Comment: Ambition and culture – the key tests CC’s deal team must pass

First, the case for the defence. Given that private equity partners gossip like fishwives, you can be somewhat sceptical over the received wisdom that the latest in a line of significant departures from Clifford Chance (CC)’s buyout team represents a terminal decline.

The firm retains a sizeable roster of partners, with 11 covering private equity in the City, including seasoned players such as David Pearson and Jonny Myers, not to mention practice head Oliver Felsenstein, one of Germany’s most respected PE men (CC should, however, avoid mentioning Matthew Layton in this camp – good as he is, it’s embarrassing to invoke your new chief executive as a deal runner). Continue reading “Comment: Ambition and culture – the key tests CC’s deal team must pass”

Comment: Paradigm shift vs recession – responding to a sceptical reader

We recently posted a comment piece addressing the issue of whether the forces impacting on the legal market represent a permanent structural shift or are just the result of a horrendous recession. Dry stuff that will leave the professional pulse unmoved for most, but still pretty fundamental to whether law firm leaders should start launching their Lawyers on Demand rip-offs and outsourcing anything that moves in a desperate attempt to future-proof their business.

One professional observer felt I was underplaying the level of permanent change facing the profession, and was kind enough to send me some research they have produced in the area. Continue reading “Comment: Paradigm shift vs recession – responding to a sceptical reader”

Ambition and culture – the key tests CC’s deal team must pass

First, the case for the defence. Given that private equity partners gossip like fishwives, you can be somewhat sceptical over the received wisdom that the latest in a line of significant departures from Clifford Chance (CC)’s buyout team represents a terminal decline.

The firm retains a sizeable roster of partners, with 11 covering private equity in the City, including seasoned players such as David Pearson and Jonny Myers, not to mention practice head Oliver Felsenstein, one of Germany’s most respected PE men (CC should, however, avoid mentioning Matthew Layton in this camp – good as he is, it’s embarrassing to invoke your new chief executive as a deal runner).

Continue reading “Ambition and culture – the key tests CC’s deal team must pass”

Comment: paradigm shift or just the mother of recessions? 2014 should answer the profession’s big question

It’s been obvious that something fundamental happened to the world economy during 2008, ushering in the worst relative trading conditions since the 1930s. It is, likewise, demonstrable that this shift has had a material impact on the legal profession in terms of reduced growth prospects, changing corporate buying habits and pressure on the conventional model of law.

The point that has yet to be resolved – and which has huge significance to the western legal industry – is whether that change represents a permanent structural shift underwritten by technology and the rise of non-law firm providers, or merely a severe cyclical depression from which the profession will in time recover. Continue reading “Comment: paradigm shift or just the mother of recessions? 2014 should answer the profession’s big question”

Comment: So what’s wrong with BigLaw anyway?

The term BigLaw has been around in the US for a while but in recent years this catch-all tag for corporate lawyering in the world’s biggest law market has taken on a decidedly pejorative tone. From the pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to prominent blogs and comments by industry observers, a popular view has taken hold to the effect that the US legal industry – in particular in New York – is a fundamentally broken model in a profession facing terminal decline. Continue reading “Comment: So what’s wrong with BigLaw anyway?”

Comment: the rising stars in-house – bluechip legal teams are bursting with talent

The first Legal Business edition of the year coincides with a major project for us: the second edition of our popular GC Power List, which launched last year. The idea is straightforward: we research in-house and private practice to identify a list of outstanding individuals who demonstrate the influence and rising clout that has come to define the modern in-house profession.

While the first report focused on senior GCs, for the second edition we have taken on the challenge of addressing the best performers coming into their own during their 30s and early 40s – the GCs of tomorrow. Continue reading “Comment: the rising stars in-house – bluechip legal teams are bursting with talent”

Comment: Magna Carta, bribery and a bit of confusion – Global Law Summit starts the countdown

It turns out that hundreds of years of legal history waits not even for Bob Crow so Thursday evening (6 February) saw an opening countdown to the planned Global Law Summit, the sort of Government-backed venture to celebrate the Magna Carta, English traditions of rule of law and the UK’s role as a legal services leader.

As such, a sizeable group of senior figures from across the profession braved a grid-locked London and variable security arrangements at Mansion House to hear a debate on bribery law and flag up the Global Law Summit planned for next year to mark 800 years of the drafting of Magna Carta. Continue reading “Comment: Magna Carta, bribery and a bit of confusion – Global Law Summit starts the countdown”

Structural or cyclical change in the law? 2014 should answer the big question

It’s been obvious that something fundamental happened to the world economy during 2008, ushering in the worst relative trading conditions since the 1930s. It is, likewise, demonstrable that this shift has had a material impact on the legal profession in terms of reduced growth prospects, changing corporate buying habits and pressure on the conventional model of law.

The point that has yet to be resolved – and which has huge significance to the western legal industry – is whether that change represents a permanent structural shift underwritten by technology and the rise of non-law firm providers, or a severe cyclical depression from which the profession will in time recover. Continue reading “Structural or cyclical change in the law? 2014 should answer the big question”

So what’s wrong with BigLaw anyway?

The term BigLaw has been around in the US for a while but in recent years this catch-all tag for corporate lawyering in the world’s biggest law market has taken on a decidedly pejorative tone. From the pages of The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to prominent blogs and comments by industry observers, a popular view has taken hold to the effect that the US legal industry – in particular in New York – is a fundamentally broken model in a profession facing terminal decline.

Ultimately, this prognosis of doom remains unsatisfying for two reasons. Firstly, some of this analysis is based on attempts to bolt on the narrative of the supposedly humbled Wall Street banks on to Wall Street law firms. For all the parallels between banks and law firms, as much divides as unites them. Law still doesn’t attract risk-takers; law firms don’t need anything like the capital of modern investment banks and they have little ability to create the short-term illusion of profitability that played havoc in the securities industry post-2007. Continue reading “So what’s wrong with BigLaw anyway?”

The rising stars in-house – bluechip legal teams are bursting with talent

The first Legal Business edition of the year coincides with a major project for us: the second edition of our popular GC Power List, which launched last year. The idea is straightforward: we research in-house and private practice to identify a list of outstanding individuals who demonstrate the influence and rising clout that has come to define the modern in-house profession.

While the first report focused on senior GCs, for the second edition we have taken on the challenge of addressing the best performers coming into their own during their 30s and early 40s – the GCs of tomorrow.

Continue reading “The rising stars in-house – bluechip legal teams are bursting with talent”