Page 632 – Legal Business

Continue reading “Front Rowe”

Front Rowe

Claire Rowe took over as Shoosmiths’ chief executive a year ago, after the worst period of the firm’s recent history. Can she turn things around?

Shoosmiths’ chief executive Claire Rowe is no larger-than-life extrovert. She smiles politely; fields questions admirably; and gamely takes part in the photo shoot. But with her neat crib sheet and careful answers, it’s all a little too stage-managed. Yet she’s exactly what Shoosmiths needs right now: inscrutable, focused and serious. A year into taking on the role on 1 August 2009, Rowe is showing signs of turning things around for the firm after two years of poor financials and painful restructuring.

Continue reading “Home rule: Romania”

Home rule: Romania

International firms in Romania don’t just face a weakened economy, they also face stiff competition from a host of major domestic rivals. Legal Business analyses a market in flux

Entering a new jurisdiction is never easy. On top of the start-up costs, the need to establish a strong team of local lawyers and a solid client base, there is also the tricky matter of timing. It can take up to two or three years of planning before you are finally able to put that new city onto your law firm’s website. By which time, the market that so attracted you in the first place might have altered drastically.

Continue reading “Voyage of discovery: Portugal”

Voyage of discovery: Portugal

The downturn in Portugal’s economy means that overseas markets, including Africa and Brazil, have become an even more valuable source of work for the country’s law firms

Since Portuguese sailors began exploring the West Coast of Africa almost 600 years ago, the country has forged a reputation for venturing into new, overseas territories. Today, the countries of lusophone Africa and Brazil provide manifold investment opportunities for Portugal’s major corporates and their advisers.

Continue reading “Beyond the boundary: India”

Beyond the boundary: India

Despite a raft of international alliances and the growing globalisation of Indian business, the opening up of India’s legal market seems as far away as it’s been for the past 20 years

The managing partners of most international law firms would be happy if India’s legal market took a lead from cricket’s Indian Premier League (IPL). If that were the case the finest local legal talent would advise alongside rainmakers from the UK and US, with foreign lawyers able to practise on the ground in Delhi and Mumbai. It may not generate quite the same fervour as Sachin Tendulkar et al manage in the IPL’s Twenty20 games but throughout the past decade India has been a legal market to get seriously excited about.

Continue reading “The life of Bryan”

The life of Bryan

One year since he became Eversheds’ chief executive, Bryan Hughes is reshaping a business badly bruised by the downturn. Can he be the firm’s new messiah?

For a moment the persona slips. The studied slouch stiffens. The I’m-the-man-for-a-crisis composure loses its gloss a little. ‘We’ve got a fairly emotive brand for some reason; we do attract views,’ he sighs, getting worked up by the web commentariat or ‘the blogs’ as he calls them. ‘I don’t know if it’s a question of whether we’ve been too successful too quickly, or whether people see us as a threat, or whether we’re just big and therefore people want to put the boot in.’

Appellation contrôlée

The European Court of Justice’s recent ruling on a seven-year fight between Google and LVMH could have significant effects on the use of trade marks in internet advertising. Legal Business examines the fallout from this landmark case

LVMH owns over 60 luxury global brands, including TAG Heuer watches and Louis Vuitton. The latter label, known for its monogrammed luggage, has just topped Millward Brown Optimor’s 2010 BrandZ Top 100 ranking of the world’s most valuable luxury labels for the fifth straight year, and is worth $19.8bn. Naturally, LVMH doesn’t take kindly to knock-off handbags flogged on street corners. Continue reading “Appellation contrôlée”

Continue reading “Firm mechanics”

Firm mechanics

Eight years after its formative merger, Taylor Wessing remains divided. With a new strategy and rebrand in the offing, has the firm finally laid its integration demons to rest, or is it just a new logo and a different shade of green?

Modern law firms are complex machines. In a perfect, well-managed example, the inner workings click and whirr in seamless industry. At Taylor Wessing, the parts haven’t been put together properly. The engine needs some work.

Continue reading “Changing tack”

Changing tack

Amid leaner times in the Gulf and a flat economy in Dubai, international clients are moving their focus to other key Gulf states. LB canvasses the leading domestic and international firms and asks, what next?

In early 2012, the sailing dhows off the coast of Abu Dhabi will have some serious competition on their hands. The emirate is due to play host to the yachts of the round-the-world Volvo Ocean Race, in another sign of its growing profile and confidence on the world stage.

Continue reading “Nordic rivals”

Nordic rivals

As Finnish firm Roschier hires yet another partner in Stockholm, Legal Business reports on how world events and regional rivalries have transformed the approach and strategies of the Nordic legal profession

Rivalries are rarely more intense than the enmity between the Finland and Sweden ice hockey sides. Sweden took the plaudits in the recent Winter Olympics with a straightforward 3-0 win, but when it comes to legal market superiority, the Finnish have clearly roughed up the Swedes.

Continue reading “Out of the shadows”

Out of the shadows

Michael Greville is the leader of Watson, Farley & Williams, an under-the-radar UK mid-market firm that has been going through an identity crisis. The last few years have seen merger talks aplenty – both transatlantic and domestic – but organic growth is now firmly on the agenda

Some law firms have the ability to hog the media spotlight with a mere stub of a press release – think PR-savvy brands like DLA Piper and Eversheds. Other City stalwarts pride themselves on following a deliberately low-profile path, to the extent that by looking at its website you would never know that Slaughter and May even has a PR function.

Continue reading “Shop around”

Shop around

Kraft Foods’ hostile takeover of Cadbury sparked renewed hysteria about foreign takeovers of the UK’s FTSE 350. For the Magic Circle, it means a client base under threat. LB reveals the winners and losers in the great British sell-off

Slaughter and May has acted for the target in more foreign takeovers of British household names than any other law firm in the past five years. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is the only Magic Circle firm to have seen its FTSE 350 client base shrink over the same period. And it is Freshfields, Clifford Chance and Allen & Overy that most often get the call from bidders as foreign direct investment changes the face of the elite corporate client base in the UK.

Continue reading “Safety net”

Safety net

As the number of international arbitrations has grown, so too have calls for a speedier and more cost-effective process. However, the apparatus of international arbitration remains strong in the face of criticism

International arbitration, with the twin props of the New York Convention and the Panama Convention, is the safety net above which the daredevils of cross-border business perform. Its integrity and proper functioning are fundamental. But as international arbitration has grown and evolved, so too have a few of its imperfections.

Continue reading “Stepping up”

Stepping up

With the departure of high-profile practice head Jonathan Kelly, the Simmons financial services litigation team has lost a leader in investment banking disputes work. New chief Robert Turner will have a fight on his hands if the firm is to remain a Magic Circle rival

To say that Robert Turner has big boots to fill is to underestimate the size of the task ahead of him. Turner took over as head of financial services litigation at Simmons & Simmons on 1 April, with a background of acting in disputes on behalf of hedge fund managers. But for all his strengths, he enjoys nothing like the profile and reputation of his predecessor Jonathan Kelly – nor indeed his predecessor’s predecessor, now firmwide managing partner Mark Dawkins.

Continue reading “A new cut”

A new cut

Private wealth has changed. No longer the sole reserve of the moneyed upper classes, LB finds firms cashing in on a new breed of international entrepreneur

Picture the scene. Tarquin Huntersley-Cooper, an ageing member of the landed gentry, needs some trust planning to secure the future of his dilapidated 70-acre country estate. Dressed from head to toe in Prince of Wales tweed, he pays a visit to his lawyers, Reginald Hurley & Sons, a two-partner provincial firm that has acted for his family for generations. Settling down on an antique leather Chesterfield in the dusty study, they quickly knock out a draft before retiring to a wood-panelled smoking room for a snifter of fine cognac and some Cuban cigars.

Continue reading “Shaking it up”

Shaking it up

As more global law firms establish offices in Brazil, some have tied-up with local firms while others remain unattached. Legal Business finds out who has the right mix

The big news in the Brazilian legal market has been the surge in the number of international players joining the party. UK and US firms, including Squire, Sanders & Dempsey, DLA Piper, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Mayer Brown, have all set up shop in São Paulo in the past two years (see box, ‘International office launches in Brazil’). The new arrivals join those who have been resident for some time, including Allen & Overy, Linklaters, White & Case and Clifford Chance. The number of Global 100 firms in São Paulo, Brazil’s key commercial and financial centre, has grown from six to 12 since 2007.

Continue reading “Without a paddle”

Without a paddle

The continued exodus of high-profile partners from White & Case’s City operation suggests the Global London leader still has serious management issues. It’s time someone took charge

In last year’s Global London issue, White & Case’s newly appointed London executive partner Oliver Brettle reacted defiantly to LB’s suggestion that the office had morale issues. It wasn’t correct that ‘one or two vocal former members of the team should give rise to a more general impression that there is a problem with morale in the office’, he insisted.

Continue reading “Talent scouts”

Talent scouts

With the City’s law firms bogged down by plummeting profits and disaffected partners, the Americans have seized the chance to hire some serious big cheeses. Here, LB names our top ten laterals of the year

If you thought one of the most turbulent 12-month periods that the legal market has ever seen would result in partners hunkering down and getting on with whatever work they could find, then think again. Since our last Global London survey a year ago, no fewer than 64 partners have opted to up sticks and join US firms on this side of the Atlantic, and not all of them were moving because they were pushed.

Crunch time

The past few years have seen dramatic changes at Lawrence Graham and Nabarro, two firms hit hardest by the real estate downturn. But as LG approaches its 300th anniversary, it is looking its age, while Nabarro still has its bite

Before you embark on a rebrand there’s so much to consider. How much are you willing to invest in a renaming and follow-up marketing campaign? How do you attract new clients without alienating longstanding business partners? Will you share your identity with a household-name electronics manufacturer? Evidently, the last issue is easily overlooked. Continue reading “Crunch time”