Following the trend of tech incubator programmes set by City firms, insurance heavyweight Clyde & Co has launched a data analytics lab to develop products and services for its clients.
The new initiative is being ran in conjunction with University College London (UCL), with which the firm has a longstanding relationship. Continue reading “‘Another mechanism for unlocking insight’ – Clyde & Co launches tech initiative with UCL”
Earlier this year, Legal Business ventured north of the border to highlight the community of commercial counsel flourishing in Scotland in an extended feature. To follow up, this autumn we teamed up with Addleshaw Goddard to gather a panel of senior general counsel (GCs) at Edinburgh’s Signet Library in Parliament Square to debate a range of related issues to an audience of over 60 in-house counsel. With Brexit on the agenda, a changing legal profession and Scotland’s economy striving to reinvent itself for an increasingly-globalised age, there was plenty to talk about.
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Alex Novarese, Legal Business: In recent years, the Scots economy has tracked a little behind the UK. How confident are people feeling now in a turbulent time for business? Continue reading “Northern exposure – The Scots GC debate”
Look out law schools, there is a disrupter in town. Naturally, that town is Silicon Valley, the home of innovation. And the innovator in question is University of California Berkeley, which includes a leading US law school, renowned for its prowess in technology and IP.
It might seem natural that Berkeley Law’s proximity to the Bay Area tech hub would lead to an inventive approach to legal education. This idea certainly drew Hannah Porter, a former entrepreneur, to enrol at Berkeley Law in 2015. Continue reading “Fresh starts – inside the pioneering US school training lawyers on the start-up community”
Another chapter in the turbulent story of Slater and Gordon (S&G) has unfolded, with the beleaguered listed legal pioneer today (31 August) announcing the splitting off of its UK business from its Australian parent.
S&G’s UK arm will change into a new holding company, called UK HoldCo, which will be owned by the firm’s senior lenders, in a separation agreed as part of a recapitalisation programme linked to its ill-fated acquisition of the Quindell professional services business. Continue reading “Five years on from pioneering S&G acquisition of Russell Jones, Aussie pioneer splits from UK business”
Berwin Leighton Paisner‘s (BLP) freelance spin-off Lawyers on Demand(LOD) has posted 15% turnover growth in its first full-year results since it merged with Australia’s AdventBalance in March 2016, in what was the largest New Law merger to date.
As the global flexible lawyering business saw its turnover grow to £35m for 2016/17, LOD co-founder and managing director Simon Harper (pictured) said the satisfying results – which came ahead of LOD’s tenth anniversary last month – were down to ‘new service lines’.
Continue reading “Clients back New Law model as LOD posts post-merger revenue surge”
Mishcon de Reya has brought in Mike Owen from PwC as the fourth member of its expanding cyber security consultancy service, advising clients on cyber intelligence, risk consultancy and reputation management.
Continue reading “Mishcon boosts fledgling cyber security consultancy service”
For classists, the word ‘disruptive’ still carries negative connotations of damage, chaos and disarray. But these days in corporate circles it has become the phrase of the day – a complimentary shorthand to describe tech-driven innovators remaking all manner of industries. But the cult of disruption – birthed in Clayton Christensen’s hugely influential 1997 book The Innovator’s Dilemma – has truly come of age when it has reached not only the legal profession, but its in-house branch.
Continue reading “Rebels with a clause – a new kind of group for a new kind of client”
Eversheds Sutherland is the latest firm to target the lucrative fast-growth, start-up industry with its launch of ‘Eversheds Disrupt’ – a product providing web-based bespoke legal advice to start-ups and fast-growth companies.
While pitching to general counsel (GCs) is hardly a foreign concept for private practitioners, an elite group of GCs for fast-growth companies has invited a pre-selected list of law firms to bid to host its events.
While pitching to general counsel (GCs) is hardly a foreign concept for private practitioners, an elite group of GCs for fast-growth companies has invited a pre-selected list of law firms to bid to host its events.
