As two of the most highly regarded leaders in the Square Mile – David Morley at Allen & Overy (A&O) and Chris Saul at Slaughter and May – prepare to hand over, it’s an apt moment to reflect on the state of leadership at leading UK law firms. It’s not clear that what emerges from the profession is all that flattering.
Continue reading “Comment: Too many reasonable men? What ails law firm leadership”
Eversheds has hired a trio of lawyers from Squire Patton Boggs, while DLA Piper, Mayer Brown and Dentons all added to their benches around the globe.
Mishcon de Reya has today (14 March) announced the arrival of former Addleshaw Goddard partner Sonia Campbell as it continues the steady expansion of its commercial disputes team.
The Bar Standards Board (BSB) has stepped in to the long-simmering debate on costs and access to the profession to confirm it will toughen the Bar Course Aptitude Test (BCAT) amid controversy regarding 99%-plus pass rates.
Continue reading “Watchdog to raise bar on the Bar in toughened pre-vocational test”
Since I wrote about David Cameron’s ‘sovereignty plan’, it seems to have been forgotten. It’s clear the idea was aimed at keeping politicians in the Remain camp, and has failed.
Continue reading “Guest post: How Boris Johnson is wrong on parliamentary sovereignty”
I confess the analogy is not perfect, but reflecting on the bizarre and often contradictory pressures on partners in law firms today brings to mind the world of Alice in Wonderland. Today, many question the appropriateness of the partnership model itself. They certainly question the strange, often opaque feudal master/servant process by which the aspiring lawyer serves their apprenticeship.
Magic Circle firm Linklaters has ramped up associate take-home pay after a lengthy review of its remuneration.
A 250-strong group of lawyers including leaders from Allen & Overy (A&O), King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), Simmons & Simmons and Travers Smith have joined the ‘Lawyers – In For Britain’ group lobbying for the UK to remain in the EU.
Litigation specialist Stewarts Law has hired James Price from Farrer & Co to launch a trusts litigation practice in the City.
Continue reading “Stewarts Law latest to develop trusts practice with Farrer hire”
There is a reason that the slogan ‘No taxation without representation’ has echoed through history. The rally cry of the American revolution demonstrates a basic truth that institutions and figures of authority hitting up constituencies for money without broadly representing their interests are in the long run asking for trouble.
Continue reading “Comment: Why it’s time for the Law Society’s levy to go”
Dentons‘ NextLaw Labs, a venture launched last year for financing new legal services technologies, has made its second major investment with legal tech start-up Apperio.
Continue reading “Dentons’ venture NextLaw Labs invests in fee transparency firm Apperio”
Reed Smith has reported global revenues fell 2.5% in 2015 to $1.12bn from $1.15bn, while profits per partner were lower by 8.1%, which the firm has said is due to poor commodity prices and early resolution of some litigation matters.
Continue reading “Reed Smith blames poor energy prices as global revenues dip 2.5%”
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy has become the latest firm to post flat results following the economic slowdown in some of its key markets, including energy and infrastructure, as its London office put in a strong 6% revenue increase to $110.2m.
Continue reading “Milbank posts flat global results as London turnover rises 6% to $110m”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has hired Clifford Chance’s Alastair Mordaunt to become the new competition head of its Hong Kong practice.
Magic Circle firm Allen & Overy (A&O) has taken a lead role acting for Deutsche Börse as it spins off its US options exchange operator International Securities Exchange, in a move which looks to aid the German stock exchange operator’s proposed merger with the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
Continue reading “Allen & Overy and Wachtell take leads on Deutsche Börse spin-off”
Eversheds and Osborne Clarke have been reappointed to Siemens UK’s legal panel, while newcomer Addleshaw Goddard will replace Reed Smith, following a review.
Continue reading “Reed Smith replaced as Addleshaw Goddard joins Siemens UK legal panel”
Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) has made 17 partner promotions worldwide, in a bumper round more than three times last year’s round of five. Of these 17, 82% were promoted in London and six in the firm’s real estate practice.
GC: Obviously the Snowden story was a huge scoop for The Guardian. How did you first hear about it, and what were your initial thoughts?
Gill Phillips (GP): I was actually in Australia as we were in the process of opening our office there. I got a cryptic phone call from Alan Rusbridger [then editor-in-chief] one night saying, ‘I can’t really talk about this as using the phone might be unreliable. Could you put me in touch with a US national security lawyer?’ I began to think, ‘Ok, something is going on,’ but I gave him a few names. Continue reading “Legal pathway to the story of the century”
Schadenfreude doesn’t feature much between in-house legal departments, so many general counsel would have winced when TalkTalk chief executive Baroness Harding admitted last year that she didn’t know all the technical details of the cyber breach that could ultimately cost the company £60m and contribute to the loss of 101,000 customers. Continue reading “Brave new worlds”
Just what is it that you want to do?
We wanna be free.
We wanna be free to do what we wanna do.
Loaded, Primal Scream
It was a very different legal market in 2007 when Simon Harper and a group of colleagues at Berwin Leighton Paisner geared up for the launch of Lawyers On Demand (LOD). Amid boom time for legal services, few knew what to make of a flexi-lawyering business. Working on initial marketing, the idea was hit upon to draw on the famous freedom refrain from Primal Scream’s 1990 song Loaded (actually a sample from the cult film The Wild Angels). The intent was to reach a new generation of lawyers: a generation that in law and in other industries would increasingly be known as Millennials. The impact was immediate, recalls Harper. ‘What made LOD fly was the changing attitudes to work. Some of the CVs we got were amazing.’ Continue reading “Myths and Millennials”
