law Firm

Hui Zhong Law Firm

Established in 2013, Hui Zhong Law Firm was one of the first law firms in China to specialise in dispute resolution. The firm has been listed in The GAR 100 as top arbitration firm for three consecutive years from 2015 to 2018.

We boast a team of passionate, highly-skilled and experienced dispute resolution specialists. Our team includes highly-renowned senior partners, who were part of the first wave of Chinese lawyers carrying out international arbitration and dispute resolution work in China. Continue reading “Global leaders sponsor profile: Hui Zhong Law Firm”

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Global leaders sponsor profile: Shalakany Law Office

Shalakany Law Office

Shalakany Law Office is one of the oldest and largest law firms in Egypt. Established in 1912 when Egypt was still a part of the Ottoman Empire, Shalakany has successfully forded over a century of practice in Egypt and the MENA region.

How has the firm maintained its status as a top-tier adviser over the years, and what has been the secret of your success?

Continue reading “Global leaders sponsor profile: Shalakany Law Office”

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Global leaders sponsor profile: Mihaj, Ilic & Milanovic

Mihaj, Ilić & Milanović

Mihaj, Ilić & Milanović (MIM Law) is a relatively new player in the Serbian market but is already ranked by The Legal 500 as top tier. How and why was the firm founded, and what has been the secret of your success?

Senka Mihaj: MIM Law was established at the end of 2015 by Senka Mihaj, Nemanja Ilić and Marko Milanović [pictured left to right], experienced dispute resolution lawyers, with an idea of creating a top-notch law office focused primarily on dispute resolution. Only a few months after establishment of the firm, rankings showed that our dispute resolution team is among the best in Serbia and, to be frank, that was not a surprise, since MIM is the only Serbian firm with three partners focused on dispute resolution. We have great experience in commercial disputes, in counselling and representing clients in insolvency and restructuring/pre-packaged reorganisation plan (UPPR) proceedings, as well as in both commercial and investment arbitration proceedings. There is no secret behind our success, only hard and devoted work within the profession that we all love. Continue reading “Global leaders sponsor profile: Mihaj, Ilic & Milanovic”

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International Arbitration Insight: Bigger, longer, more complicated

digital map

‘Arbitration has gone from being the exotic bird of dispute resolution to become almost the norm,’ argues Constantine Partasides of Three Crowns (3C).

The appearance of boutiques such as 3C and Hanotiau & van den Berg is itself a sign of arbitration’s entry into the mainstream. It is tempting to consider parallels with the US-based litigation firms that emerged in the late 1980s and ’90s, when Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Boies Schiller Flexner broke away from the full-service model to focus on disputes work. Continue reading “International Arbitration Insight: Bigger, longer, more complicated”

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Virtual Fear and Loathing – Can GCs get law firms to collaborate on tech?

Clichés abound over the stereotypical contrast between stuffy lawyers and progressive tech start-up gurus. Clearly law firms – whose liberal and often misplaced use of the term ‘innovation’ often adds fuel to the fire – have plenty of work to do. At the same time, some clients are far more insistent on innovation from their external advisers than others.

To what extent is this true? Are clients really driving a technological shake-out in the procurement of legal services? As Stuart Whittle, business services director at Weightmans, says: ‘The appetite varies massively among clients. Some want a solution on a stick while others are willing to invest time in tech and work with start-ups. They are all doing their own things and they are subjected to all kinds of pressures.’ Continue reading “Virtual Fear and Loathing – Can GCs get law firms to collaborate on tech?”

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The last word: New order

As part of our technology special, we canvass the experts and ask where the legal start-up market is headed

Most will fail

‘1,400 legal tech companies are not going to succeed. This is the normal curve for any disruption of an industry: we’re going to see failures and people abandoning software, you’re going to see a consolidation phase. I see some of these failures freaking people out, but that’s normal. Lawyers have to understand in early-stage entrepreneurship most companies don’t make it. Failure is not investing in a little company that went under; it’s the portfolio not generating an overall great return.’
Dan Jansen, chief executive, Nextlaw Ventures Continue reading “The last word: New order”

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UK Outlook sponsored briefing: ‘Hodl’, ‘Hit the moon’, ‘Lambo’, ‘Miners’

Brown Rudnick

Brown Rudnick’s Jane Colston considers asset tracing and enforcement across the blockchain

As comedian John Oliver recently said: ‘Cryptocurrencies and blockchain [are] everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers.’ Continue reading “UK Outlook sponsored briefing: ‘Hodl’, ‘Hit the moon’, ‘Lambo’, ‘Miners’”

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UK Litigation Outlook sponsored briefing: Three is a crowd! The rise of third-party funding in international arbitration

Eversheds Sutherland

Eversheds Sutherland assesses the key issues of using third-party funding in international arbitration

The use of third-party funding (TPF) has been a hotly debated topic in the international dispute resolution community for some time, with all signs pointing to its continued growth. The funding market appears to be on a constant expansion trajectory, with the number and geographic diversity of funders increasing, and new funders continuing to enter the market. Continue reading “UK Litigation Outlook sponsored briefing: Three is a crowd! The rise of third-party funding in international arbitration”

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Star power is core to your pitch – accept it

Within the same week, two Magic Circle firms stressed to Legal Business the same mantra after departures of big-name lawyers: it is not about stars, the focus is the platform and that is what top clients are buying. In a mobile market where even the once-untouchable elite City law firms lose marquee names to high-paying rivals, it is an increasingly familiar refrain, albeit one that has spread from mid-weight stalwarts to the tier more used to the role of hunter than prey.

But law firms – and this goes double for the leaders in the UK and US – would be well advised to go nowhere near the seductive institutional defence and not only because the financial results of the last ten years provide ample evidence that contradicts the assertion. Continue reading “Star power is core to your pitch – accept it”

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A&O merger bid risky but US question can’t be delayed forever

Allen & Overy

‘It is an odd couple. I wouldn’t have put them together,’ is one take from a London peer to the news that Allen & Overy (A&O) has sought a $2.8bn union with O’Melveny & Myers. It is certainly a representative view.

Since news of the talks broke in early April, One Bishops Square has gone uncharacteristically coy. However, it is understood that management indicated earlier this year that it was talking to two, then unnamed, US firms. A&O, of course, has to tread carefully – getting a deal through the demanding audience of its London partnership with O’Melveny or any comparable firm is a big ask. Continue reading “A&O merger bid risky but US question can’t be delayed forever”

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The wheat from the chaff – Hustling start-ups meet City law

In a quiet east London street off the bustling Brick Lane, a few doors from a sign tagged ‘Vegan Hair Salon’ is a co-working space. You meet Gaz, the office’s bulldog, and work among Star Wars figurines, gaming consoles and an electric drum kit.

It has blackboard walls and is suspiciously empty on a Friday afternoon given the barbecue outside. Equidistant from the corporate hub at Liverpool Street and the ‘scene’ of Shoreditch High Street, music plays. Continue reading “The wheat from the chaff – Hustling start-ups meet City law”

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UK Litigation Outlook sponsored briefing: Get on board! Sea changes in civil litigation – Spring 2018

Walker Morris

The courts are introducing innovative methods of dispute resolution to meet the growing demand from clients

The civil courts in England and Wales are experiencing unprecedented change. Lord Justice Briggs’ wholesale review of their structure1 coincided with a five-year programme to ‘deliver – through the use of modern technology, an improved estate and modernisation of current working practices – a more effective, efficient and high performing courts and tribunals administration’2. This follows Lord Justice Jackson’s sweeping reforms3, which elevated the importance of costs management and proportionality. Continue reading “UK Litigation Outlook sponsored briefing: Get on board! Sea changes in civil litigation – Spring 2018”

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Global Outlook sponsored briefing: Internal investigations and public enforcement: challenges under Italian law

Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton

Cleary Gottlieb’s Francesco De Biasi, Andrea Mantovani and Alessandra Anselmi examine the challenges facing companies

Internal investigations and public enforcement actions pose significant legal challenges for companies. The inherent multidisciplinary nature of the most frequent issues, which requires an in-depth knowledge not only of the laws and regulations of the relevant industry, but also of criminal, corporate, contract, data protection and labour law (often in more than one jurisdiction), increases these challenges. Continue reading “Global Outlook sponsored briefing: Internal investigations and public enforcement: challenges under Italian law”