It is dominated by mid-sized firms while global players and City leaders lag far behind. Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) sits in the third spot. You must scroll down nearly 40 positions before finding the likes of Linklaters and Clifford Chance.
The growth in regulation has made compliance part of business as usual for companies and most in-house legal departments are fully occupied with the day to day.
Litigation finance is becoming an increasingly important part of the commercial litigation landscape: according to the 2017 Litigation Finance Survey conducted by Burford Capital, the number of lawyers in the US who said their firms had used litigation finance has risen 414% since 2013. Over half (54%) of UK lawyers who have not yet used litigation finance expect to do so within two years.
Continue reading “Five things general counsel should know about litigation finance”
Machine learning is everywhere you look, from customer service virtual agents to round-the-clock patient care in hospitals. Continue reading “Why lawyers care about machine learning”
It has been the question raised over wine by many seasoned litigators for months now: what’s going on at Enyo Law? At the beginning of last year, the litigation boutique hit the headlines thanks to surprise merger talks with fellow disputes specialist Stewarts Law, but since the discussion was abandoned the influential outfit has gone to ground.
Formed by ex-Addleshaw Goddard partners Simon Twigden (pictured), Pietro Marino and Michael Green, Enyo was launched in 2010 with a post-Lehman preoccupation of litigating against banks. The concept was simple: pick up the big-ticket work that larger firms were conflicted out of. Continue reading “Disputes Eye: Enyo goes to ground – what next for the pioneering disputes shop?”
Simmons & Simmons will conduct an independent review of how Baker McKenzie handled allegations that one of its partners sexually assaulted a junior lawyer several years ago.
Bakers confirmed today (21 February) it has appointed Simmons to review the incident, which resulted in the associate leaving the firm after reaching a settlement and signing a non-disclosure agreement. Continue reading “#MeToo latest: Bakers appoints Simmons to review handling of complaint against partner accused of sexual assault”
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) today (21 February) announced that much-touted banking litigator Damien Byrne Hill will be replacing Mark Shillito as head of disputes for the UK and US on 1 May.
Unsurprisingly as one of the key names in what remains the City’s bellwether ComLit shop, Byrne Hill has acted on a string of marquee matters in his 27 years at HSF (by way of legacy Herbert Smith), including defending Goldman Sachs in a $1.2bn claim brought by the Libyan Investment Authority. Shillito, who had run the practice for ten years, including steering it through a turbulent period in the wake of its 2012 union with Australian leader Freehills, returns to full time fee earning. Continue reading “‘There’s scope for growth’: Damien Byrne Hill on taking over HSF’s disputes team”
West End firm Gordon Dadds has its sights set on becoming a ‘nine-figure’ business after making its fourth acquisition since its public float in August last year .
Gordon Dadds announced yesterday (19 February) it had acquired Cardiff-based Thomas Simon for £1.875m, paying £187,500 up front with 20 quarterly instalments to come thereafter, plus a further amount related to net assets. The vendors of Thomas Simon, which had a fee income of just over £2m for the year to 31 July 2016, have warranted fee income will be not less than £12.5m over the next five years as part of the deal. Continue reading “Firepower: £100m revenue a ‘natural target’ for acquisitive Gordon Dadds”
A trio of tax partners who joined Reed Smith in a 17-partner move from collapsed legacy SJ Berwin have moved on again after little more than a year, joining DLA Piper.
DLA has hired Sylvie Vansteenkiste, Fanny Combourieu and Raphaël Béra from Reed Smith. The three tax partners came to Reed Smith in January last year after the US firm hired 50 fee-earners, including 17 partners, three counsel, 22 associates, one jurist, seven trainees and nine other support staff from the failed European arm of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM). The hiring spree was understood to represent the largest group of lawyers taken on by a firm in the wake of the collapse. Continue reading “A long time in law: DLA Piper hires SJ Berwin tax escapees from Reed Smith”
In a week dominated by European and international partner hires, US firms Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and King & Spalding were among four firms to add to their London benches with strategic additions in project finance and white-collar crime respectively.
After the coup of hiring former Financial Reporting Council (FRC) heavyweight Gareth Rees QC last September, King & Spalding has underscored its ambitions of being a serious corporate crime firm in London with the appointment of Aaron Stephens from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP). Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Akin Gump and King & Spalding boost London benches while international lateral hiring continues apace”
Ashurst’s management took home £8m in 2016/17, 18% less than the previous year, according to the firm’s recently published LLP accounts.
The City firm’s turnover saw an 12% boost to £541m from £505m the previous year, showing a recovery after two consecutive years of decline following its merger with Australian firm Blake Dawson in 2013. Continue reading “LLP latest: Ashurst management pay drops 18% amid turnover recovery”
‘My career has been a tale of reinvention and creativity.
I have been very lucky in that I have worked on three continents. I started in New York as a corporate finance lawyer in the traditional sense, then transferred to Singapore where younger lawyers did a bit of everything: investment funds, LBOs, JV finance, capital markets. Continue reading “Women deal stars: perspectives – Tamara Box, Reed Smith”
‘Compared to ten years ago, in some ways it’s easier for women and in some it’s more difficult. It is easier because there is a lot of support for gender equality and initiatives to support women. For example, the 30% Club to support them particularly at senior level and at board positions.
Attitudes have changed, we have a lot of policies now around helping many women but also men who want to work in a more agile fashion. This helps women have their career and also a family – but they are also popular with men. Continue reading “Women deal stars: perspectives – Penelope Warne, CMS”
In a blow for traditionalists, our latest cover feature eschews profiling a group of hard-working, smart, highly-confident men who are talented lawyers to instead profile a group of hard-working, smart, variably-confident women who are talented lawyers. Radical stuff.
But then the career cycle for too many ambitious female deal lawyers remains nasty, brutish and short. While women increasingly advance into senior roles in advisory practice areas and even more so among the ranks of senior general counsel, in the upper reaches of transactional law, it is still a boys’ club and anyone claiming differently does not know many corporate lawyers. Continue reading “Comment: Law firms will never just hand status to City women – they’ll have to take it”
Continuing the strong showing from US firms in London recently, Sidley Austin and Morrison & Foerster (MoFo)’s City offices recorded a convincing performance in 2017, each posting double-digit percentage growth in their top line.
Expansive global giant Sidley posted a 14% City revenue hike to £85.7m in a year marked by five headline lateral hires for the firm’s M&A, restructuring and capital markets teams. Continue reading “Global London: Sidley and MoFo City outposts record double-digit revenue growth”
A court in Munich has sentenced a former Linklaters partner to three years and three months in prison for sexual assaulting a student at a firm party several years ago.
Tax partner Thomas Elser assaulted an intern after Linklaters’ Oktoberfest party in September 2014 before a former litigation partner of the firm, Laurenz Schmitt, intervened and punched him in the face. Continue reading “#MeToo spotlight still shines on law as former Linklaters partner jailed for sexual assault”
Revenues at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft dropped by a striking 10% in 2017 as the firm persists with retrenching in a bid to concentrate its efforts on a more focused client roster.
Global revenue at the Manhattan firm fell for the third consecutive year to $408.1m against a 15% dip in the firm’s lawyer headcount to 373. Continue reading “More bad news for Cadwalader – global revenue dips 10% in 2017 as 10-year slide continues”
Hogan Lovells is the latest firm to venture into flexible lawyering after agreeing a partnership with New Law pioneer Elevate.
The deal announced today (15 February) will give the transatlantic giant access to a pool of 1,500 self-employed professionals worldwide to support its UK business. Elevate will provide a group of pre-vetted lawyers to choose from for specific projects, with Hogan Lovells’ paying Elevate for the cover. Hogan Lovells expects to use between 30 and 50 lawyers from the pool every year and will be looking at four to ten-year qualified lawyers across all practice areas. Continue reading “Let’s be friends – Hogan Lovells hooks up with NewLaw darling Elevate for flexi-lawyer service”
Network Rail has begun its longest-ever panel review process for external adviser work, which could be worth up to £70m over five years from next April.
The rail company’s review will be the first under new group general counsel Stuart Kelly, who was promoted from deputy group GC following the departure of Suzanne Wise in March last year for a non-legal role as senior vice-president for corporate development at Japan Tobacco International . The review will be led by Network Rail route businesses GC Dan Kayne. Continue reading “‘A wonderful opportunity’: Network Rail begins long journey to new £70m adviser panel”
Those of you in the UK with fond memories of the hefty The Legal 500 books dropping onto your desks are in for a change. The publication later this year of the latest research will be environmentally-friendly and move to a wholly digital platform via legal500.com. Our ambition is to create the best possible exposure for law firms’ practices via our online rankings. We want to ensure the most relevant information on law firms and sets is readily available to clients, creating the most comprehensive and user-friendly research service available anywhere online.
Moving The Legal 500 to a digital platform gives legal500.com the flexibility to offer that expanded service. As we seek to improve and expand our published information on the market, we want to work in partnership with law firms and sets, so that our evolving research reflects what you need to convey to clients seeking your firm’s help. Continue reading “Guest post: The Legal 500 United Kingdom is changing – and it starts with the submissions”
