A new model, a new game as US firms secure a decisive victory

Posted on |

‘We’re not a corporate firm, we’re an investors’ firm.’ That simple statement by one partner stood out more than any other during a recent meeting with Ropes & Gray. The point being made was that the firm – and its rapid progress in the City – had not been built on the back of large corporate or investment banking clients – it was focused on a range of sponsors and funds, in particular in private equity and leveraged finance. The same partner stressed the cultural impact on Ropes of being bred in Boston, a major hub for investors and funds, not banks.

As we note in our analysis, ‘The third wave’ as part of our annual Global London report, this approach is driving a new breed of US firms in the City who have proved able to move at unprecedented speed. The second wave of US expansion in London in the late 1990s and early 2000s focused on generalism and targeting corporate and mainstream banking work… and largely ran into a brick wall as such clients remained wedded to their established local advisers.

Continue reading “A new model, a new game as US firms secure a decisive victory”

The Last Word: Players old and new

Posted on |

With the publication of our annual Global London report, leading figures at foreign firms in the City assess their performance and how the market is shaping up.

Fair weather

‘In doing offshore, you become quite a good barometer. My sense is that people feel a lot more confident than two years ago – it’s still quite driven by sectors. We’re almost 50% up on where we were at in 2013, mostly from the finance space. Quite perversely, we’ve slimmed down numbers but grown the book of business.’
Jack Boldarin, London managing partner, Walkers

Continue reading “The Last Word: Players old and new”

Guest post: Despair and not a lot of hope … what the coalition has done to UK justice

Posted on |

Rarely, if ever, has a British government engaged in such an assault on justice than the present coalition. The brunt of the assault applies to England and Wales since justice matters are mostly devolved to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Continue reading “Guest post: Despair and not a lot of hope … what the coalition has done to UK justice”

Guest post: What can IP offer Africa – and what can Africa offer IP?

Posted on |

A handsome book recently arrived on my crowded desk, demanding attention: it’s Innovation & Intellectual Property: Collaborative Dynamics in Africa, edited by scholars Jeremy de Beer, Chris Armstrong, Chidi Oguamanam and Tobia Schonwetter. Published by the UCT Press in association with the IP Unit of the Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town (that’s what ‘UCT’ stands for) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), it’s one of those lovely books that you don’t have to buy since you can read it online or download it in its entirety – all 431 pages of it – by accessing its website here.

Continue reading “Guest post: What can IP offer Africa – and what can Africa offer IP?”

Comment: It’s the ‘decade of the lawyer’ – Law firms beware

Posted on |

Our third annual GC Power List report looks more like a state-of-the profession piece than its two predecessors. While the earlier reports focused on standout individuals, in 2015 we highlight 50 exceptional in-house teams, which inevitably addresses how clients operate.

Continue reading “Comment: It’s the ‘decade of the lawyer’ – Law firms beware”

So much for the rule of law – court fees and undermining the City

Posted on |

Quinn Emanuel disputes veteran Ted Greeno argues that a self-defeating stance on hiking court fees will undermine London

In their piece entitled ‘Strangling the golden goose’ last month, Nigel Boardman, James Shirbin and Andrew Blake of Slaughter and May bemoaned the cost of commercial litigation in England and suggested London’s pre-eminence as a dispute resolution centre might be under threat as a result. In making this argument, they drew upon a report from the World Bank which compared the cost and ease of doing business in 189 countries around the world. One of the activities assessed was enforcing contracts and, for this purpose, the report compares and scores the cost, time and procedures involved in enforcing a claim under a sale of goods contract around the world. The UK is ranked in 36th place, suggesting our courts are relatively uncompetitive.

Continue reading “So much for the rule of law – court fees and undermining the City”

The Last Word – The Team Elite

Posted on |

To coincide with the annual launch of our GC Power List, we asked the City’s most experienced private practitioners: what makes an outstanding in-house legal team?

Eyes and ears

‘A good in-house team has the ear of the commercial client, an understanding of its drivers and the strength to speak out when it is going down the wrong path. Teams should ensure they understand the varied approaches to dispute resolution, adopt appropriate methods in different transactional documentation, and consider mediation as a clean and proactive process for disputes at any stage.’
Katie Bradford, head of property litigation, Linklaters

Continue reading “The Last Word – The Team Elite”

Guest post: Can Big Firms Innovate – and if so how?

Posted on |

‘Innovation’ seems to be on everyone’s lips these days. Among other things, the problems are: many people, lawyers in particular, are stumped when it comes to describing what ‘innovation’ actually is and business history proves to a fare-thee-well that it’s extremely challenging for successful incumbents to actually follow through with anything innovative.

Continue reading “Guest post: Can Big Firms Innovate – and if so how?”