Known unknowns – is the legal industry ready to repel the growing threat of cyberattacks?

Posted on |

Combating cyberattacks on law firms is complicated by the lack of hard information and the shadowy nature of perpetrators. But, reports Legal Business, law firm tech chiefs and security specialists agree the threat is rapidly growing.

What is a law firm if not a huge repository of commercially valuable information? On one side, of course, is the vast bank of specialist legal information held by experienced staff and databases of precedents and legal know-how. Yet valuable as that intellectual property (IP) is – it’s very hard to steal legal expertise.

Continue reading “Known unknowns – is the legal industry ready to repel the growing threat of cyberattacks?”

Global 100: In the club

Posted on |

As the international legal market stratifies, the gap between executive class and economy is widening in the Global 100. Here we discover which firms have the dream ticket

Arnold & Porter, the Washington DC-based firm that specialises in regulatory, antitrust and commercial litigation, posted a 14% increase in revenue to $731m this year, its second successive year of double-digit growth. In fact, since Legal Business first reported the finances of the leading global law firms in 2004, there has not been a single year when Arnold & Porter hasn’t posted an increase in revenue.

Continue reading “Global 100: In the club”

The daily grind – toil and tension as Hogan Lovells gets past the honeymoon period

Posted on |

It’s been three years since the trailblazing transatlantic pairing of Hogan & Hartson and Lovells. Legal Business assesses if the much-touted marriage is living up to expectations

Rarely for a June evening in London, the sun was shining on the rooftop bar as the Legal Business journalist by chance ran into a senior partner at Hogan Lovells. ‘I have to ask, as we’re doing a piece on the firm, three years on, how do you think it’s going?’ The reply was to the point: ‘I saw the e-mail telling us not to talk to your journalists. Well, what do you want to know?’

Continue reading “The daily grind – toil and tension as Hogan Lovells gets past the honeymoon period”

Hard-wired – meet the ‘tabloid’ lifting the lid on the world’s largest legal market

Posted on |

Since its 2006 launch, irreverent blog Above The Law has built a huge audience and given voice to an increasingly embittered community of US associates and law students. Legal Business reports on the ‘tabloid’ that brought transparency to the world’s largest legal market.

One afternoon in February 2009, the leader of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman’s corporate and securities practice, Robert Robbins, made a phone call in a train carriage on route from Washington to New York Penn station. Continue reading “Hard-wired – meet the ‘tabloid’ lifting the lid on the world’s largest legal market”

Global 100: The long haul

Posted on |

A decade of flying the Global 100 has left some legal players frazzled while others have become increasingly energised. Here we chart ten years’ performance by the world’s largest law firms

‘We want to be the number one global law firm and, without a strong US component, we won’t achieve that,’ – this comment, made by Linklaters managing partner Simon Davies in 2008, reflects a perennial issue since Legal Business first began producing its own list of the top 50 global firms by revenue in 2004. The tussle between the UK Magic Circle and the Wall Street elite has dominated agendas since that period. Continue reading “Global 100: The long haul”

Global 100: Scheduled departures

Posted on |

Asia continues to dominate when it comes to new offices opened by Global 100 firms. But despite the attraction of exciting Eastern destinations, there are growing questions as to whether the travel is paying off.

‘People have the view that Asia is a rice bowl and they are waiting to gorge themselves,’ says a partner at a US law firm based in Singapore. Given the trends in recent office openings by the Global 100, it would appear there are still plenty of firms queuing up to have their fill. Over half of the 41 Global 100 firms that opened new offices in the last 12 months chose to open them in Asia, adding up to 28 new offices in the region in total, with Seoul and Singapore by far the most popular destinations. This contrasts significantly with last year when just ten Global 100 firms launched ten new offices across Asia.

Continue reading “Global 100: Scheduled departures”

In the game – will new rules on success fees see litigators take a gamble?

Posted on |

Three years after the Jackson review, reforms to litigation costs have finally arrived. But one change in particular, damages-based agreements, has polarised disputes lawyers. Can contingency fees work in mainstream commercial litigation?

When Lord Justice Jackson completed his year-long review of costs in civil litigation in January 2010 he proposed, in his words, ‘a coherent package of interlocking reforms, designed to control costs and promote access to justice’.

Continue reading “In the game – will new rules on success fees see litigators take a gamble?”