Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer‘s Companies House filings state turnover as £40m lower than its previously reported revenue figures for 2015/16, with the firm claiming exchange rates are the reason for the discrepancy. Continue reading “Freshfields LLPs reveal revenue £40m short of previously stated turnover”
Lawyers on Demand (LOD) has recorded an 18% upsurge in turnover for the 2015/16 financial year, according to its latest filings with Companies House. Revenues rose from £12.3m to £14.6m in the last financial year. Continue reading “Lawyers on Demand records double-digit revenue growth as top-end salaries soar”
Partners at a raft of firms including Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer are gearing up for potential damages claims against Europe’s biggest truck makers after they admitted to operating a 14 year price cartel. Continue reading “Quinn, Freshfields and HSF in drivers’ seat for firms defending truck cartel claims”
In what would be its second North American merger in two years, Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) is understood to be close to sealing a deal with $250m New York firm Chadbourne & Parke.
Do you ever get the feeling you’re flying blind as a general counsel? Not in the context of your own business, which will generate reams of numbers and facts to indicate how the legal function is performing within that one company. But in the context of how GCs and legal teams are developing at a wider level, profession-wide and within industry sectors, the question stands.
Simmons & Simmons, Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), Bond Dickinson and Reed Smith are among 24 firms to win a place on Lloyds Banking Group’s (LBG) specialist sub panel, which sits below the bank’s main core roster of eight firms. Continue reading “Simmons, BLP and Reed Smith win places on Lloyds’ specialist roster as bank gears up for commercial panel review”
Awareness of cutting edge legal tech remains limited among senior managers at law firms with a quarter unaware of most emerging technologies including artificial intelligence and machine learning, according to a report from the Law Society. Continue reading “Legal tech landscape remains ‘highly fragmented’, Law Society report claims”
Eversheds Sutherland has unveiled its joint leadership team as the combination between Eversheds and Sutherland Asbill & Brennan goes live today (1 February) following a partner vote in December. Continue reading “Eversheds Sutherland unveils leadership team as combination goes live”
Do you ever get the feeling you’re flying blind as a general counsel? Not in the context of your own business, which will generate reams of numbers and facts to indicate how the legal function is performing within that one company. But in the context of how GCs and legal teams are developing at a wider level, profession-wide and within industry sectors, the question stands.
The march away from hourly billing continues as Royal Dutch Shell, one of the world’s largest consumers of legal services, confirmed that all its work must be priced under ‘appropriate’ fee arrangements (AFAs), following its 2016 panel review. AFAs, which include capped, fixed and contingency fees, had been in place for all litigation work since June 2014, but now apply to all legal matters. In addition, every piece of work will be put out to tender to three or more panel firms. The shake-up was overseen by associate general counsel for global litigation, strategy and co-ordination Gordon McCue, who led Shell’s overall panel review.
Paul Gilbert attempts to chart what is so rarely discussed: the core competences and obligations of a general counsel.
At the risk of saying something that sounds unhelpfully like, ‘general counsel means general counsel’, I have spent a lot of time over many years considering how people in this role should define their purpose and articulate their contribution.
Stefan Stern assesses a new book on how institutional weaknesses let corporate risk wreak havoc.
If you found the events of 2016 unsettling you may wish to look away now. For the foreseeable future. Brexit means Brexit, apparently, but no-one seems able to provide much more detail than that as yet. A new US president unlike any most of us have ever seen is starting a four-year term in the White House. World War Three could break out at any moment, on Twitter.
Continue reading “‘Crisis accumulates for years’ – a fascinating insight into the roots of risk”
Stefan Stern assesses a new book on how institutional weaknesses let corporate risk wreak havoc.
If you found the events of 2016 unsettling you may wish to look away now. For the foreseeable future. Brexit means Brexit, apparently, but no-one seems able to provide much more detail than that as yet. A new US president unlike any most of us have ever seen is starting a four-year term in the White House. World War Three could break out at any moment, on Twitter.
Continue reading “‘Crisis accumulates for years’ – a fascinating insight into the roots of risk”
In-house teams may have grown in size and stature over recent years, but their external adviser panels are definitely shrinking. As a result, law firms find themselves increasingly at the sharp end during adviser reviews (see box ‘Cutting back’, below), with clients pushing for better rates, greater efficiencies and added extras.
In-house teams may have grown in size and stature over recent years, but their external adviser panels are definitely shrinking. As a result, law firms find themselves increasingly at the sharp end during adviser reviews (see box ‘Cutting back’, below), with clients pushing for better rates, greater efficiencies and added extras.
Unlike their private practice counterparts, in-house private equity (PE) lawyers prefer a low profile. Or, as one private practice partner puts it: ‘PE is a murky, sharp-elbowed world. In-house lawyers like to stay out of the limelight.’ Continue reading “A private function”
Unlike their private practice counterparts, in-house private equity (PE) lawyers prefer a low profile. Or, as one private practice partner puts it: ‘PE is a murky, sharp-elbowed world. In-house lawyers like to stay out of the limelight.’ Continue reading “A private function”
The professional life of a public company general counsel in Scotland can feel isolated at times. As a member of a small club, opportunities to plug into the professional networks that their peers in the South East of England take for granted can be limited. ‘We do get a sense sometimes that we are a decreasing community!’ confesses Christopher Morgan, GC and company secretary at Glasgow-based engineering plc Weir Group. ‘Certainly the number of Scottish-based plc GCs is thin on the ground and
it’s dwindling.’
The professional life of a public company general counsel in Scotland can feel isolated at times. As a member of a small club, opportunities to plug into the professional networks that their peers in the South East of England take for granted can be limited. ‘We do get a sense sometimes that we are a decreasing community!’ confesses Christopher Morgan, GC and company secretary at Glasgow-based engineering plc Weir Group. ‘Certainly the number of Scottish-based plc GCs is thin on the ground and
it’s dwindling.’
To highlight the strength of Scotland’s GC community, The In-House Lawyer profiles some of the nation’s leading buy-side lawyers.
Continue reading “The shortlist: 15 of Scotland’s leading in-house lawyers discuss their roles”
