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.’
Continue reading “Guest post: Checkbook recruiting – will Kirkland’s strategy pay off?”
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.
Continue reading “Guest post: litigants in person, never mind the quality – it’s length that counts”
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).
Law is pretty abstract. Unlike the role of a doctor or a builder, that of a lawyer is difficult to explain to a young mind. When my children eventually ask me about what I do when I ‘work’ (confusingly simultaneously a place I seem to go to and a thing I do at home; either takes me away from them) my plan is to explain that I help strangers from far off places find new homes. Like Paddington Bear.
Continue reading “Guest post: An immigration lawyer reviews Paddington and gives him some advice”
The SFO has successfully prosecuted its first series of Bribery Act convictions. On Friday the SFO reported that ‘Gary Lloyd West, former Director and Chief Commercial Officer of SAE, James Brunel Whale, former Director, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of SGG and Stuart John Stone, Director of SJ Stone Ltd, a sales agent of unregulated pension and investment products, were convicted of [a number of offences including] Bribery Act 2010 offences at Southwark Crown Court.’
Continue reading “Guest post: Christmas comes early – SFO scores 1st Bribery Act convictions”
Circling in the wings around almost any discussion of management and leadership issues in law firms, sometimes touted as a virtue above all others and sometimes only alluded to with caution, as one might a wraith, is the issue of a firm’s ‘culture’.
Continue reading “Guest post: money or culture? What culture really means to law firms”
Judicial review has been described by Liberty as ‘a crucial tool which allows ordinary people to challenge decisions by the authorities – either because they’re unlawful, irrational, or made in the wrong way’. This tool has come under attack from the Government. In this post, I look at the House of Commons debate on 1 December when House of Lords amendments to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill were considered. Continue reading “Guest post: judicial review at bay – playing ping pong with the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill”
Charles Plant, outgoing Chair of the SRA who has led the SRA through one of the more interesting phases in its relatively young life, had some interesting thoughts in a recent valedictory speech (at legal futures). In particular, flat-earther comments aside, he is reported as having offered this:
In Australia, the Prime Minister announced new counter-terrorism powers which he intends to introduce in a bill in the next few weeks. He said there’d be ‘new powers for police at ports to seize passports, to stop suspects travelling and to stop British nationals returning to the UK unless they do so on our terms.’
Continue reading “Guest post: The PM’s ‘foreign fighters’ plan – probably lawful”
YUST’s Evgeny Zhilin outlines the benefits.
2014 has brought many challenges to the Russian economy. The already modest growth rates that were demonstrated in the previous year were targeted even more by various sanctions imposed against Russia by the US, EU and some other jurisdictions. As a reaction to these, Russia has installed counter-sanctions in the food sector, hitting some of the European food producers hard. Continue reading “Sanctions: an unprecedented moment for doing business in Russia”
