All fall down? – The 2017 Risk Survey

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All fall down? – The 2017 Risk Survey

The collapse of KWM, cyber threats and Brexit have all come together to cause unease among City law firms. Our annual risk survey asks if risk managers can help avoid a domino effect.

There is little debate about what is dominating discussion among law firm managers right now. Not article 50 and not Donald Trump’s latest whim. The subject gripping law firm risk for our tenth annual risk management survey with broker Marsh is the events leading up to 4.40pm on 17 January 2017 – the moment the European and Middle East operation of King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) went into administration. Continue reading “All fall down? – The 2017 Risk Survey”

Getting there eventually? Infrastructure moves centre-stage as Western economies look for growth

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Getting there eventually? Infrastructure moves centre-stage as Western economies look for growth

James Wood talks to lawyers in an industry that attracts advisers for the long haul

Transport and infrastructure has long been viewed as one of the less glamorous legal practice areas, best suited to lawyers with the patience for ploughing through the minutiae of statutes. But with increasing public and political scrutiny and a rush of private investors looking to park their money in safe assets, it has become one of the most high-profile – and demanding – areas of legal work.

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The bleeding edge – The legal tech debate

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The bleeding edge – The legal tech debate

Cutting-edge legal tech is no longer an optional extra for law firms. In our latest round table with McCann FitzGerald, legal technologists debate the key barriers to success

The last five years have seen the emergence of early adopters in the legal technology sphere, firms that have embraced innovation and adopted artificial intelligence (AI), data analytics and predictive coding tools, not only to increase efficiency, but to reshape the way they work. Continue reading “The bleeding edge – The legal tech debate”

The Finance View – A&O’s new practice chiefs on repositioning the City’s top finance shop

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The Finance View – A&O’s new practice chiefs on repositioning the City’s top finance shop

Victoria Young and Madeleine Farman talk to new heads on the US, high yield and China.

While in recent years Allen & Overy (A&O) has been probably the most confident of the City’s leading banking shops, it remains a fast-evolving world for even the most potent of banking teams. Since the market turned in 2008, Magic Circle firms have faced tight margins and the increasingly ominous incursion of US-dominated finance products in Europe’s credit markets. Continue reading “The Finance View – A&O’s new practice chiefs on repositioning the City’s top finance shop”

Sale of the century – Has Camerons picked up a bargain with Olswang and Nabarro?

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Sale of the century – Has Camerons picked up a bargain with Olswang and Nabarro?

Amid a turbulent market, the three-way union of Camerons, Nabarro and Olswang has forged a UK giant. Has Camerons picked up a bargain or will there be buyer’s remorse?

September 1988. Twenty fresh-faced trainees are preparing for their first day at Nabarro Nathanson. Among the recruits are Iain Newman, Paul Stevens and Duncan Weston. Not only will the trio go on to have prominent careers in City law and remain on good terms, but more than 25 years later they would kickstart the UK’s largest-ever legal merger. Continue reading “Sale of the century – Has Camerons picked up a bargain with Olswang and Nabarro?”

Taking over – one leader at HSF but is the culture clash over?

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Taking over – one leader at HSF but is the culture clash over?

Five years since the turbulent union of Herbert Smith and Freehills, the global challenger has chosen Mark Rigotti as its sole chief executive. Is the culture clash over?

Managing the delicate power balance between managing partner and senior partner is tricky at the best of times. But how do you address the cultural minefield as a foreigner taking the lead executive role of a 134-year-old City institution still coming to terms with a turbulent merger, especially when your opposite is a particularly influential and strong-willed senior partner? Continue reading “Taking over – one leader at HSF but is the culture clash over?”

The USP – What is Mishcon’s secret formula?

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‘The emphasis around our culture is no billy bollocks…’

Elliot Moss, director of business development

 

‘Mishcon is like being at uni but you get paid for it.’

Kevin Gold, managing partner

 

‘What does anyone want? Make decent money and hang around with their mates.’

Kasra Nouroozi, head of dispute resolution

In 1994, a young South African lawyer named Kevin Gold was sitting in his office at central London practice Bayer Rosin flipping a coin to decide the future of the firm he ran. ‘Heads or tails… Olswang or SJ Berwin…’

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Watching the watchmen – at the sharp end with the lawyers on public inquiries

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Public inquiries have the power to seek truth in tragedy and scandal, but could a rigid process and weak leadership be undermining their authority? We talk to the professionals at the sharp end

It was supposed to find the facts amid decades of cover-ups and abuse of the most vulnerable in society, but in recent months the former chair of one of the most complicated inquiries in British history was branded a disgrace and its lead counsel departed trailing controversy and legal threats.

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Sideways – A lateral move in leadership and big US ambitions for Clyde & Co

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Clyde & Co has been on a terrific run of growth in the last five years. With a new senior partner installed and his predecessor in the US, will the firm be able to maintain momentum?

When Legal Business sat down with Clyde & Co’s new senior partner Simon Konsta in November, the firm’s notoriously hands-on chief executive Peter Hasson was on holiday in Miami. While discussing Hasson’s intense focus on the day job, Konsta is asked if Hasson will be able to resist checking in. Minutes into the interview, Konsta’s phone starts ringing. It’s Hasson.

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Too big to fail? The battle to keep ring-fencing reforms on track

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Envisaged in the wake of the financial crisis, ring-fencing reforms will tie up banks and legal advisers for years. Legal Business asks if the process is on track

Experienced financial regulation partner Bob Penn, who moved to Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton last year and advised HSBC on the controversial bank ring-fencing reforms while at Allen & Overy (A&O), is clear on whether those reforms are fit for purpose. ‘This is a hugely unwelcome and disruptive process, and frankly yet another distraction from running a profitable bank at a time when they are already facing a cascade of regulatory reform and the prospect of Brexit.’

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