Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and Winston & Strawn have both added to their footprints in Texas this week, simultaneously announcing new offices in Houston and Dallas respectively.
Over 500 barristers have condemned proposals from the Bar Standards Board (BSB) to reform the regime for barristers-in-training.
High-profile members of the profession, such as former Lord Chief Justice Lord Woolf, are among the 505 signatories of an open letter to the BSB, criticising its suggestions for restructuring the exam process.
Ashurst’s latest LLP accounts show a spike in capital expenditure and a stark fall in operating profit defined a tough year for the Anglo-Australian firm in 2015/16, in which revenues fell for the second year in a row.
Continue reading “LLP latest: spending spike and debt increase underlines tough year for Ashurst”
Clyde & Co has strengthened its London office with a new recruit, as Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF), Bird & Bird, Sidley Austin and Barclays all secure new talent.
Despite a year of pronounced headwinds, our annual focus on the ten largest offshore firms reveals that 2016 activity levels remained robust with an increasing focus on Asia and continued strength in dispute resolution. However, among the leadership of these firms there is little doubt that Brexit has had an inevitable effect on performance.
‘The reality of Brexit has and will continue to impact business as much as the prospect of Brexit has done,’ says Jonathan Rigby, managing partner at Mourant Ozannes. Continue reading “The year offshore in review – The Iron Islands”
In a margin-conscious environment it is tough for advisers to catch a client’s eye, but according to flagship research into GC attitudes, a group of quality City law firms are standing out from the crowd through cutting-edge service delivery.
Management at Addleshaw Goddard is planning to ultimately phase out its third partnership class, which has been created to accommodate the firm’s merger with Scottish practice HBJ Gateley. Continue reading “Addleshaws plans to disband third partnership tier as Scottish merger beds down”
CMS Cameron McKenna is to stretch its top of equity to accommodate the highest-earning Nabarro partners, as the firms prepare for their tripartite merger with Olswang on 1 May. Continue reading “Camerons to raise top of equity to keep Nabarro heavyweights”
Allen & Overy (A&O) has continued its expansion in the US with the appointment of Eugene Ingoglia to its investigations and litigation practice in New York, its third litigation hire in the US in a month. Continue reading “A&O continues US expansion with third litigation hire in a month”
National Grid has reorganised its in-house legal function following the £13.8bn separation of its gas distribution business.
Continue reading “National Grid reshuffles in-house team as firms join new panel”
Cutting-edge legal tech is no longer an optional extra for law firms. In our latest round table with McCann FitzGerald, legal technologists debate the key barriers to success
The last five years have seen the emergence of early adopters in the legal technology sphere, firms that have embraced innovation and adopted artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and predictive coding tools, not only to increase efficiency, but to reshape the way they work. Continue reading “The bleeding edge – The legal tech debate”
Five years since the turbulent union of Herbert Smith and Freehills, the global challenger has chosen Mark Rigotti as its sole chief executive. Is the culture clash over?
Managing the delicate power balance between managing partner and senior partner is tricky at the best of times. But how do you address the cultural minefield as a foreigner taking the lead executive role of a 134-year-old City institution still coming to terms with a turbulent merger, especially when your opposite is a particularly influential and strong-willed senior partner? Continue reading “Taking over – one leader at HSF but is the culture clash over?”
Victoria Young and Madeleine Farman talk to new heads on the US, high yield and China.
While in recent years Allen & Overy (A&O) has been probably the most confident of the City’s leading banking shops, it remains a fast-evolving world for even the most potent of banking teams. Since the market turned in 2008, Magic Circle firms have faced tight margins and the increasingly ominous incursion of US-dominated finance products in Europe’s credit markets. Continue reading “The Finance View – A&O’s new practice chiefs on repositioning the City’s top finance shop”
Amid a turbulent market, the three-way union of Camerons, Nabarro and Olswang has forged a UK giant. Has Camerons picked up a bargain or will there be buyer’s remorse?
September 1988. Twenty fresh-faced trainees are preparing for their first day at Nabarro Nathanson. Among the recruits are Iain Newman, Paul Stevens and Duncan Weston. Not only will the trio go on to have prominent careers in City law and remain on good terms, but more than 25 years later they would kickstart the UK’s largest-ever legal merger. Continue reading “Sale of the century – Has Camerons picked up a bargain with Olswang and Nabarro?”
After a rocky 2016 with Brexit and Trump, we ask the City’s leading corporate players how 2017 will play out. Continue reading “The last word: Dealbreakers”
Macfarlanes’ Charles Martin reviews Heidi Gardner’s much-discussed new book on collaboration in professional services
Collaboration within a law firm is as self-evidently a good thing as motherhood and apple pie. But then you might think the case for global warming is pretty clear too. So, despite the wave of professional recognition Harvard Law School professor Heidi Gardner (pictured) has received for her work on teamworking, her new book, Smart Collaboration, has the considerable challenge of getting lawyers past the outskirts of platitudinal praise and towards the town centre of actual working habits. Continue reading “A buzzword, sure, but one with edge”
As Barclays sifts through the wreckage of King & Wood Mallesons’ European practice and claims of fresh departures swirl around Ashurst, you have to say that the marriage of Herbert Smith and Australian leader Freehills could have gone worse. A lot worse. Continue reading “HSF – At least one Down Under revolution worked”
In the wake of the eye-catching tie-up of CMS Cameron McKenna, Nabarro and Olswang, Legal Business noted last year that the gnomic messages around the union made it a hard one to judge. And even after a detailed assessment of the largest UK legal merger ever, as we undertake for this month’s cover feature, it’s not easy to put the pieces together. Continue reading “There’s value in CMS’ purchase and one big hurdle ahead”
Happy New Year, profession. Barely have we gotten into 2017 and the inevitable has happened: the legacy SJ Berwin business has entered administration, becoming the largest collapse in European legal history.
From the point last spring that a high-billing Paris private equity team quit for Goodwin Procter, it was hard to see King & Wood Mallesons’ (KWM) European business avoiding a bad outcome. But this comment is not really about KWM’s fate, more about how we try to interpret events and re-write history after the fact. Continue reading “As KWM cracks, beware re-written history and schadenfreude”
Once the chief enforcer for the City, the PwC UK general counsel discusses breaking balls and finding a silver lining to the financial crisis
‘I would never have taken a role where I wasn’t sitting at the top table. I make sure I have influence in how a firm goes about things,’ notes veteran litigator Margaret Cole, PwC’s UK general counsel (GC) and chief risk officer. Continue reading “Client profile: Margaret Cole, PwC UK”
