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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.

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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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