Guest post: Corporate lawyers under the microscope – the ‘more for less’ delusion and City firms as risk canaries

Last week I attended a Symposium on Corporate Lawyers organised by Steven Vaughan and his colleagues at the Centre for Professional Legal Education and Research (CEPLER). It was a great event, bringing together a wide range of academics working on corporate lawyers alongside a fair few from corporate practice. I thought I’d share a few highlights.

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Hunting Dragons – Anti-corruption in Asia

Once a byword for bribery, the Asia region has toughened anti-corruption measures in recent years, but enforcement remains hard to predict. We team up with Simmons & Simmons to assess the client response.

Any multinational worthy of the label has to be in east and south-east Asia. The scale of the market, its manufacturing base, and its growing consumer population make it impossible to ignore.

Continue reading “Hunting Dragons – Anti-corruption in Asia”

Hunting Dragons – Anti-corruption in Asia

Once a byword for bribery, the Asia region has toughened anti-corruption measures in recent years, but enforcement remains hard to predict. We team up with Simmons & Simmons to assess the client response.

Any multinational worthy of the label has to be in east and south-east Asia. The scale of the market, its manufacturing base, and its growing consumer population make it impossible to ignore.

Continue reading “Hunting Dragons – Anti-corruption in Asia”

US firms step up in the City with new practices

Goodwin Procter and Ropes & Gray launch in PE and ComLit

International firms in the City maintained their expansive form in April with three US-bred advisers unveiling UK law practice launches. The moves saw Boston’s Goodwin Procter launch a UK practice in private equity, New York’s Cahill Gordon & Reindel hire its first English-qualified partner and Ropes & Gray move into UK disputes work.

Goodwin Procter set up shop in London seven years ago looking to emulate the success of the firm’s property team in the States. But the firm recently announced its intention to compete in London’s private equity space, with the hire of King & Wood Mallesons co-head of corporate Richard Lever.

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City comp scheme to create first panel

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), the UK’s statutory compensation scheme for customers of authorised financial services firms, is currently undergoing a tender process to create its first-ever legal panel.

The FSCS, which is funded by levies authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority, handles the majority of claims in-house, but has in the past turned to James Roome’s restructuring team, now at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, and litigators at Herbert Smith Freehills and Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan.

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‘A step backwards’: Home Secretary weighs in on SFO’s future with proposal to abolish

When Legal Business queried in September whether the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) was finally turning a corner after a year of embarrassing lows – including misplacing investigation documents and the chaotic collapse of the Victor Dahdaleh trial – the agency appeared to still be mired in controversy and questions over its future. Last month, the Home Secretary Theresa May appeared to provide an answer, as it was revealed she was considering abolishing the SFO and rolling it into the National Crime Agency (NCA), a move that some consider will ultimately dilute the attempts by the body to project a tougher image.

‘It’s not a good idea,’ said Stephenson Harwood commercial litigation partner Tony Woodcock. ‘The focus has got to be on serious and complex fraud, and properly resourcing that. I fear putting it into a far bigger organisation with a number of different responsibilities could dilute that, both as a matter of perception and as a matter of resourcing.’

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The Last Word – The client’s view

Interviewed for our annual in-house report, general counsel (GCs) at leading companies give us their views on panels, pricing, regulation and diversity

Law across borders

‘We are going to see a lot more cross-border, multinational transactions that involve an in-depth legal scope well beyond the UK Companies Act. In-house lawyers, especially at the GC level, even if they just manage a local UK business, are going to see a lot more cross-border transactions and complexity. In my experience, law firms in the UK, especially in the South East and London, are much more flexible and open about the discussion on alternative billing than firms in New York.’

Bill Mordan, senior vice president and group GC, Reckitt Benckiser

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‘We have dodged huge expense and uncertainty for businesses’: early partner reaction as Scotland says ‘no’

Scotland voted no to independence yesterday by a wider margin than many had expected, providing certainty to a legal market which has been hampered by the possible large-scale upheaval.

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