The Law Society, if nothing else, is a decent host and members attending the special general meeting (SGM) on Tuesday (17 December) were treated to KitKats among the refreshments on offer. Appropriately enough they were the two-finger variety, which is certainly the gesture some see the vote of no-confidence in president Nick Fluck and chief executive Des Hudson to be. Continue reading “Guest post: Where next for the Law Society after no-confidence vote?”
Guest post: Too close for comfort – Research concludes the Bar Council has ‘undue influence’ over regulation
The Bar may be collegiate, but are the Bar Council and the Bar Standards Board (BSB) too close? Have you read last month’s Legal Services Board (LSB) report that found the Bar Council encroached on the BSB’s regulatory independence? I doubt it; it’s a lengthy document and it’s taken me three weeks to find the time. But for those questioning the continuing need for the LSB – chief among whom are, of course, the Bar Council and BSB – it is a must-read.
The report, following an investigation lasting around five months, relates to changes made by the BSB to its regulatory arrangements, approved by the LSB, to bring into force the new contractual terms for barristers, including a controversial change to the cab-rank rule. Continue reading “Guest post: Too close for comfort – Research concludes the Bar Council has ‘undue influence’ over regulation”
Guest post: My thoughts (as a citizen) on Lord Sumption’s Azlan Shah lecture
On 20 November, Lord Sumption (Justice of the Supreme Court) delivered the 27th Sultan Azlan Shah Lecture in Kuala Lumpur – The Limits of Law. This was followed by Lord Justice Laws on 27th November in the Hamlyn Lectures 2013 – see Lecture 3 Common Law and Europe. A further lecture on human rights was delivered in Warwick by Lady Hale (Deputy President of the Supreme Court) on 28th November – Lady Hale at the Warwick Law Lecture 2013 – What’s the point of human rights?
These speeches / lectures are not only legally informative but they reveal something of the personalities of the speakers and their attitudes to the vastly important topic of human rights protection as it applies both in Europe and in the UK. Continue reading “Guest post: My thoughts (as a citizen) on Lord Sumption’s Azlan Shah lecture”
Guest post: The United States of Innovation – viewed from Wall Street, it could be a whole lot better
The other night I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the FT’s Innovative Lawyers 2013 US awards ceremony. (The report was published here the next day in the paper, and you can download a PDF.)
Since this is now an annual event – this year marks the fourth time they’ve done it in the US – it’s an occasion to step back and see how the conversation has evolved. Here’s the telling final paragraph of last year’s introductory piece, following a lengthy series of anecdotes from managing partners about ‘buggy whips’, ‘new market dynamics’, ‘requiring behaviour to change’, ‘the wow factor’, and ‘adapting to the moving cheese’:
All the chairmen of the top firms talk about change and the need to ‘not fight the last war’. And yet at the same time they cannot, they say, see their firms being all that different in five years’ time.
Guest post: Independence matters – banking and big law in the news
Lawyers and banks are in the news again. Lawrence Tomlinson, Entrepreneur in Residence at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, has reported various abuses by RBS in particular and has this to say about the way banks instruct lawyers:
‘Any law firm that does business with the banks will have a clause in their contract, preventing them from taking action against the banks.This means that for businesses the pool of solicitors available to give them advice and take their case is extremely limited. Continue reading “Guest post: Independence matters – banking and big law in the news”
Guest post: ‘Chasing short term profits is the enemy of long-term success’ – A conversation with Freshfields’ Ted Burke
I recently had the chance to sit down with Ted Burke, outgoing managing partner of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. I’ve known Ted for years and with the recent announcement that he would be stepping down at Freshfields to join Arclight Capital Partners as COO and general counsel it was time to catch up.
When we sat down, I asked Ted to reflect on his years at Freshfields (head of the firm since 2005). He opened: ‘It’s the oldest great firm in the world.’ Founded in 1743 with the Bank of England as a client, which remains a client today. The firm has been successful over 270 years, Ted observed, but not at all times, and it has had to change repeatedly. ‘No business can last more than a generation without changing.’ Continue reading “Guest post: ‘Chasing short term profits is the enemy of long-term success’ – A conversation with Freshfields’ Ted Burke”
Guest post: Time to face the dangerous delusion of the entrepreneurial lawyer
For years, I’ve been hearing law firms describe their cultures as ‘entrepreneurial’ and hardly the slightest attention. Like ‘collegial’ or ‘collaborative’, it just seemed like so much white noise. Then finally I heard it once too often and had to face cold reality: I had absolutely no idea what these people – a lot of smart, articulate people – were talking about.
Picking up a dictionary, I found this definition:
characterised by the taking of financial risks in the hope of profit; enterprising
Continue reading “Guest post: Time to face the dangerous delusion of the entrepreneurial lawyer”
Guest post: Is a return to self-regulation really on the cards?
Two months ago, I blogged about the Law Society’s surprising submission to the Ministry of Justice’s legal regulation review, which essentially argued for a return to self-regulation, save that disciplinary and enforcement activities would remain the preserve of a much slimmed-down Solicitors Regulation Authority.
On this, at least, the Bar Council is at one with its solicitor counterpart, a point reinforced at last weekend’s bar conference by chair Maura McGowan QC, who laid into the Legal Services Board (LSB) during her address to members. Continue reading “Guest post: Is a return to self-regulation really on the cards?”
Guest post: West Coast, left field and progressive – a conversation with Facebook’s law firm
One of the more unusual reactions I’ve gotten to my book Growth Is Dead came from Kate Fritz, managing partner of Fenwick & West, who I had the chance to talk to recently.
Few lawyers will need an introduction to Fenwick, one of most respected practices in the West Coast of America and a leading adviser in California’s technology scene thanks for work for clients like Facebook, Apple and eBay.
Guest post: R (PressBoF) v Culture Secretary: the hearing
I was in court 68 at the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday morning (30 October) to hear the Press Standards Board of Finance’s (PressBoF) urgent application for interim relief – an injunction – to stop the government from getting the cross-party press regulation Royal Charter granted by the Queen in Privy Council this afternoon. The Privy Council was due to ‘meet’ at 5.30pm (these are very short meetings in which everyone stands, I’m told; the meeting would be a constitutional formality); the hearing began at 10.30am.
Right from the start, Lord Justice Richards made clear he thought the court could deal not only with the application for the injunction, but with the question whether permission for judicial review should be granted. That surprised me, and I suspect some others in court.
Continue reading “Guest post: R (PressBoF) v Culture Secretary: the hearing”