They say averages lie, though in my experience not as much as people, but producing an annual report with 2,000 data points as we do with this month’s LB100 means it can be hard even for professional anoraks such as myself to find the nuggets of meaning in the thickets of information. Well, when in …
Continue reading “Converging on boom-time profits without a boom – the big four now and then”
Rarely, even in the conservative game of law, has so necessary a measure been so long avoided until the status quo became laughably, farcically, untenable. The move is for major law firms to start articulating public benchmarks for their proportion of female partners – corporate speak for the series of concrete targets announced this year …
Continue reading “Women in law – A belated bandwagon, but still welcome”
Last year delivering our annual results issue Legal Business remarked that the age of turbulence facing law firms since the 2008 banking crisis was far from over. And so it has proved. Despite all the talk of returning confidence, and clear evidence of recovery in the UK economy, it’s still choppy out there. Stripping out …
Continue reading “LB100 2014: Statistically speaking, you may not need a bigger boat”
Legal Business for the first time extended its GC Power List into a summer reception. A distinguished list of panellists debated what it takes to get ahead for rising stars of the in-house world Having for two years built up our annual GC Power List report and reception, Legal Business in June extended the venture …
Continue reading “The GC Power List summer reception – Reaching out, reaching up”
Even for the most jaded denizen of the City legal community it’s been hard to avoid noticing the greater emphasis that law firms have put on diversity in recent years. While social mobility was in the spotlight several years ago with the cross-industry launch of PRIME, 2014 has seen a rash of law firms announce …
Given the amount of time I spend hanging out with managing partners it’s not unusual to be asked by law firms how they could tweak their governance or how they stack up against peers. In one such recent conversation, I got to thinking about how best to prepare the new managing partner for the culture …
Continue reading “Comment: Advice for the new managing partner – don’t consult, just do”
For all the improving signs, glancing at our annual Global 100 report shows headline performance largely comparable with 2013. The group increased billings by 4% to $88.63bn, a rise of 4% and the same growth rate achieved in 2013.
As journalists and managing partners hit reporting season the understandable urge rises once more to make sense of the legal world. Nearly six years since Lehman Brothers’ collapse did something substantive to the law game, what lessons can be learned?
Given the amount of time I spend hanging out with managing partners it’s not unusual to be asked by law firms how they could tweak their governance or how they stack up against peers. In one such recent conversation, I got to thinking about how best to prepare the new managing partner for the culture …
Continue reading “Advice for the new managing partner: don’t consult, just do”
As journalists and managing partners hit reporting season the understandable urge rises once more to make sense of the legal world. Nearly six years since Lehman Brothers’ collapse did something substantive to the law game, what lessons can be learned? Fewer than you would think. The famous line from veteran screenwriter William Goldman (pictured) that …
Continue reading “‘Nobody knows anything’ – Goldman is more right than Maister”
