Greenberg Traurig has launched its first office in Germany with the mass hire of Olswang’s 50-strong lawyer team in Berlin.
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Getting a grip on the ‘slippery ladder’ – Reed Smith’s Tamara Box on women and law
Imagine, in sequence, a football player, a surveyor, a figure skater and a managing partner of a law firm – all without gender association. Were you able to do that? Now imagine a carpenter. When you have that image settled in your mind, tell me the colour of her hair.
Revolving doors: Magic Circle duo lose international players while Morgan Lewis continues City advance
The past week has seen Allen & Overy (A&O) and Clifford Chance (CC) lose senior lawyers internationally as Morgan Lewis & Bockius bulked up in London with a three-partner hire from K&L Gates. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Magic Circle duo lose international players while Morgan Lewis continues City advance”
Comment: The Gospel according to Matthew – can CC live up to the legacy?
Will the real Clifford Chance (CC) stand up? It is, after all, a key moment for what was not that long ago the world’s most influential law firm but working out what it stands for now can be a challenge.
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200 judges claim discrimination over UK government’s planned pension cuts
Some 200 judges have taken the first step towards suing the UK government, claiming that changes to the judicial pension scheme that will cut the amount paid to those born after 1 April 1957 are discriminatory.
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Shoosmiths grows revenues 10% to pass £100m mark and return to pre-financial crisis high
National firm Shoosmiths has returned to its pre-financial crisis highs, breaking the £100m mark in revenues for the 2014/15 financial year and profit per equity partner (PEP) jumping 44% to £416,000.
Travers Smith posts record results as turnover crosses £100m boundary and PEP reaches £935k
City outfit Travers Smith has become the latest UK law firm to post strong results for the past financial year, registering a 9% rise in revenue to break the £100m boundary.
O’Melveny hires new European corporate head from White & Case as it makes moves in burgeoning private bond market
With €31bn in debt having been issued through private placements (PP) in Europe in 2014, O’Melveny & Myers has made a strategic move in the sector by hiring White & Case PP specialist Andrew Weiler to heads up its European M&A and corporate finance practice.
Guest post: The innovation perspective – get the right end of the telescope
Innovation is a word much bandied around in the law without always a clear idea of what it means. Many lawyers or PR people have called me up over the years to proclaim their latest exciting innovation, only for me to point out that plenty of people have been doing the same thing for ages.
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UK to strengthen global grip on financial disputes with autumn launch of specialist banking court
Given that it has long been a part of the sales pitch for English courts that they have the specialist judges to handle complex commercial matters – and London’s status as one of the world’s leading finance centres – it’s strange that it has taken this long. But it has been confirmed this week that the UK is to create a financial court to handle major banking disputes at The Rolls Building in London.
Taking the firm to the client – Simmons’ head argues that traditional rainmakers are gone
When I qualified (was it really 30 years ago?) I had this impression about how law firms worked. The partnership was made up of different people. There were the technical geniuses – the lawyers who were the equivalent of the rocket scientists at the investment banks. There were the managers who made things work, like meeting the deadlines. Then there were the rainmakers.
Linklaters borrows plc playbook to bring in Hague as door-opener-in-chief
It’s long been a trusted technique for major corporates to ship in public figures for advisory roles to open doors and bring a touch of geopolitical gravitas to the table but so far the idea has rarely made it to law. But Linklaters has decided to borrow from the plc playbook with the appointment of former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague to a newly created ‘International Advisory Group’ in a bid to bring in an ‘external perspective’ on the firm’s strategy.
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Comment: The Global 100 – so much for the City comeback as US leaders land the big blows
Having spent a reasonable chunk of my pundit duties over the last three years noting significant shifts against London’s elite on the global stage, I confess I had expected financial results this year to break that pattern with City leaders managing a more confident showing. Particularly as the Global 100 firms collectively grew revenues by 5% to $92.7bn, while profits increased 7% to $36.43bn.
‘Old-fashioned’ values pay off for Macfarlanes as double-digit growth sees PEP pass big four
Pound for pound one of the most successful UK firms in financial terms over the last five years, Macfarlanes has once again posted an impressive set of figures with double-digit growth in both revenue and profits for the second year running. At £1.55m, Macfarlanes’ profit per equity partner (PEP) is now stronger than all of the big four Magic Circle firms.
Further KWM partner exits earmarked as firm completes Europe and Middle East review
King & Wood Mallesons has wrapped up a review of its 170-strong partnership across Europe and the Middle East with plans to remove underperforming partners.
Withers promotes five to partnership amid period of rapid international expansion
Withers has made up fewer lawyers to partner this year, reducing its round from seven to five, at the end of an intense period of international growth for the private client heavyweight.
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Landmark European court ruling to open floodgates for EU competition teams
In what will inevitably bring more work for competition lawyers acting for Asian clients in Europe, the EU’s highest court has upheld the European Commission’s €288m fine handed to Taiwanese electronics company Innolux in a ruling that puts the reach of EU competition law at odds with other antitrust regulators worldwide.
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Financials 2014/15: Wragge reveals £181m turnover for first full year post-merger
Ahead of its recently announced tie-up in Canada, Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co has posted turnover of £181m for its first full financial year post-merger, a moderate revenue increase of 5% over the combined results of the legacy firms Wragge & Co and Lawrence Graham.
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Life during law: Mark Darley, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
The lift bank on my floor is the perfect length for a cricket pitch. My son’s old school cricket bat gets used and at 10pm it can be dangerous, as there is quite possibly a golf ball being chipped down the corridor. I have a number of dents outside my office. There is some valuable artwork on that wall, but nobody’s succeeded in hitting it yet.
I trained at Simpson Curtis in Leeds in the early 1980s, because I swore I would never come down to London. I just wasn’t going to come down to this nasty part of the world where it was a case of one-up-over-the-Joneses.
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Squeezed – the insurance industry and the modern GC
Pressure to cut costs and innovate, alongside an increasingly robust regulatory environment, has squeezed the UK insurance industry in recent years. How are in-house teams faring in an ultra-competitive market?
The UK insurance market is the third largest in the world, according to the Association of British Insurers, yet it is struggling to make money. Despite taking a battering, the industry has weathered the global financial crisis far better than its counterparts in other financial services and, while it has successfully avoided many of the high-profile difficulties that have undone retail banks in recent years, the retail insurance industry now finds itself in a new era of challenges.
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