Olswang has set its sights on expansion in Asia, today (7 December) announcing non-exclusive associations with local firms in Hong Kong and Singapore.
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Dentons hires former BLP corporate chief Collins as it targets cross-border deal work
In tandem with its significant global expansion this year, Dentons is targeting greater volumes of cross-border deal work and has hired Berwin Leighton Paisner’s former corporate chief David Collins to head its global M&A push.
Slaughter and May wins main corporate adviser role as John Lewis Partnership cuts legal panel to four
High Street retailer John Lewis Partnership (JLP) has cut its external legal panel to just four firms comprising Slaughter and May, Burges Salmon, Dentons and Eversheds, naming Slaughter and May as its main corporate adviser, following a review of its existing arrangements.
Rising star Rodham returns to Linklaters to boost private equity team
Linklaters has made a rare lateral hire to bring Shearman & Sterling private equity partner Ben Rodham back to the firm just three years after leaving the Magic Circle firm.
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Eighteen law firms join latest attempt to improve the profession’s dire social inclusion record
Eighteen major law firms, including Linklaters, Macfarlanes, White & Case and Sullivan & Cromwell, have joined a new initiative to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds join the legal profession.
Siri meets GC? Riverview bets big with the launch of a ‘virtual assistant’ for clients
After spending the last 18 months investing in automated services for in-house teams, Riverview Law has created a virtual assistant to help legal teams make ‘quicker and better decisions’.
Shearman invests in London as City promotions overtake New York
London provided the bulk of this year’s partner promotions at US law firm Shearman & Sterling, with more lawyers joining its partnership in the City than in the US.
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SRA proposes standardised final examination for all prospective solicitors
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced plans to introduce a new unified exam for assessing trainee solicitors.
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Taking Manhattan: Freshfields hires Skadden Arps specialist in US leveraged finance boost
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has continued its recent push in the US with the hire of experienced Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom counsel David Almroth as a partner to boost its US finance practice.
Glass houses – everything wrong with in-house counsel
General counsel have been vocal in recent years about persistent problems in law firms but what about in-house teams? Legal Business talks to clients and counsel about where GCs go wrong.
It’s not hard these days to find outlets and forums for general counsel (GCs) to highlight the excesses and poor behaviour that still persist among law firms. High rates, padded bills, unresponsive service and an inability to put themselves in the position of clients are all cited repeatedly in events, surveys and coverage of the views of in-house counsel.
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The moment of truth arises – will the profession stand up to Gove?
In business as in life, if you want respect you have to start by expecting it and not putting up with its absence. Perhaps the ludicrous attempt to bully the commercial legal profession into taking on more pro bono with the threat of a levy on the UK’s largest law firms will make that point sink in.
For years the government has treated the commercial legal profession with neglect and disinterest unless it needed something, despite its status as a world-leader, major tax contributor and role in helping carry English law around the globe. Far too often the profession rolled over then queued up like a grateful child when the government wanted the great and good to pitch in for something. The policy wheeze by incoming justice secretary Michael Gove has only made explicit what has been obvious for years.
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The limits of culture – WLG needs more than common ground to fulfil its ambitions
Let’s get this out of the way up front. The least expected new entrant to the Global 100, Gowling WLG, is going to have to work very hard to avoid being the classic 2 + 2 = 4 union when its tie-up goes live in January. Yes, it’s hard to see much downside given the hand WLG was playing, after a necessary and credibly integrated union between Wragge & Co and Lawrence Graham last year. The Gowlings fit is close enough to be acceptable, if not beyond debate. But the relative lack of interaction between the UK and Canadian economies, and the awkward realities of a dual-hub structure mean it will be perilously easy to settle into two firms existing under the same brand, rather than becoming more than the sum of its parts.
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After Harvard Kool-Aid and lost years can Moore galvanise Linklaters?
Allen & Overy (A&O)’s veteran leader David Morley remarked sometimes that in running a law firm, success or failure is less about the decisions you make and more the ability to communicate what you are doing and why. Though directed at his own firm, the observation speaks to much of what ailed Linklaters over the last four years as a chasm opened between its leadership and partnership.
In managing partner Simon Davies and senior partner Robert Elliott, Linklaters had intelligent and energetic leaders intent on taking tough decisions to reposition the firm after the banking crisis. What was forgotten during a series of restructurings was that the partnership needed to be brought along to achieve their purpose. A decision can be absolutely valid but still entirely wrong if you can’t get the majority of your partnership to believe in it, not just grudgingly rubberstamp it.
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The road to Ottawa – why WLG believes Gowlings can put it on the global map
Wragge Lawrence Graham has nailed its international aspirations to an ambitious tie-up with Canada’s Gowlings… to the bewilderment of peers. Why?
In September 2002, a Legal Business article on Wragge & Co likened the Birmingham giant’s fledging London branch to a troublesome toddler, describing international expansion as ‘just a twinkle in [then senior partner] Quentin Poole’s eye’. Thirteen years on, Wragges has swapped a best friends policy for offices in ten locations, including Paris, Dubai, Munich and Guangzhou, and transformed its London arm through its 2014 union with City practice Lawrence Graham (LG).
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Freshfields closes German IT support as Manchester hub grows to 70
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is stripping back its global support network in favour of its new Manchester back-office centre as it closes its IT support function in Germany.
The news comes as figures finally emerge from the firm around how many staff currently reside at the firm’s new support and legal outpost in Manchester. The new hub, called the Global Centre, houses between 70 and 75 staff members at its temporary Arndale Centre location, and is expected to grow rapidly to 300 employees by mid-2016 – more than a threefold headcount increase over the next seven months.
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Clifford Chance avoids nearshoring with plans for low-cost hub in Canary Wharf
400 support staff to be housed five minutes away from HQ
While peers have chosen low-cost hubs farther afield in the UK, Clifford Chance (CC) is moving its back-office staff from its Canary Wharf headquarters to a new location five minutes’ walk away.
The firm will transfer 400 operational staff to an open-plan office in a building occupied by State Street Bank & Trust at Churchill Place in a bid to cut back on costs.
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The panel that refreshes: Ashurst, RPC and Devereux take spots on Coke’s national roster
Ashurst and RPC are among a quartet of firms that have won places on Coca-Cola Enterprises (CCE)’s UK legal panel, with the drinks company also selecting Devereux Chambers as its preferred barristers’ set ahead of a review of its internal legal function.
CCE vice president for legal, Paul van Reesch, said after conducting a ‘deep review’ of its external counsel, Ashurst, RPC, Lewis Silkin and Shoosmiths have been allocated spots, following a competitive tender process between an estimated 35 law firms.
Snooper’s charter offers ‘unsatisfactory’ protection for legal professional privilege
Both The Law Society and The Bar Council have called for legal professional privilege (LPP) to receive statutory protection in the forthcoming Investigatory Powers Bill.
The draft law, dubbed the ‘snooper’s charter’, will govern all of the powers available to law enforcement, the security and intelligence agencies and the armed forces to acquire the content of communications or communications data. While this has sparked debate about privacy, critics also say for lawyers, professional privilege is under threat.
‘A straight shooter’: Linklaters partners vote in Gideon Moore
Banking head takes over as Davies departs for Lloyds
Linklaters global banking head Gideon Moore defeated five other candidates to be appointed as the firm’s new managing partner in November, ending a four-month search.
Having been selected by Linklaters’ 13-strong partnership board as its next leader earlier in the month, the Magic Circle firm’s 450 partners gathered at the Jumeirah Carlton Tower in London to endorse his appointment on 17 November.
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Parabis carved up in £50m pre-pack administration
One of the first firms to benefit from sweeping liberalisation of the legal services market in 2012, Parabis Group has been placed into a pre-pack administration in a move expected to save ‘all but a handful’ of the 2,000 jobs at the company.
Peter Saville, Ben Browne and Anne O’Keefe of AlixPartners were appointed joint administrators over a number of entities within Parabis Group. Immediately following the appointment, a series of sales of the group’s legal services, rehabilitation and field services divisions took place.
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