As the Christmas wind-down approaches inertia, in time-honoured tradition along with ghastly jumpers and inappropriate comments on social media, we signal the closing down of Legal Business HQ with a look back at the stories that made our year.
Continue reading “Comment: The 2015 edit – our favourite Legal Business pieces from this year”
So, what mattered to you? Twenty five years since Legal Business launched to chronicle the dramatic changes in the legal profession much has changed and yet stays the same. Still, if you were going to launch the first publication to focus on the UK’s commercial legal sector, you couldn’t have picked a better time than 1990.
Continue reading “Comment: Legal Business celebrates 25 years and the profession as well”
So, what mattered to you? Twenty five years since Legal Business launched to chronicle the dramatic changes in the legal profession much has changed and yet stays the same. Still, if you were going to launch the first publication to focus on the UK’s commercial legal sector, you couldn’t have picked a better time than 1990.
That decade was an incredible time for the profession. Primed by the twin forces of London’s Big Bang and the equally explosive phenomenon of the newly-merged Clifford Chance (CC), the 1990s had the lot: globalisation, drama, ambition, innovation, mergers, disaggregation, technology, accountants and DLA. Destinies were won and lost. By the end of the decade the profession was different. CC stands out – someone with a longer attention span than I should write a book on the firm in that era – it was an incredible institution, without question then the world’s most influential law firm. Continue reading “Legal Business celebrates 25 years and the profession as well”
25 years ago Legal Business was launched to chronicle a rapidly changing profession in the wake of Big Bang. We look back to identify 25 defining figures, events and trends that shaped a world-beating profession.
The curious nature of the legal industry means that as radically as things seem to change, they stay the same. In January 1990 the City was still being defined by the Big Bang de-regulation of London’s financial services market, even though boom was rapidly turning to bust. Leading City law firms were still basically domestic practices built around English practices with limited branch networks. An elite City law firm would not have generated much more than £100m in a good year. That scale and internationalisation would change in the coming decade – for all the talk of supposedly radical upheaval in the modern legal industry – the shake-up in the profession seen in the 1990s at the very least matches and probably outdoes anything that has happened since the turn of the millennium.
Alex Novarese, editor-in-chief of Legal Business, sat down with Lex 100 recently to discuss the current state of the legal industry and its potential future for those considering a career in law.
After a decade based in Ansdell Street in leafy Kensington, Legal Business and the entire Legalease family are moving to more central, larger premises in Fleet Street.
‘So, are you enjoying it?’ I’ve lost count of the number of times I have been asked the question since joining Legal Business last February.
The question makes me feel awkward because I’m not a positive person. I try to be but I know I’m not. But the honest answer as I pass the one-year mark is: ‘Yes, I’ve enjoyed it. So much actually that the gloomy part of myself keeps waiting for it to go wrong.’ I know of no better measure than that.
Continue reading “One year on: enjoying it so much I hope I don’t mess it up”
Since I joined Legal Business as editor-in-chief in February, our expanded editorial team has been striving to update our publication with a number of investments. Crucially we’ve aimed to improve our coverage in several regards, including more substantive reporting on issues affecting in-house counsel. Just as important has been efforts to give the title a far stronger online platform to complement our traditional strength in print, which included the launch in April of a totally revamped website and the unveiling in September of our well-received iPad edition, which is freely available to subscribing law firms. Continue reading “Comment: A Legal Business take on the year – my favourite articles of 2013”
We take a sizeable step in the evolution of Legal Business today with the launch of a new iPad edition, which we will be rolling out to our subscribers.
The app launches after months of development to coincide with our September edition, traditionally the largest of the year in which we publish our annual LB 100 coverage of the financial results of the UK’s largest law firms.
Of the long list of changes I had in mind for Legal Business when I agreed to join the title as editor in chief, perhaps the biggest was a root-and-branch overhaul of the magazine’s online presence. In beta form, at least, you are looking at our first major step in achieving that aim with the launch today of a totally new and much improved website. Continue reading “The beta goes on – Legal Business gets a brand new site”
