Moves that matter Legal Business White & Case’s aggressive sweep on the City lateral market continued in October with the hire of Herbert Smith Freehills…
Point break – The extreme measures of Barclays’ adviser review Hamish McNicol Legal spend is the second-largest ‘cost centre’ for £21bn global banking giant Barclays. This tantalising statement is in the bank’s…
Asia GC perspective – Tencent on the dollar Alex Speirs When Brent Irvin joined Tencent as group general counsel (GC) nearly nine years ago, the Chinese upstart was already a…
Letter from… Shanghai: Despite high hopes, it turns out there is no such thing as a free trade lunch Marco Cillario ‘The thing about China is there have always been those who think the bubble is going to burst and the…
The technology debate: Ctrl+Alt+Delete Alex Novarese With alternative legal services arms at Global 100 law firms in full swing, and innovation and technology experts striving to…
We come not to bury the Magic Circle but to save it Alex Novarese A number of contacts have been telling me of late that Legal Business is gaining a reputation for being ultra-bearish…
Age of just-about-OK ethics has passed Alex Novarese Once, not long ago, considerations of ethics were simple for law firms, if they bothered thinking about them at all.…
The great distraction – The innovation bandwagon has hobbled market forces Alex Novarese I used to believe the UK legal profession was more imaginative than it got credit for – now I find…
Mixing it with the big boys: Law tech upstarts approach adolescence following cash influx Thomas Alan The future is hard to predict in the combustible world of law tech start-ups. But recent big funding rounds for…
Disputes Eye: ‘Draconian’ measures as SFO tackles privilege via the back door Tom Baker Despite the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) opting in October not to pursue its much-publicised privilege appeal against ENRC any further,…
Life during law: Mike Francies Nathalie Tidman I was probably the world’s worst children’s entertainer. I needed a Saturday job to earn money but played football on…
Akin rainmakers quit to launch Russia independent in further apocalyptic sign for Western firms Marco Cillario Lawyers have been speaking for months of a tough environment for international firms in sanction-battered Russia, but no event has…
The new El Dorado: Fieldfisher launches in Spain as Latham doubles Madrid team in 12 months Marco Cillario Ignored by much of the global elite until a few years ago, Spain is quickly becoming one of the hottest…
Deal View: Herbert Smith Freehills’ corporate team – credibility and polish only get you so far up the table Tom Baker ‘It’s like the rivalry between Fulham and Chelsea,’ notes one former Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) partner of his old club’s…
Stars and stripes in their eyes – assessing the US ambitions of A&O and Freshfields Nathalie Tidman Nathalie Tidman looks at the struggle for the City elite as US players dominate home and away ‘People like me,…
Who Represents Who: The data behind the story David Burgess Barclays legal advisers, 2017 As Barclays conducts its latest panel review we look at which firms advised on the most…
Legal 500 Data: The data behind the story Legal Business DWF Legal 500 rankings, 2017 DWF announced in June it was considering what would become the largest UK law firm…
The team in I: The GC Powerlist Summer Reception Alex Novarese Nailing the issue of what makes a high-performing in-house function, with the emphasis on operational sophistication, has become the Holy…
Special territory: Fintech in Hong Kong Alex Speirs ‘You have to, to serve these markets, re-imagine how money can be managed and moved, because there’s going to be…
