Dentons’ NextLaw Labs, having launched in May to focus on developing and investing in new technologies for the legal profession, has signed a deal with its first portfolio company, ROSS Intelligence, a start-up developing a legal adviser app powered by IBM Watson.
DWF overhauls business model with launch of consultancy, paralegal and flexible lawyer offerings
National firm DWF has launched a range of new client services as it seeks to overhaul its business model including a centralised legal support centre with paralegals, a consultancy and a contract lawyer service.
2025: a vision of Big Law
It is 2025 and the view from the nominal head office of the leading City law firm remains as uncertain as it has for the last 15 years. Not that there hasn’t been progress at what would once have been called a Magic Circle firm. With revenues of £2.5bn, the firm now generates only 30% of its income from the UK. That isn’t much more than it earns from its US practice, which was bolstered four years ago by a takeover of an AmLaw 200 practice, and the decision to reshape its executive and partnership to put London and New York at its heart. The notion that it needed to become a true Anglo-American institution was a culture shock but few seriously question it now.
The old lockstep is long gone – top earners in London, New York and Asia earn five times that of junior partners or those working in less profitable jurisdictions and there are two gateways to negotiate, though it’s still a long way from eat-what-you-kill. Profit per equity partner at £1.9m isn’t that much higher than a decade before but top earners take home well over £3m a year.
Selling the family silver: Will Gateley’s listing on London’s stock exchange pay off?
Sarah Downey assesses Gateley’s audacious plans to become the UK’s first listed law firm
Following in the footsteps of Australia-listed Slater and Gordon, which demonstrated the benefits of using a share offer to part fund its recent £637m acquisition of Quindell’s professional services division, West Midlands firm Gateley confirmed in May it intends to float on AIM later this year.
The move would see the 380 fee-earner outfit become the first UK-listed law firm with an initial public offering (IPO) aimed at a valuation of £130m to £140m. Birmingham-headquartered Gateley had been scoping the possibility of an IPO since last year. Spearheaded by senior partner Michael Ward and London corporate head Nick Smith, the idea emerged during its strategy review before being sounded out with brokers and by holding focus groups to gauge client views.
The Last Word: The vision thing
Senior legal figures provide their take on how the market will shape up over the next 25 years
RISE OF THE ACCOUNTANTS
‘The Big Four are challenging and will be one of the competitive threats over the next five years as they have tremendous resource, access to businesses and more sophisticated models than law firms.’
Roger Parker, EMEA managing partner, Reed Smith
Grow your own – Signature Litigation plans trainee scheme with other law firms
On the back of robust financial growth for the 2013/14 year, high-flying boutique Signature Litigation is exploring developing a trainee scheme, with a proposal to match itself with non-competing firms and ‘facilitate a programme of reciprocal secondments’.
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Comment: The case against value – the virtue that can become vice
It’s the spirit of the age that law firms feel the need to not only deliver better value and efficiency but to be seen to do so by clients.
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The case against value – the virtue that can become vice
It’s the spirit of the age that law firms feel the need to not only deliver better value and efficiency but to be seen to do so by clients.
And what could be wrong with that? The northshoring trend has been increasingly apparent in recent years, with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer – the closest to a traditional partnership in the big four – now gearing up for a huge move to Manchester. Clifford Chance, meanwhile, has made much of its efficiency and push to align itself to clients, a stance clear under the leadership of David Childs and even more front-and-centre under Matthew Layton.
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‘Redefining leadership’: Hogan Lovells teams up with Oxford Said Business School on partner leadership programme
Hogan Lovells has begun piloting a new leadership programme for experienced partners with Oxford Said Business School, an initiative which the transatlantic firm says will enable partners to build a unified approach to leading the firm and ‘become roles models and distributors of a strong, shared culture.’
Targeting the UK: LegalZoom becomes first US business to gain ABS
US online legal solution site LegalZoom has become the first American business to receive an Alternative Business Structure (ABS) licence as it looks to build its operations in the UK.
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