Ashurst to lose another corporate partner in wake of Stephen Lloyd resignation

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Having achieved a transcontinental full financial merger with Blake Dawson almost without drama there will be those who say Ashurst had it coming, as it emerges that corporate partner Eavan Saunders Cole is set to leave the firm after last week’s revelation that global head of corporate Stephen Lloyd has handed in his notice.

Cole, whose experience at Ashurst includes advising corporate, financial sponsor and hedge fund clients particularly in the public M&A, leveraged buy-out and cross border M&A sectors, has been a partner since 2006 and advised clients including Odeon and Bank of Ireland. Continue reading “Ashurst to lose another corporate partner in wake of Stephen Lloyd resignation”

Ashurst corporate head Stephen Lloyd quits in set-back for Anglo-Australian giant

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Ashurst global head of corporate Stephen Lloyd has resigned in a move that comes within weeks of a vote for full financial integration with its Australian partner Blake Dawson and post-merger management elections.

Lloyd (pictured), who in July was appointed as co-head of the united firms’ corporate, commercial and competition team alongside Sydney-based Phil Breden, became the legacy Ashurst global head of corporate in 2010. Continue reading “Ashurst corporate head Stephen Lloyd quits in set-back for Anglo-Australian giant”

Davis Polk and Cleary act on big four Booz takeover as PwC re-shuffles legal leadership

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Major accountancy and advisory groups are always nice clients for law firms to have so Davis Polk & Wardwell, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Linklaters have some cause for cheer after having been instructed on one of the biggest deals in the professional services sphere for years.

The deal sees big four accountancy and advisory group PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) seal an acquisition of New York-based Booz & Company, one of the proudest names in strategic consulting.

Continue reading “Davis Polk and Cleary act on big four Booz takeover as PwC re-shuffles legal leadership”

Consolidation update – Dentons and McKenna chiefs back tie-up with November partner vote to follow

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Dentons looks set to secure another substantive merger after management of the firm and US suitor McKenna Long & Aldridge this week approved proposals for its mooted union, clearing the way for partners to vote on the tie-up in November.

With both having confirmed the merger discussions in late September, the impending union looks set to create a firm with more than 3,100 lawyers around the world and push revenues through £1bn.

Continue reading “Consolidation update – Dentons and McKenna chiefs back tie-up with November partner vote to follow”

‘I could walk away but I don’t want to’: Mansfield QC explains launch of virtual chambers following Tooks closure

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The recent dissolution of Tooks Chambers was widely regarded as a sign of the times, as legal aid cuts coupled with a turbulent economy have hit publicly funded sets at the Bar harder than most. Now, however, former chief Michael Mansfield QC has embarked on plans to reinvent a low-cost, virtual version of the civil liberties set.

While Tooks closed its doors in Farringdon Street last Friday (11 Oct), 15 of the 55-strong set are expected to join Mansfield Chambers, as it will be known. Although the official launch is expected to take place in February next year, the new set began operating out of serviced offices at 5 Chancery Lane on Monday (14 Oct).
Continue reading “‘I could walk away but I don’t want to’: Mansfield QC explains launch of virtual chambers following Tooks closure”

How to improve a law firm in 17 easy steps – a blue print for innovation

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While pundits are queuing up to pronounce the death of the industry’s model, Legal Business canvassed senior figures to devise some practical ideas to make a law firm work better.

You don’t have to look far in the legal profession to find causes for gloom. Battered by a sustained malaise in Western economies, more assertive clients and the threat of legal service liberalisation in the UK, a growing band of observers, general counsel and industry figures have argued that the traditional model of commercial law is fundamentally broken.
Continue reading “How to improve a law firm in 17 easy steps – a blue print for innovation”

Ashurst closes in on Australian tie-up and leadership election

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As Ashurst dots the Is and crosses the Ts on its merger with Australian top-tier firm Blake Dawson, a number of partners report an internal mood of resignation, despite a two-year courtship that has avoided significant tension or fallout.

As Legal Business went to press, both firms were to vote on full financial integration following the 2011 deal that aligned the pair ahead of this year’s vote. The merger will create a top 50 global law firm with revenues of well over £500m. Continue reading “Ashurst closes in on Australian tie-up and leadership election”

Comment: The lingering enigma of BLP’s bad year

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Success is a mysterious beast. Hard to define, built up over years and often the result of a formula even its creators struggle to understand. But failure, well, that’s simple. When a law firm runs into difficulties you can point to bickering partners, problem offices, a weak client-base or an unworkable strategy. Whatever it is, there’s usually a clear narrative to explain the situation.

As such, the current rough patch at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) is striking less in itself than because the firm seems surprised by – and unable to entirely explain – the situation.

Continue reading “Comment: The lingering enigma of BLP’s bad year”

Guest post: Topline heroin – how global law became addicted to the wrong measure of success

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One lens through which to view a large part of the corpus of business and management literature is that of metrics. Simply consider how much of what’s written consists of discussions about what to measure, what to optimize, and how to enhance all those numbers.

So, in retailing, we have such yardsticks as sales per square foot, same-store sales, sales per employee, inventory turn, store traffic, percent average markdown, and so forth. For mobile phone providers it would be customer churn, net customer growth/decline, network reach/coverage and network speed, cost per customer acquisition, and much more. Continue reading “Guest post: Topline heroin – how global law became addicted to the wrong measure of success”

Guest post: ‘Culture’ wins yet another victory over business judgment (or how to actually have a law firm strategy)

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Here’s Scenario One: you’re in an executive committee or practice group or departmental meeting at your law firm, and the question arises for discussion why one or a handful of your partners are engaging in activities which, from the firm’s overall perspective, are clearly marginal: the activities could be pursuing a particular client or lobbying to hire a lateral or continuing to devote all their energies to growing the marginal practice area. Continue reading “Guest post: ‘Culture’ wins yet another victory over business judgment (or how to actually have a law firm strategy)”