Much like British voters ahead of this month’s vote on EU membership, City law firms have been shaped in recent decades by mainland Europe, even as they have become increasingly ambivalent about that mingled destiny. It was the huge bet on European integration that gave birth to the global law firm as pioneered by London’s …
Continue reading “Elite indies carve out role as the one-stop shop shuts in Europe”
If there was much to celebrate amid the continued rise of London as an international disputes centre at Legal Business‘ second Commercial Litigation Summit on 24 May, the cloud on the horizon was apparent: the mounting conviction that the UK judiciary is near crisis. Growing administrative burdens, earlier retirements, cuts to judges’ pensions and court …
Continue reading “Not ‘looming’, the judiciary is already in crisis”
It is a recurring theme in Legal Business commentary that the received wisdom and forecasting for the profession do not age like fine wine and 2016 is proof once more that no one knows anything. Take the Bar, which has supposedly been in the last-chance saloon for a generation and yet in the commercial sector …
Two books of note have just been published by veteran lawyers – The Inside Counsel Revolution: Resolving the Partner-Guardian Tension by former GE legal head Ben Heineman and The Future of the In-House Lawyer: The General Counsel Revolution, a collection of essays edited by Carillion’s Richard Tapp. The common ground is obvious in charting the …
Continue reading “Comment: GCs have arrived and all there is to welcome them are platitudes”
At a recent drinks evening with a leading City law firm, Legal Business heard a familiar refrain from a veteran corporate partner about how the team he leads is doing very well but has had its reputation – and that of the firm as a whole – dragged down by the sniping of ex-partners.
Two books of note have just been published by veteran lawyers – The Inside Counsel Revolution: Resolving the Partner-Guardian Tension by former GE legal head Ben Heineman and The Future of the In-House Lawyer: The General Counsel Revolution, a collection of essays edited by Carillion’s Richard Tapp. The common ground is obvious in charting the …
Continue reading “GCs have arrived and all we have to welcome them are platitudes”
At a recent drinks evening with a leading City law firm, Legal Business heard a familiar refrain from a veteran corporate partner about how the team he leads is doing very well but has had its reputation – and that of the firm as a whole – dragged down by the sniping of ex-partners. Several …
Continue reading “The bottom line is, well, the bottom line – numbers always settle the score”
It is a recurring theme in Legal Business commentary that the received wisdom and forecasting for the profession do not age like fine wine and 2016 is proof once more that no one knows anything. Take the Bar, which has supposedly been in the last-chance saloon for a generation and yet in the commercial sector …
Continue reading “As the Bar elite thrives, New Law wobbles – scratch some more predictions”
Sometimes in business what you correctly forecast can prove as problematic as what you get wrong. Because even when you manage the considerable feat of identifying what will happen in the world you are left with problems of unintended consequences.
These are tough times for the house that Stanley Berwin built, with exhibit A being recent news that King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) is undergoing a sweeping partnership restructuring set to trim its European business by nearly two dozen partners, or 15% of its ranks.
