After Charlie’s War – can Ashurst achieve post-merger prosperity under a new leader?

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A recession-weary Ashurst has finalised a long-planned but high-stakes global merger – only to eject the leader synonymous with its brand and strategy. Is Ashurst heading for peace-time prosperity or factional warfare?

The former Ashurst partner sits back in his chair and reads the text message. Having asked a friend about the mood at Appold Street in the wake of Ashurst’s expected vote for integration with its Australian ally and unexpected vote that unseated its high-profile head Charlie Geffen, the text response is succinct: ‘It’s a mess!’ The ex-partner smiles. ‘Well, it’s hardly surprising.’

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Punch above weight – the finance teams aiming to take on the City’s heavyweights

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As confidence begins to re-emerge at City finance teams, Legal Business profiles the mid-market players intent on challenging the Square Mile’s banking heavyweights

Bernard Sharp, global chair of the banking and finance group at Baker & McKenzie, may be tempting fate when he says: ‘The market has a lot in common now with the market in 2007.’ Still, his comment certainly reflects a more bullish mood among a cadre of players operating just below the largest six or seven banking practices in the City.

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How to win cases and influence people – litigation funding strives to go mainstream

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As third-party funders enjoy robust growth within a buoyant disputes climate, Legal Business assesses current attitudes towards litigation’s controversial bankrollers.

Third-party litigation funders have suffered bad PR for more than 40 years. Often depicted as lurking in the shadows of the courtroom, waiting to collect their share of damages, lawyers have historically been curiously wary of funders since their inception.

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The ideal law firm for 2013? Eversheds hunts for its breakthrough

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With an enviable brand reach, warm feedback from clients and a focus on innovation and value, Eversheds should be sweeping all before it. Legal Business explores why it hasn’t been quite that simple

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of Evershed & Tomkinson, the Birmingham firm that lent its name to the high-profile institution of which it would become part in 1995. Backed by a large regional network and a sizeable London arm Eversheds – as it became known – has grown to be one of the most recognisable names in the UK market.

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Systems addicts – The CIO Power List

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With the use of data and technology increasingly central to a law firm’s success, the contribution of the individuals leading multi-million pound tech teams has never been greater. Meet the IT heads and chief information officers that stand out from the crowd.

From law firm partners to former data analysts at banks, the individuals who control the deployment of IT and knowledge management (KM) resources at some of the UK’s top-performing law firms are a diverse breed. Some, such as Sheila Doyle at Norton Rose Fulbright, entered the legal industry relatively recently after distinguished careers at some of the world’s largest companies. Others, like Julie Berry at RPC, became one of the earliest adopters of the systems manager role at a law firm, building up the knowledge and experience to become one of the most effective operators in legal tech.

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How to improve a law firm in 17 easy steps – a blue print for innovation

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While pundits are queuing up to pronounce the death of the industry’s model, Legal Business canvassed senior figures to devise some practical ideas to make a law firm work better.

You don’t have to look far in the legal profession to find causes for gloom. Battered by a sustained malaise in Western economies, more assertive clients and the threat of legal service liberalisation in the UK, a growing band of observers, general counsel and industry figures have argued that the traditional model of commercial law is fundamentally broken.
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Great bright hopes – searching out the City rainmakers of 2020

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Who will be the next generation of corporate heavyweights that top City firms will rely on to drive their businesses in the decade ahead? Legal Business canvassed a wide group of deal veterans to identify the ones to watch.

It is often said that the best of the City’s M&A partners were battled-hardened and defined by the early 1990s recession. That formative experience is often argued to have helped refine the skills and ethos of the select band of M&A heavyweights that dominated the City legal market through the last 15 years.

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Pulling the strings – the surprisingly successful re-invention of clerking

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The relationship between barrister and clerk has long outgrown its traditional master-and-servant image as the reputation of clerks has evolved. Legal Business goes behind closed doors into the elusive world of clerking.

It’s a typically busy morning for the senior clerk at a well-known civil set of chambers. Piles of paperwork cover the desk and the phone flashes red with multiple client voicemails. He has yet to tackle the diaries of 50-plus barristers, and his caffeine levels are running abnormally low. The door to his office, covered in portraits of ancient Queen’s Counsel, swings open and there stands the head of chambers, a veteran in the field of civil law and the regular recipient of multi-million pound briefs, with a dejected look on his face.

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LB100 – The top 25: The age of turbulence

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It’s been a bumpy ride for many of the UK’s largest firms, fighting battered profits with consolidation and increased global expansion. Welcome to the Legal Business 100, where headline revenue increases hide a tougher reality

When the UK’s 62nd largest law firm by revenue is suddenly wiped off the face of the earth, despite posting a 2% revenue increase in 2011/12, you’d expect a little nervousness within the profession. Cobbetts, which went into administration in March, posted a profit per equity partner (PEP) increase of 16% in its last-ever LB100 appearance, something that many of the firms occupying the list today would gladly take. But, as it would turn out – as has been the case ever since the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers – when it comes to law firm financials, all is not what it seems. And, as the demise of Halliwells proved in 2010, it takes more than the collapse of a regional stalwart to seriously unhinge the market.

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