It would be hypocritical for the legal media to complain about the lack of serious debate on work/life balance but since no-one got into this game to be consistent, we will not let that stop us. Attempting to make up for lost time this month with a focus on quality of life, the core question is how can the profession help its staff make work more rewarding and achieve some measure of balance in their lives?
Continue reading “Comment: The true capitalist case for a new work/life deal”
A casual tweet of mine about the Oxford stabbing story gained unusual prominence (for a tweet of mine) and most of the people I have bumped into have wanted to talk about it. Continue reading “Guest post: Being within the law does not put judiciary beyond criticism – The bread knife of legal reasoning”
Ah, despite the changing fashions, technology and economic realities of the day, in law you can always rely on that curious mix of mutual hypocrisy, miscommunication, mistrust and conflicting agendas between clients and law firms to endure. Continue reading “Clients and rookie lawyers – some awkward truths and a woolly debate on training”
Ah, despite the changing fashions, technology and economic realities of the day, in law you can always rely on that curious mix of mutual hypocrisy, miscommunication, mistrust and conflicting agendas between clients and law firms to endure. Continue reading “Clients and rookie lawyers – some awkward truths and a woolly debate on training”
Supermarket giant Tesco has gifted Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) with another three-year stint as its lead property adviser. The mandate was last extended in 2014 when Tesco dropped Ashurst from its panel and the extension is a further endorsement of BLP’s key practice area and low-cost Manchester base.
Tesco also uses Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for corporate and commercial work and the Magic Circle firm recently advised the supermarket as it signed a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay the Serious Fraud Office £129m in fines relating to a 2014 profit misstatement, avoiding prosecution after a two-year investigation. Allen & Overy, Hill Dickinson and Squire Patton Boggs are also among Tesco’s regular advisers. Continue reading “Significant matters – Spring 2017”
Supermarket giant Tesco has gifted Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) with another three-year stint as its lead property adviser. The mandate was last extended in 2014 when Tesco dropped Ashurst from its panel and the extension is a further endorsement of BLP’s key practice area and low-cost Manchester base.
Tesco also uses Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer for corporate and commercial work and the Magic Circle firm recently advised the supermarket as it signed a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay the Serious Fraud Office £129m in fines relating to a 2014 profit misstatement, avoiding prosecution after a two-year investigation. Allen & Overy, Hill Dickinson and Squire Patton Boggs are also among Tesco’s regular advisers. Continue reading “Significant matters – Spring 2017”
To coincide with the 20th annual Legal Business Awards, a launch reception was held on 23 March to mark the launch of our fifth annual GC Powerlist which, under the unifying title The Clients of Tomorrow, looked at both the outstanding rising star in-house counsel and high-growth companies with the prospects of becoming the global giants of tomorrow. At the gathering, which included key representatives from FTSE 100 companies such as Virgin Atlantic, Telefónica and RSA, The In-House Lawyer editor-in-chief Alex Novarese said this year’s report was the most challenging yet to research but also probably the most interesting. Continue reading “GC Powerlist”
In a world where newspapers are branding judges ‘enemies of the people’ and fake news dominates public discourse, these days the media itself is the story.
‘There are known knowns… There are known unknowns… but there are also unknown unknowns.’
‘When I initiated discussions on our culture at partners’ meetings, I could see the faces of many of my former partners light up, not for the reasons I hoped, but from the reflected glow of their BlackBerrys. They saw an excellent opportunity to catch up on more pressing issues, while I, to their minds, embarked on some abstruse philosophical and largely meaningless examination of our corporate soul.’ David Harrel, senior partner of SJ Berwin between 1992 and 2006, writing in Legal Business, 2013
At a recent event for senior in-house counsel in London, two clear messages emerged. Firstly, that there is a rapid professionalisation in the way that major legal departments are managing themselves. Secondly, there was agreement that much of the support for change was being driven from the ‘alternative’ legal market. Despite this, there was a lack of agreement as to what lay behind this process and how alternative providers were supporting it. In this article we explore these two issues. Firstly, what are the changes in-house legal departments are looking to bring about? And, secondly, how can the alternative marketplace help support them? Continue reading “The shock of the new”
For classists, the word ‘disruptive’ still carries negative connotations of damage, chaos and disarray. But these days in corporate circles it has become the phrase of the day – a complimentary shorthand to describe tech-driven innovators remaking all manner of industries. But the cult of disruption – birthed in Clayton Christensen’s hugely influential 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma – has truly come of age when it has reached not only the legal profession, but its in-house branch.
In her much-touted new book on bolstering team-working in professional services, Smart Collaboration, Harvard Law School professor Heidi Gardner argues that sophisticated buyers are increasingly expecting an open-house approach from advisers in delivering their wares.
DAC Beachcroft and The In-House Lawyer recently conducted a survey to assess the role and influence of the in-house lawyer in managing risk. Is the role that of ringmaster – right at the heart of the matter – or more a side-line prompt? Essentially does the legal department have the necessary influence, associations, and information to fulfil the role of business adviser effectively? A picture emerges of the in-house lawyer as a key player in risk management and important contributors to the risk process, albeit that they own few risks. Continue reading “Managing risk: the in-house view”
‘When fintech became a big thing the narrative was all about the banks being disrupted and the threat to their business model,’ says Martin Cook, UK general counsel at Funding Circle, one of the world’s most successful peer-to-peer lenders. ‘There has since been a shift toward what might be called “fintech 2.0”, with a less aggressive conversation on both sides. The business model has matured toward delivering a better service to the customer rather than simply beating the banks.’
It has been a long, long time since one of London’s elite law firms has genuinely shifted direction. So the shake up currently unfolding at Silk Street under the newish teaming of managing partner Gideon Moore and senior partner Charlie Jacobs is, professionally speaking, a big deal.
Continue reading “Comment: New look Linklaters – cuddly inclusiveness proves oddly compelling”
Marcus Lee, previously general counsel (GC) of Channel 5, has been promoted to GC for UK, northern and eastern Europe for Viacom International Media Networks (VIMN), also part of the media conglomerate Viacom.
Continue reading “In-house: Channel 5 GC takes role at Viacom following internal restructure”
Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy, Linklaters and Clifford Chance are among the firms to have been named on Standard Chartered‘s revised legal panel following a review earlier this year.
Macfarlanes has advised UK based virtual simulation start-up Improbable on its $502m financing raised from Japanese telecoms group SoftBank. Continue reading “‘A landmark transaction’: Macfarlanes advises UK tech start-up Improbable on $502m financing from SoftBank”
In a bid to keep pace with high-paying US rivals, Clifford Chance (CC) has voted through another round of changes to its remuneration, introducing more flexibility to pay top billers. Continue reading “‘A more complex approach’: CC votes through more lockstep reform to fend off mounting US threat”
