The Last Word: Opportunity knocks

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The Last Word: Opportunity knocks

The deal market tailed off at the end of 2018 after a generally resilient year. Here we ask the City’s leading corporate players for their prognosis on 2019

Powder dry

‘2018 started with a bang, but overall it was a tale of two halves. With competition for assets pushing valuations to eye-watering levels, investor fatigue and a degree of scepticism around the value-creating potential of M&A also took a toll. Looking forward to 2019, many of the factors that supported activity last year remain relevant. These include global growth, strong balance sheets, affordable debt and plenty of dry PE powder. But it’s hard to see 2019 topping 2018. We don’t expect a major correction, but we do anticipate a dip.’
Bob Bishop, co-chair of corporate, DLA Piper Continue reading “The Last Word: Opportunity knocks”

The Last Word: The clients’ view

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The Last Word: The clients’ view

Interviewed for our in-house lawyer survey, some leading general counsel give their views on ethics, law firm engagement and technology

Great expectations

‘There’s no question that stakeholders and the population at large have higher expectations of ethical conduct by companies and that this is only going to increase. Some of that will manifest itself as greater regulation. In-house functions play a greater role in ethical matters. It’s not just advising on legal issues – in-house functions can play a leading role in ensuring companies continue to follow the ethical path.’
Richard Price, group general counsel, Anglo American Continue reading “The Last Word: The clients’ view”

The Last Word: The hard path to enlightenment

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The Last Word: The hard path to enlightenment

As part of our autumn tech special, we asked partners, innovation heads and CIOs to give a pragmatic take on the state of law firm tech

Just do it

‘In the next year or two, people will stop talking about AI and just use it. AI will just be embedded in the way firms work – like computers or emails. I don’t think in the long term we’ll have the situation where AI alone gives some firms a sustainable competitive advantage over others.’
Kevin Harris, director of IT, Taylor Wessing Continue reading “The Last Word: The hard path to enlightenment”

The Last Word: One way or another

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The Last Word: One way or another

From retaining talent to going public, LB100 leaders give their take on how to survive in an age of disruption

Go big

‘The markets are pretty buoyant in terms of legal services despite all the economic and political disruption out there. It was a particularly good year if you are global and full service. Anecdotally, I talk to lots of managing partners and the firms that have had a harder time I tend to think of as being quite niche or quite local to a particular country or market. The broader you can be geographically and from a service point of view, the better you’ve done.’
Simon Levine, global co-chief executive and managing partner, DLA Piper Continue reading “The Last Word: One way or another”

The Last Word: The Big Long

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The Last Word: The Big Long

From Trump and Brexit to debt and tech, we ask Global 100 leaders for their assessment of a turbulent 12 months

Trouble ahead

‘Confidence is pretty high, but there are some significant challenges ahead. The growth of tech is going to have a transformational impact, which is going to increase in velocity over the next year or two. At some point we are due for a recession. It is going to happen soon and Trump’s trade war could provoke it.’
Peter Martyr, global chief executive, Norton Rose Fulbright Continue reading “The Last Word: The Big Long”

The Last Word: Generation Next

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The Last Word: Generation Next

As part of our partnership special, we asked young partners and managers alike for their take on the latest wave of partners coming through

Buck stops here

‘The biggest change for me when becoming partner was this immediate sense of responsibility – a responsibility to retain and attract talent, and to bring in interesting work. Suddenly you are supervising work and the buck stops with you. I miss the gossip! You got all the gossip when you were an associate, but when you become a partner people don’t want to gossip with you that much.’
Nicole Jadeja, partner, Fieldfisher Continue reading “The Last Word: Generation Next”

The last word: New order

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The last word: New order

As part of our technology special, we canvass the experts and ask where the legal start-up market is headed

Most will fail

‘1,400 legal tech companies are not going to succeed. This is the normal curve for any disruption of an industry: we’re going to see failures and people abandoning software, you’re going to see a consolidation phase. I see some of these failures freaking people out, but that’s normal. Lawyers have to understand in early-stage entrepreneurship most companies don’t make it. Failure is not investing in a little company that went under; it’s the portfolio not generating an overall great return.’
Dan Jansen, chief executive, Nextlaw Ventures Continue reading “The last word: New order”

The Last Word – Views from the market

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The Last Word – Views from the market

To mark the launch of our 2018 Global London report, we ask senior figures at leading US firms in London for a progress update

Keeping talent happy

‘Until a few years ago it was very hard to get a UK partner to leave their firm. Today we see the pendulum swinging: it went from extreme loyalty to far less. The focus for US firms has to be on how to keep people. Historically, Proskauer has done that really well.’
Mary Kuusisto, London office head, Proskauer Rose Continue reading “The Last Word – Views from the market”

The last word: Deals or no deals

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The last word: Deals or no deals

2017 ended with surprising confidence in a rebounding market. Here we ask the City’s leading corporate players for their prognosis on 2018

Finding the edge

‘We have come back from the holidays to a whirlwind of deal activity. I’m expecting to see financial investors looking to reduce the competition on deals by pursuing transactions where only a limited number can compete. For example, I expect the large-cap financial investors will look for multibillion-enterprise-value businesses to acquire either on their own or as part of a consortium. Also, financial investors will look to specialise further in certain key sectors so that they can differentiate from their competitors and create that all important auction-winning angle.’
Adrian Maguire, co-head of global financial investors group, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer Continue reading “The last word: Deals or no deals”

The last word: 2017 – year in review

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The last word: 2017 – year in review

More mergers, more Brexit and more uncertainty – law firm leaders reflect on the past 12 months and look ahead

Feeling hot

‘It has been a great year to be a private equity financing lawyer! The debt markets for leveraged finance have been hot, and our banking and high-yield team has advised sponsor clients on some of the largest and most complex financings in 2017. We expect this trend to continue with lots of liquidity being provided to fund buyouts from both private debt funds and the debt capital markets. It has been a strong market for the top US firms in London.’
Neel Sachdev, partner, Kirkland & Ellis Continue reading “The last word: 2017 – year in review”