Let’s get this out of the way up front. The least expected new entrant to the Global 100, Gowling WLG, is going to have to work very hard to avoid being the classic 2 + 2 = 4 union when its tie-up goes live in January. Yes, it’s hard to see much downside given the …
Continue reading “The limits of culture – WLG needs more than common ground to fulfil its ambitions”
From time to time, I am asked to talk at panels and conferences. Though I usually weasel out of such commitments on account of deadlines looming threateningly over my head, I did recently agree to a one-on-one discussion with the senior partner of a mid-tier UK player at the firm’s partnership conference.
There are familiar themes and a few mixed messages from this year’s in-house lawyer survey but one obvious point to take away: employed counsel like the day job. A lot.
It’s a rarity for the great pre-occupations of our age to intersect so closely with that of the legal profession but artificial intelligence (AI) and the prospect of increasingly capable machines taking on swathes of work handled by people is a startling exception.
If a good chunk of the latest issue of Legal Business is focused on technology and machines replacing lawyers, our extended focus this month on private equity is an interesting contrast. After all, what good would a supercomputer be in the clubby, driven and entrepreneurial world of leveraged buyouts?
The return of our Disputes Yearbook finds the wider outlook for contentious work considerably changed over the last 12 months. The flood of disputes that were not so long ago carrying along pretty much all vessels has receded on both sides of the Atlantic. Limitation periods have dramatically slowed the flow of litigation linked to …
Continue reading “Leader: A challenging time for disputes teams in a polarised market”
There are familiar themes and a few mixed messages from this year’s in-house lawyer survey but one obvious point to take away: employed counsel like the day job. A lot. The response to two quality of life questions added into the survey this year is perhaps the clearest indication I have seen of the extent …
Continue reading “In-house counsel: more to do and happy about it”
It’s a rarity for the great pre-occupations of our age to intersect so closely with that of the legal profession but artificial intelligence (AI) and the prospect of increasingly capable machines taking on swathes of work handled by people is a startling exception. While there has been much debate regarding the disorientating march of intelligent …
If a good chunk of the latest issue of Legal Business is focused on technology and machines replacing lawyers, our extended focus this month on private equity is an interesting contrast. After all, what good would a supercomputer be in the clubby, driven and entrepreneurial world of leveraged buyouts? But then private equity has for …
Continue reading “It’s a people game – what PE lawyers can teach global law firms”
As cyber security issues continue to dominate the headlines amid a fractious European backdrop, we assembled a group of senior GCs to ask how to handle the inevitable attacks. Even the cynics that see cyber security as the latest in a long line of corporate fads generating its own compliance circus and attending cottage industry …
Continue reading “The cyber security roundtable: Victims and visions”
