Slaughter and May‘s Nigel Boardman, James Shirbin and Andrew Blake argue that English law needs drastic reform to remain internationally competitive.
Continue reading “Strangling the golden goose – Nigel Boardman on why English law needs reform”
Comment: Global Law Summit misses the mark and a big opportunity
Here at Legal Business we like to set the agenda, so we’re feeling ahead of the game in pointing out shortcomings with this month’s Global Law Summit, the government-backed initiative to celebrate the 800-year anniversary of Magna Carta and British traditions of the rule of law.
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Global Law Summit misses the mark and a big opportunity
Here at Legal Business we like to set the agenda, so we’re feeling ahead of the game in pointing out shortcomings with this month’s Global Law Summit, the government-backed initiative to celebrate the 800-year anniversary of Magna Carta and British traditions of the rule of law.
The event has been attracting mounting controversy, including last month a scatter-gun attack in The Telegraph (who knew that Telegraph Media Group were such staunch socialists?) and wider criticism of elitism (some fair, some not).
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Strangling the golden goose – English law needs reform
Slaughter and May’s Nigel Boardman, James Shirbin and Andrew Blake argue that English law needs drastic reform to remain internationally competitive
English law occupies a privileged position. Thanks in significant part to the City’s role as a major global financial centre, England has become the jurisdiction of choice for many enterprises and deals (and subsequent disputes) that may otherwise have little territorial connection to the UK. The primary beneficiaries of this happy arrangement have been London’s major commercial law firms, who have received a steady flow of major transactional and litigious work.
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Dissent, it turns out, comes at a price even in disputes
Joe Tirado argues that dissenting opinions in arbitration are a double-edged sword
There are many so-called ‘hot’ topics in international arbitration that could have been the subject of this article, but ultimately the topic chose itself.
In arbitration, a dissenting opinion is a written statement that an arbitrator can make to express their disagreement with the award or the reasoning for it. It does not form part of the award. Nor is it a separate award. Under most arbitration legislation, it does not prevent the award from being final or from being an award.
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Guest post: Checkbook recruiting – will Kirkland’s strategy pay off?
From the Kirkland & Ellis site, under the topic Laterals Overview (I quote in full, emphasis supplied): ‘At Kirkland, the quality and experience of our lawyers are among our greatest strengths. We are committed to making a substantial investment in our lateral hires by fostering an environment in which they are seamlessly integrated into our Firm culture.’
File this in ‘Dep’t of Understatement.’
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Guest post: litigants in person, never mind the quality – it’s length that counts
At the same time as the MoJ has published Liz Trinder led research on litigants in person in private family law cases (disclosure, I was a member of the team) the MoJ have published the curiously described, Experimental Statistics: analysis of estimated hearing duration in Private Law cases, England and Wales, Ministry of Justice Ad-hoc statistics bulletin. I think the word experimental is accidental, confusingly hinting at some new methodology or, in research times, an experimental design. Neither are present here.
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Guest post: ‘Individuals matter’ – A conversation with Deutsche Bank’s Asia Pacific GC Joe Longo
Last month I had the pleasure of being on a panel in Europe with Joe Longo, the general counsel for Asia-Pacific of Deutsche Bank. Joe had some particularly thought-provoking and hard-headed observations about the changing dynamics between law firms and clients. I thought it would be worth drawing Joe out a bit more extensively than was possible on our panel, so we found time recently to chat across the 12-hour time zone difference (Joe in Hong Kong, me in New York).
Comment: Legal Business celebrates 25 years and the profession as well
So, what mattered to you? Twenty five years since Legal Business launched to chronicle the dramatic changes in the legal profession much has changed and yet stays the same. Still, if you were going to launch the first publication to focus on the UK’s commercial legal sector, you couldn’t have picked a better time than 1990.
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The Last Word – Reflections and looking ahead
Senior figures provide personal perspectives on a changing industry for our 250th edition
Working with Salz
‘I worked for Anthony as an associate. In order of descending seniority, Phil Richards, me and Will Lawes were his “bag carriers”. It was an exciting time. During the 1980s our M&A team were the new kids on the block and the firm was undergoing a reputational transition from a traditional Bank of England adviser to a push-the-envelope transactional adviser. By the 1990s, Freshfields was the go-to firm.
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