English lawyers have long had an edge over their US and continental colleagues. English law was established early as the law of trade, business and increasingly projects – a throwback to the days of the Empire. This was a major driver of growth for UK-based firms in recent decades, but it is well known that New York law has become a rival to English law, especially in banking and finance, as corporates tap into the deep US debt markets.
Doing something radical – how Dentons sort of won me over
Everywhere I go in legal circles these days, people ask about Dentons. How incredible it would have been even 18 months ago that this child of a second-line Illinois player and the most battered City law brand of the 2000s would attract such interest. Much of that attention is aghast that this dismissed institution has emerged somehow after a remarkable 2015 as the world’s most lawyered firm.
Given the chequered history, the scepticism is understandable and was shared by Legal Business as we sat down to hear the Dentons pitch to potential suitors for this month’s cover feature. But that presentation – backed by Dentons’ dynamic duo of Elliott Portnoy and Joe Andrew – is pretty good. Whatever the chinks in the armour (and there are chinks), the basic premise stands up. The legal industry called time on globalisation in the 2000s amid a series of troubled mergers, inter-firm competition and the fallout from the banking crisis. But that’s not to say there isn’t a good case for building a genuine global giant. Quickly.
Continue reading “Doing something radical – how Dentons sort of won me over”
The outlook for the quality UK mid-tier – the straight-up view from Legal Business
In discussion at a partnership conference, LB editor-in-chief Alex Novarese lays out the prospects for a UK mid-pack
I recently held a one-on-one discussion with the senior partner of a mid-tier UK player at the firm’s partnership conference. As part of the prep, we sketched out some outline questions for which I wrote some notes to order my thoughts. Since it was flowing conversation and I wasn’t looking at those notes, what is below only loosely relates to what was said on the day. But since I often get asked these kind of questions and such Q&As have an off-the-cuff accessibility, I thought it would make a decent article. Mid-weight law firms wanting to know the Legal Business take on the market, read on.
***
Privacy v transparency – incoming OECD tax rules are opening a new battle front
Withers’ Filippo Noseda casts a weary eye over the latest attempt to bolster tax disclosure
In almost every field of legal work, privacy is regarded as a primary and legitimate concern to protect the interests of individuals and organisations. This was confirmed recently when the European Court of Justice (ECJ) struck down the US-EU data exchange agreement amid fears that data transferred to the US would end up in the hands of the US government – a fear fuelled by the revelations in 2013 by Edward Snowden of widespread electronic surveillance – as well as a US judge’s ruling ordering Microsoft to deliver information held on an Irish server. For the ECJ, the US-EU ‘safe harbour’ agreement violated Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which states that a private life is a human right and any interference with it must be proportionate and justified.
Continue reading “Privacy v transparency – incoming OECD tax rules are opening a new battle front”
Comment: An open letter to Gen X partners and Millennial associates…
Dear partner,
We know there is a lot of talk about the new generation of associates, how entitled and short term they are, and that either you or a colleague has been talking about what to do about the kids.
Continue reading “Comment: An open letter to Gen X partners and Millennial associates…”
Guest post: Knowing when to reinvent – the Aetna plan for business health
There’s a fascinating article in the December issue of the Harvard Business Review that ought to be required reading for the leaders and owners of the world’s leading law firms. Called ‘Knowing When to Reinvent’, the essay describes what I think of as the Aetna Corporate Health Test, one that managing partners might start taking each year along with an annual physical.
Continue reading “Guest post: Knowing when to reinvent – the Aetna plan for business health”
Guest post: How to run up a $1.6bn legal bill – the Nortel bankruptcy should be a wake-up call for the insolvency industry
What is a fair and equitable distribution of $7.3bn of global bankruptcy assets between multinational creditors where no legal mechanism exists? This is the unenviable question which the US and Canadian courts sought to answer by their joint rulings in the Nortel Bankruptcy in May 2015, and which the parties will be attempting to renegotiate when they commence further dispute resolution meetings today.
Guest post: Law land annual reports -has the partnership model been outgrown?
With the release last week of the Annual Report from Georgetown Law’s Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, the ‘Big Three’ annual reports – Altman-Weil’s Law Firms in Transition, Citi/Hildebrandt’s Client Advisory, and Georgetown’s – are now all out and we can see what trends and developments they seem to discuss in common.
Continue reading “Guest post: Law land annual reports -has the partnership model been outgrown?”
Guest post: What’s your theory of the business?
Year-end is often seen, understandably if somewhat arbitrarily, as a time for reflection. Actually, in my book there’s never a bad time for reflection, so I’ll take an arbitrary peg over no peg.
Continue reading “Guest post: What’s your theory of the business?”
Comment: The 2015 edit – our favourite Legal Business pieces from this year
As the Christmas wind-down approaches inertia, in time-honoured tradition along with ghastly jumpers and inappropriate comments on social media, we signal the closing down of Legal Business HQ with a look back at the stories that made our year.
Continue reading “Comment: The 2015 edit – our favourite Legal Business pieces from this year”