Mixing it with the big boys: Law tech upstarts approach adolescence following cash influx

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Mixing it with the big boys: Law tech upstarts approach adolescence following cash influx

The future is hard to predict in the combustible world of law tech start-ups. But recent big funding rounds for some of the industry’s darlings signal an increasing maturity in the space with Kira, Apperio, Eigen Technologies and Legatics all receiving hefty funding rounds in recent months.

Kira further secured its spot as the leading AI platform for law firms after landing a record $50m of private equity backing from New York-based Insight Venture Partners in September. The investment was the first external backing for the company since its inception, with the machine-learning contract analysis platform now primed for continued growth. Continue reading “Mixing it with the big boys: Law tech upstarts approach adolescence following cash influx”

Akin rainmakers quit to launch Russia independent in further apocalyptic sign for Western firms

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Akin rainmakers quit to launch Russia independent in further apocalyptic sign for Western firms

Lawyers have been speaking for months of a tough environment for international firms in sanction-battered Russia, but no event has been as emblematic as the news in September that two of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld’s top Moscow partners have quit to launch an independent firm.

Heavyweight litigator Ilya Rybalkin and corporate veteran Suren Gortsunyan launched Rybalkin, Gortsunyan & Partners (RGP), bringing across 11 other fee-earners from their former shop – now left with just 18 lawyers in Moscow.
While the US sanction regime bars US firms from supporting Kremlin-linked oligarchs, speaking to Legal Business Gortsunyan said Russian companies were becoming increasingly less comfortable with instructing Western advisers. Continue reading “Akin rainmakers quit to launch Russia independent in further apocalyptic sign for Western firms”

The new El Dorado: Fieldfisher launches in Spain as Latham doubles Madrid team in 12 months

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The new El Dorado: Fieldfisher launches in Spain as Latham doubles Madrid team in 12 months

Ignored by much of the global elite until a few years ago, Spain is quickly becoming one of the hottest legal markets in continental Europe, with Latham & Watkins more than doubling its headcount in less than a year while UK challenger firm Fieldfisher delivers on its much anticipated launch.

Fieldfisher managing partner Michael Chissick announced on 25 September that the firm had completed a three-year-long search to combine with 60-lawyer firm JAUSAS. Continue reading “The new El Dorado: Fieldfisher launches in Spain as Latham doubles Madrid team in 12 months”

Life during law: Mike Francies

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Life during law: Mike Francies

I was probably the world’s worst children’s entertainer. I needed a Saturday job to earn money but played football on Sunday mornings and rugby on Saturday mornings. A friend had a business that did magic tricks for children’s parties and I could fit the job around the sport. No, I didn’t dress up as a clown. I might have been a bit of a clown, but I didn’t dress up as one! I was the person at whom the children shouted: ‘I know how you’re doing that trick!’

They gave you a Fisher Price magic set. My stage name was Roger because they already had a Michael. I’m amazed you managed to find out about this – I thought it was quite a well-kept secret! Continue reading “Life during law: Mike Francies”

Sponsored briefing: An asymmetric approach to litigation PR

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Sponsored briefing: An asymmetric approach to litigation PR

Tim Maltin of Maltin PR on the importance of getting the balance right between winning the court case and winning over the public

King Pyrrhus of Epirus famously said: ‘If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be utterly ruined.’ He was talking in 279 BC about the large number of soldiers he had lost in the Battle of Asculum, but today he could just as easily have been referring to the high cost of litigation, or the pitfalls of winning the legal battle inside the courtroom at the expense of losing the communications war outside it. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: An asymmetric approach to litigation PR”

LB100 shrugs off Brexit fears as fees hit £24bn but leaders wary of chaotic winter ahead

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LB100 shrugs off Brexit fears as fees hit £24bn but leaders wary of chaotic winter ahead

Framed by mounting unease in the face of bitter Brexit negotiations, an uncertain business outlook and an inconclusive 2017 general election, the Legal Business 100 (LB100) has defied expectations to post one of its strongest performances of the last decade.

Despite a wider environment harking back to the turmoil and divisions of 1970s Britain, the LB100 shows the UK’s leading law firms driving group turnover up 10% to £24.2bn. The group generated total profits of £7.6bn, for comparison roughly ten times that of FTSE 100 retailer Sainsbury’s, or twice that of banking giant Barclays. Continue reading “LB100 shrugs off Brexit fears as fees hit £24bn but leaders wary of chaotic winter ahead”

Mega-deals and convergence stoke M&A but subdued volumes and volatile conditions linger

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Mega-deals and convergence stoke M&A but subdued volumes and volatile conditions linger

This time last year, a collective sigh of relief from City dealmakers was reverberating around the Square Mile as the M&A market regained momentum despite a backdrop of economic and political uncertainty. Since then, deal counsel have barely paused for breath, with many juggling multiple deals well into the parts of August in which even the most committed deal junkie would expect to be pretending not to check work emails on a sun lounger.

Such boom-time dynamics are borne out by the latest Mergermarket figures for H1 2018, which saw announced global M&A deals hit $1.94trn, its highest value since the financial crisis. Continue reading “Mega-deals and convergence stoke M&A but subdued volumes and volatile conditions linger”