Legal Business

Geek Chic – Bristows

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Home to more well-mannered boffins in its all-equity partnership than you can shake a stick at and with no international offices, Bristows is an unconventional LB100 hero. LB meets the co-managing partners of the firm that has outclassed many in the last five years.

You know you’re at a different kind of law firm when you discover that every meeting room in Bristows’ offices is named after a famous scientist. On a miserable, wet December morning, co-managing partners Iain Redford (left) and Mark Watts (right) are sitting in a room named after Michael Faraday, who discovered how magnetic forces could affect the flow of an electrical current. It’s appropriate because there’s no denying that the forces at play at Bristows these days are compelling.

Legal Business

All hail the comeback kings

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Two features this month focus on firms that have dusted themselves down and have come back fighting. For markedly different reasons, both Clifford Chance and Bristows have returned from positions of perceived weakness to enjoy something of a renaissance post-economic crisis.

In 2012 Clifford Chance was one of the stronger performers in a UK Global Elite that has been pretty beleaguered of late. Its performance in the most recent LB100 outstripped its rivals, posting a 7% growth in turnover and a 9% rise in profit per lawyer. But in particular, its corporate practice enjoyed a very strong 2012, topping mergermarket’s M&A tables for deals by value right up until the end of the year until Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom posted a trio of high-value deals in December.

Legal Business

Another conventional wisdom

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A lot of firms talk a lot of rubbish about cohesive, collegiate partnerships these days but the competitive spirit within law firms is alive and well. Politicking, back-stabbing and underhand, cut-throat tactics are all employed to help everyone ascend the greasy pole. But there is another way. Snubbing the hard-nosed approach can work: just look at Bristows.