A better year but not every LB100 firm can navigate the choppy waters.
Continue reading “Legal Business 100 2014: Interactive main table”
Legal Business 100 2014: Interactive main table
Efficiency as a driver of legal innovation
Thomson Reuters looks at the exciting future of legal services in the wake of a rapidly changing legal market.
If the changes that have taken place in the legal market over the past two years are any indication of what lies ahead, the future of legal services is set to be an exciting one. Mergers and acquisitions, new entrants to the market, economic pressures and evolving client demands have combined to create an environment in which innovative organisations can thrive.
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Achieving financial independence is so much easier if you create a plan
Towry’s Chris Cole explains how they help legal partners achieve lifetime financial goals
Over the many years we have been working with law firms, we have found that partners typically have common aspirations from a financial point of view. Chief among these is usually the desire to become ‘financially independent’ – in other words, working out when enough is really enough to achieve the future they want for themselves and their families. However, legal partners are incredibly busy people and so they invariably do not have the time to personally put together a plan to help them achieve this goal.
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Professional indemnity: PI insurance – dos and don’ts
Marsh’s Sandra Neilson-Moore reflects on the process of applying for professional indemnity insurance, with some added thoughts on cyber liability
Professional indemnity (PI) insurance is a crucial component of the business risk management ‘toolkit’ of any law firm. In this country of course it is compulsory that a minimum amount of such insurance is purchased. This minimum amount is quite small (and may yet become smaller still), but the fact of the matter is that any sensible law firm/practising solicitor will want to purchase as much coverage, with as broad a scope of protection, as they can reasonably afford, and which they believe will meet their needs, and the needs and expectations of their clients.
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The GC Power List summer reception – Reaching out, reaching up
Legal Business for the first time extended its GC Power List into a summer reception. A distinguished list of panellists debated what it takes to get ahead for rising stars of the in-house world
Having for two years built up our annual GC Power List report and reception, Legal Business in June extended the venture into our first summer event as a means to further support the in-house community.
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LB100: 2014
LB100: Shipping and Insurance – Peaks and Troughs
If the post-Lehman years have in general been good to the City’s insurance and shipping specialists, 2013/14 has been a year of starkly diverging fortunes amid the familiar backdrop of margin pressure on the volume end of the market.
As such, this loose grouping of law firms has seen some of the strongest performances in the LB100 in 2014, while others have weathered falling revenues and job cuts.
This is most strikingly demonstrated in the two most prominent brands in the City insurance market, Clyde & Co and Ince & Co. While the former has largely sustained its robust growth of recent years, with an 8% increase in global revenues to £365.1m and with profits increasing 10% to £92.8m, Ince has seen a 7% fall in income to £86.7m.
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Weil, Gotshal & Manges pays out multi-million pound settlement over professional negligence claim
Weil, Gotshal & Manges has paid over £3m to settle a professional negligence claim made against it in late 2013 by private equity house Bancroft.
Eduardo Leite set to be re-elected as Baker & McKenzie chairman
Eduardo Leite is set to be re-appointed as chairman of Baker & McKenzie after the law firm regained its title as the world’s largest law firm. Leite, who took charge of the firm in 2010, faced no opposition for the post and partners at the firm understand his re-election will be a mere formality.
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‘We would expect to bring in a few more lateral hires’ -Slaughter and May loses London tax partner to Greenberg Traurig Maher
Having broken with tradition in making its first-ever lateral hire this year, Slaughter and May has seen a rare departure at partner level, with long-serving tax partner Graham Iversen leaving the firm to become head of Greenberg Traurig Maher‘s (GTM) London tax practice.
Clifford Chance drops University of Law for arch-rival BPP
Clifford Chance (CC) has turned to BPP Law School as its new training provider in a blow to the University of Law which had worked with the Magic Circle firm for eight years.
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Squire Patton Boggs takes Sidley Austin’s last German partner as Taylor Wessing builds private client practice
Eight years after founding Sidley Austin’s office in Frankfurt, Jens Rinze, the firm’s last remaining partner in the country after a spate of exits, has departed for Squire Patton Boggs.
News in brief – September 2014
Squire Patton Boggs loses 23-strong team in Middle East
Squire Patton Boggs saw the departure of five partners and 18 supporting lawyers from its Middle East offices after tensions arose as the recently merged firm integrated its regional affiliates. The exits came as legacy Patton Boggs’ Khalid Al-Thebity was appointed managing partner of the Riyadh office.
Clydes settles whistleblower case
Clyde & Co has settled its dispute with former partner Krista Bates van Winkelhof out of court after she alleged she was forced to leave after blowing the whistle on the managing partner of its Tanzanian associate firm and announcing her pregnancy. The case involved a landmark Supreme Court decision which held that members of an LLP could be considered workers. Continue reading “News in brief – September 2014”
The Second 50 – Batten Down
The LB100’s regional players have seen starkly divided fortunes with the South West players sailing ahead while northern firms face choppy waters
Collectively, the 29 regional firms in the second half of the Legal Business 100 (LB100) trail in the wake of other peer groups. While average revenue is £38.4m, a little below the £39m of the second 50 as a whole, revenue per lawyer (RPL) is 9% lower than the average for firms ranked 51-100. In terms of profits, average profit per lawyer (PPL) is £45,000, some 10% lower than the bottom 50 average, while profit per equity partner (PEP) is £309,000. Continue reading “The Second 50 – Batten Down”
Women in law – rising up the agenda but female lawyer numbers continue to slide at elite UK law firms
Even for the most jaded denizen of the City legal community it’s been hard to avoid noticing the greater emphasis that law firms have put on diversity in recent years. While social mobility was in the spotlight several years ago with the cross-industry launch of PRIME, 2014 has seen a rash of law firms announce concrete targets to improve female representation in their partnerships.
Olswang appoints first board non-executives as it continues management overhaul
David Chance and Andreas Raffel have joined Olswang today (1 September) as the firm’s first non-executive directors to monitor and support the firm’s executive, develop Olswang’s international strategy and bring an outside perspective.
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Asia: Simmons & Simmons launches Beijing IP agency as Bakers hires from Magic Circle firms in HK push
Simmons & Simmons has created a specialist trade mark practice in China, hiring George Chan as a partner from Asia Pacific IP agency Rouse to head the new agency.
A&O closer to launching new South Africa office with Bowman team
Allen & Overy (A&O) is getting closer to becoming the first Magic Circle firm to launch a South Africa base following the hire of banking head Lionel Shawe from local firm Bowman Gilfillan, along with a team of partners.
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Ropes & Gray loses high yield partner Bloom as Jones Day builds capital markets practice
High-yield expert Jonathan Bloom has quit Ropes & Gray after five years to join rival US firm Jones Day’s London office in a bid to develop the firm’s high yield practice.
Reviving deal market lifts LB100 as top UK firms edge up profits and fees
While the headline Legal Business 100 (LB100) results are once again inflated by significant merger activity at every level, there is evidence that many of the top 100 grossing firms in the UK are enjoying organic growth again.
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