Three years ago, as the outside world shut down, the legal profession faced an extraordinary challenge – staying connected to colleagues and clients with no in-person contact.
Lockdown saw a huge spike in social media use, and while personal use was a given for most lawyers, few had yet been convinced by its professional value, with most resisting the hype and leaving Twitter to their communications people. Continue reading “Social media influencers: Winning friends and influencing people”
It had to come. Among the Global London leaders interviewed in last year’s report, there was an inevitable consensus that the frothy post-Covid conditions that created a phenomenally successful 2021 would cool noticeably through 2022 and tougher times would lie ahead. However, while the predictions have been proven correct, the mood among the leading US firms in London is far from pessimistic.
Tamara Box, EMEA managing partner at Reed Smith, says of her own firm’s City office: ‘The mood is positive, not least following on from another strong year for the office in 2022. While we have seen a slowdown in transactional activity, there is still plenty to keep the litigators busy this year. Well-hedged firms are being kept busy advising clients on how to navigate the disruption caused by economic downturn, tremors in the financial markets and the Russia/Ukraine war.’ Continue reading “Global London: Resistance is futile – can firms keep the good times going as the market starts to cool?”
London headcount: 212 lawyers, 44 partners
Lawyer headcount change since 2017: 24%
London managing partner: Tom Thesing
Office specialties: Private equity, M&A, life sciences, financial services, restructuring, antitrust, investment funds, privacy, insurance, litigation and global finance Continue reading “Global London case study: Sidley”
While it may be an oversimplification to say that there has been a certain inevitability to Shearman & Sterling’s decline in recent months, that the firm’s losses should lead to Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s inaugural foray into English law is a coup even the most clued up of pundits could scarcely have foreseen.
Coming as they did from a venerable Wall Street institution which, while having had a London office for some five decades, has never ventured to hire a single English law practitioner, the hires of buyout partners Philip Stopford and Korey Fevzi from Shearman prompted a wave of speculation when they first hit the industry press in March. Continue reading “PE lessons: Shearman’s losses and Cravath’s gains show the value of City buyout teams – and the dangers of misfiring”
While our annual risk and professional indemnity report in conjunction with Marsh Specialty charted the movement of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) concerns up the law firm risk management agenda in 2022, this time around ESG is all-consuming. So much so that insurers and brokers are making it a key component of discussions with corporate clients.
The increase in the level of interest in ESG and the role it plays in risk management discussions has been significant. In last year’s survey, 73% of respondents said that ESG is now firmly part of their firm’s risk management agenda. That figure has now increased to 77%, with just 6% of respondents saying that ESG does not currently fall within the risk management remit. One might argue that even that is too high a proportion of leading law firms, given that ESG is front and centre of the corporate landscape today. Continue reading “Risk management and professional indemnity survey 2023: Walking the talk”
The resounding message is that London is still booming. Fears surrounding its status as a leading jurisdiction for disputes being adversely impacted by Brexit appear to have gone largely unfounded, with not only the established players, but less traditional disputes practices and boutiques thriving. Martin Davies of Latham & Watkins sums up the outlook across the board, commenting: ‘There is a growing fragmentation in the London litigation market with some of the winners being at opposite ends of the spectrum, ie the international top tier who can serve clients worldwide, and the more niche boutiques.’ Continue reading “Bench strength revisited”
