By the time you read this Dentons (as anyone sane will call it), a three-way merger between SNR Denton, Salans and Fraser Milner Casgrain, should be formally approved (see opposite). That is unless there’s a late spanner in the works, and with merger negotiations you can never be sure.
White & Case sent Mike Goetz to London in 2000 to take its City finance practice to a new level. Thirteen years – and two law firms – later, he’s still one of the biggest names on the London scene. LB meets a banking legend. Ropes & Gray’s London office has just turned three years …
Europe has been ravaged by the debt crisis and Germany has been far from immune, but the resilience of one segment of the economy is a boon to domestic law firms. Meet the Mittelstand Germany’s hidden champions are keeping its law firms in the pink. While European law firms continue to feel the effects of …
When the credit crisis hit, leveraged finance lawyers were among the first to fall. They are still in the doldrums, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. After some serious market reshaping, LB asks which firms will reap the rewards when the market finally returns. To say that leveraged finance lawyers have had …
Times they are a-changing. Meet the international law firms with hardly any offices, no trainees, and the bare minimum of overheads. Clients are waking up to a very real alternative. When Ryan Stafford, general counsel (GC) and vice president at $700m-turnover US manufacturer Littelfuse, was looking for a team at short notice to handle a …
After years in the mid-market wilderness, Field Fisher Waterhouse is finally ready for a revolution. It wants to grow internationally and shake up its meandering management. The right suitor might just find a little sweetheart The last 12 months have not been easy for Field Fisher Waterhouse (FFW). The acrimonious failure of merger talks with …
The Russian legal market can be an unpredictable beast. A history of interfering politicians, corruption and debt crises, both internal and external, have meant that since the collapse of the Soviet Union, law firms in Moscow have struggled to maintain a steady grasp on just what might be around the corner. Despite all the variables, …
Recently it seems that not a week goes by without new clamour surrounding another legal market as law firms race to enter countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. But of all the new frontiers that have been gaining favour with law firms, Africa’s focal points are the most difficult to pinpoint. Australia’s immense popularity …
Stephen Rosser became Clarke Willmott’s chief executive two years ago as the firm really started to suffer a post-boom hangover. Since then, the bottom line has gone from bad to worse. It’s time for more radical thinking Stephen Rosser, Clarke Willmott’s chief executive, ran the London Marathon in 3 hours 59 minutes this year. While …
When former Dewey & LeBoeuf partners blamed Citibank for not telling them about the dire state of the firm’s finances, they got short shrift. In today’s legal market, there’s no excuse for not scrutinising the balance sheet. Here’s LB’s definitive guide to all you need to know When law firms fail, the fallout can be …
