Paris has been a hot spot for lateral hires this week, as firms including Squire Patton Boggs, Watson Farley & Williams (WFW) and Mayer Brown make international appointments across the board.
One-stop shopping is here but it’s not doing what it was supposed to
Sometimes in business what you correctly forecast can prove as problematic as what you get wrong. Because even when you manage the considerable feat of identifying what will happen in the world you are left with problems of unintended consequences.
Take the one-stop shop, a dominating idea during the legal industry’s defining 1990s-era globalisation as firms fought to become larger players that could serve clients across borders and product lines. The idea was that plc clients would narrow their adviser lists to smaller numbers of larger law firms. And this has largely come to pass – the trend of smaller panels has been well documented for years and the shift shows no sign of changing. There is also ample evidence that being a one-stop shop for high-end work across borders is highly profitable for law firms.
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Global London 2016 – The Main Table
KWM – ultimately a question of confidence
These are tough times for the house that Stanley Berwin built, with exhibit A being recent news that King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is undergoing a sweeping partnership restructuring set to trim its European business by nearly two dozen partners, or 15% of its ranks. While global managing partner Stuart Fuller (pictured) attempts to frame the move as repositioning KWM for the future, the storm clouds are ominous. The firm has suffered a string of significant exits in the last 18 months in its funds, litigation and corporate practices, losing several notable clients along the way. The firm was already going through a performance-driven partnership review set to manage out at least 10% of its ranks by this April (the firm’s German practice has struggled particularly). While the firm managed to achieve respectable growth in 2014/15 and increases in profitability in Europe, having to go through more major cuts is hardly an advertisement for its partnership.
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The tiger that came to eat BLP’s culture for breakfast and other sorry tales
These are tough times for another house that Stanley Berwin built, with exhibit B being the acrimonious end of merger talks between Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Greenberg Traurig. While the practice fit between the two looked both convincing and distinctive, these were two firms with plenty of strong characters. Summing up the prospect of the proposed deal recently, Legal Business noted that proceeding with a union would be holding ‘the proverbial tiger by the tail’. So it quickly proved, as on 16 March the pair officially called time on the discussions amid some discontent from the US firm, which was unhappy at the messages being put out by BLP at the end of the talks.
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Reform underway as Dentons shakes up profit-sharing arrangement in China
Following its landmark combination with Dentons to create a 7,500-lawyer legal giant, legacy Dacheng is restructuring its practice to reduce the number of profit pools from 15 to five.
With Dentons striving to integrate what is now the world’s largest law firm by employee headcount, the China arm of the firm, headed by senior partner Jinquan Xiao, has carried out a reorganisation to create increased profit-sharing between the firm’s 44 Chinese offices.
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Outgoing Slaughter and May senior partner Saul to launch mediation boutique
Slaughter and May’s longstanding leader, Chris Saul, will launch a mediation boutique once he retires from his role as senior partner on 30 April.
Saul, who is retiring from the UK’s most profitable law firm after eight years at the helm, is planning to launch a mediation firm later this year. In what is an unusual move for a corporate lawyer, Saul will set up a mediation consultancy called Christopher Saul Associates this autumn to provide dispute resolution advice to corporates. Saul registered the new firm with Companies House at the start of March.
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Over the Atlantic: London outperforms stateside practices in top US firms
White & Case edges ahead of Latham in the City with £185m turnover
A series of US firms have seen London office revenues grow faster than other parts of their business as the European markets prove buoyant for players such as Latham & Watkins, White & Case and Debevoise & Plimpton.
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Value range – as the money pours in, can Israel takes its high-growth stars global?
Israel’s regional tensions contrast with optimistic hopes for foreign investment and a burgeoning economy. While war still rages over the border in nearby Syria, Israel’s start-up and hi-tech sector is flourishing. In addition, its nascent natural gas industry finally looks primed for substantial development.
Life is good in Israel’s commercial capital Tel Aviv, says Barry Levenfeld, a partner at Yigal Arnon & Co: ‘Economically and politically, Israel remains stable, while our neighbours are more dangerous by the minute. Sitting here on the 47th floor in Tel Aviv, looking across the Mediterranean and with all the restaurants and coffee houses below, you just wouldn’t know that any of this was going on.’ Continue reading “Value range – as the money pours in, can Israel takes its high-growth stars global?”
Picón prepares to push DLA Piper upmarket as Sir Nigel Knowles makes that last goodbye
Tom Moore looks to the future of DLA as he meets the firm’s latest leader
Juan Picón’s face now adorns the WhatsApp group ‘Executive Rules’, used by DLA Piper’s leadership to share videos of karaoke nights, office yoga sessions and champagne moments, while running the world’s second largest law firm by revenue.
Q&A: Royal Bank of Scotland general counsel John Collins
Set to take on the top legal role at Santander UK later this year, The Royal Bank of Scotland’s outgoing general counsel (GC) John Collins talks to Sarah Downey about his career and the growing recognition of in-house lawyers.
Tell me about the evolution of the GC…
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Life During Law: Chris Saul, Slaughter and May
Every time my father got a promotion we had to move. It trains you to fit in with new crowds. He worked for the Midland Bank. We lived in Carlisle, Shropshire, Birmingham, Kingston-upon-Thames and Manchester. It focused me on academic work as each new school had a different syllabus so I was always catching up.
I used to stand in our garage handing my father spanners. My favourite car in my youth was the Lancia Aurelia B20 GT, which was one of the classic Pininfarina designs of the ’50s. They were the embodiment of high-quality engineering. I went through a severe Lancia-buying phase in my 20s. I bought five!
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Leadership, strategy and culture: behind the failed merger discussions between BLP and Greenberg
Following the fallout of failed merger talks between Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Greenberg Traurig, it has emerged the UK firm’s leadership was an issue for the Miami giant.
The merger had promised to create a property and disputes giant across the Atlantic and one of the most distinctive law firms in the global market but was called off in March.
Fit for purpose? Critics round on SFO as forex charges are dropped
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been criticised for shutting down its investigation into alleged rigging in the foreign exchange (forex) market after it could not find sufficient evidence to prosecute.
Despite some of the world’s largest banks being fined billions for forex rate manipulation, the UK’s fraud watchdog dropped the probe in March without bringing any charges.
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None so zealous – how and why GCs fell in love with mentoring
In-house counsel are increasingly united on the benefits of mentoring programmes. Is there substance behind the corporate fad?
‘I believe very strongly in leading by example,’ says Nokia global head of litigation Richard Vary. Although his legal team has a formal mentoring system in place, he believes it is the informal connections built in mentoring that play the most important role in developing in-house counsel. ‘You bring the people along, they see what you do, they see how you work rather than [you] telling people how to do their jobs. They’re professionals, they know what they’re doing. They’re intelligent – you give them the space to figure it out for themselves but also give them an example of the model of behaviours that you want.’
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KWM to cut 15% of legacy SJ Berwin partnership following major shake-up
Following a major overhaul of its practice structure, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) said in March it would axe 15% of its Europe and Middle East partnership, and make 45 business services employees redundant in London.
The move means 24 partners will leave the firm and is the second shake-up of the legacy SJ Berwin partnership in 12 months, when another 10% of the partnership across the region were asked to leave following a performance review.
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The finance view: Scaling up – GCs and finance partners get ready for the grind of ring-fencing reforms
Victoria Young assesses the approach to implementation of ring-fencing rules
Though the deadline for full implementation is over two years off, the looming threat of so-called ring-fencing reforms is already having a major impact on UK banking groups and their legal teams.
Freshfields and Linklaters advise as competition issues threaten stock exchange merger
Börse/LSE tie-up raises regulatory concerns
As Europe’s two largest financial market operators, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Börse, begin their third attempt at a tie-up, concerns have been raised over antitrust issues.
The risk debate: The gate keepers’ burden
Our annual Legal Business/Marsh round table saw law firm risk managers debate their role in fighting on two fronts – against demanding clients and internally with their fee-earners
Our 2016 risk management report, published last month, looked at a number of live issues for risk management teams within the UK leading firms, most of which place those teams at the frontline of potential battles.
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Magic Circle trio land £2bn London City Airport sale
Three Magic Circle firms have closed the £2bn sale of London City Airport to a Canadian-led consortium of investors.
Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May acted on the sale of the airport, located six miles from London’s financial district, which was completed late March after the Canadian consortium competed with two Chinese bidders.
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