Alex Novarese

March 23, 2011 | International Edition

This week's analysis asks whether the close relationship between law firms and banks will be damaged by a string of tougher panel reviews since the crunch. But in many respects, it's an academic debate. Law firms in the UK have over the last 20 years so wholeheartedly structured their businesses around the needs of such clients that they have very little realistic option to break from the finance houses which helped fuel the profession's growth.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

March 16, 2011 | International Edition

These days you often hear of social inclusion or diversity "moving up the agenda" of City law firms. But if I'm honest, years of covering the profession has led me to the view that the commercial sector, at least, generally doesn't much care about this stuff. What is usually meant when it is said that things are "moving up the agenda" is that people feel the need to discuss something or take cosmetic steps that will in reality have little impact, not to actually do much substantive. There's a world of difference between the former and the latter.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

March 09, 2011 | International Edition

It is customary when a large business calls it a day to seek out lessons from that fate. So what is there to take from the turmoil that has engulfed Howrey over the last 18 months if, as seems likely, the firm this week elects to start winding down its business? For one, it has to be said that the firm will have plenty of company. Brobeck Phleger & Harrison, Altheimer & Gray, Coudert Brothers, Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault, Thacher Proffitt & Wood, Thelen, Heller Ehrman – all have passed into the night since 2003.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

March 03, 2011 | International Edition

As Legal Week has a large events business, our editorial team is often asked for input on conference programmes, meaning suggested topics and speakers. This usually results in our conference producers having to put up with another mind-numbing speech from me about why I think people turn up to these things. Admittedly, for the private client events a swish hotel doesn't hurt, but it still basically boils down to the people. If you get the right calibre of speaker, you're usually laughing. If you don't, you aren't. As such, our conference team look to have done the business on a series of upcoming events. First up we have the Independent Law Firms Forum on 17 March, our main event for leading indies across the globe. Speakers this year include Magisters' Dimitri Dyakin, Burges Salmon's Stephen McNulty, PLMJ's Manuel Santos Vitor, Werksmans' Des Williams, King & Wood's Susan Ning and Nishith Desai of Nishith Desai Associates.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

March 02, 2011 | International Edition

Very rarely has a corporate lawyer been so celebrated during life, but judging the legacy of Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom pioneer Joseph Flom in the wake of his death last week, his career still looks hugely instructive for the global legal market he helped to create. Perhaps most revealing is a detailed profile of Flom from 1989 penned by The American Lawyer founder Steven Brill, which charts his achievement in pushing Skadden from outsider to the firm that arguably eclipsed its establishment rivals. From an upstart practice founded in 1948 - Flom was the firm's first associate - Skadden seized a huge opportunity when Manhattan's legal elite turned its nose up at the emerging field of proxy fights and hostile takeovers, which evolved through the 1960s and came to transfix Wall Street in the 1980s.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

February 25, 2011 | International Edition

It's the most common tool law firms reach for to upgrade their practice - a fact underlined by a Legal Week article yesterday that showed that 2010 was the most active year yet for US law firms hiring partners in the UK. And, yet, there is surprisingly little research on the ups and downs of hiring shareholders into your business. Partly plugging that gap, the consultant Motive Legal this month produced research tracking the retention of partners hired in the UK over the last five years, covering 1,944 moves. While the results confirmed what many already suspected, it is nevertheless striking to see it in data form: 44% of those partners hired in 2005 were no longer with the firm that hired them by 2010. Even looking at the figures over a three-year timeframe, 30% had quit between 2007 and 2010.

By Alex Novarese

5 minute read

February 23, 2011 | International Edition

Sometimes stories take a while to gain a reaction. One such piece was a news item in Legal Week at the start of the month about DLA Piper's three-year strategy, which has gone on to generate a fair amount of controversy among online commentators. The reason is incoming guidelines on which new clients should be accepted. The idea is relatively simple: new clients in Europe should generate at least €25,000 (£21,000) in the first year, or four times that level if there is deemed to be a conflict risk. In the US, the aim is to have a threshold of $200,000 (£123,000) for all new clients.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

February 22, 2011 | International Edition

Everyone in the City, it seems, agrees that the demand will be huge - but who will service it? The demand in question is the rapid development of a new generation of securities designed to allow banks to bolster their financial strength under the new Basel III standards. Linklaters last week secured bragging rights after taking a lead role on Credit Suisse's much-touted $8bn (£4.9bn) issue of contingent conversion capital instrument notes (dubbed CoCos) - a new form of convertible bond designed to switch to equity if the issuing bank suffers agreed levels of financial stress. The Credit Suisse deal was structured as a $6bn (£3.7bn) private placement to two large investors and a $2bn (£1.23bn) open auction, which was heavily oversubscribed. Though several banks have used CoCos - notably Lloyds and Rabobank - the Credit Suisse bond is the first time such securities have been fully compliant as core capital under Basel III standards, which start to phase in from 2013.

By Alex Novarese

4 minute read

February 18, 2011 | International Edition

A recent article on Legal Week about an adviser review at Deutsche Bank reminded me of a concept that has gained traction in recent years: the notion that clients should get actively involved in the business model and inner workings of their external counsel. In the case of Deutsche, the bank has made it plain that it will look favourably on firms that use legal process outsourcing as part of its adviser review. The bank is certainly not alone - it's a concept that has attracted a growing level of support in the legal profession in the last five years.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

February 16, 2011 | International Edition

When we commit 4,000-plus words to the state of a single law firm - as in this week's analysis of Barlow Lyde & Gilbert - the subject tends to be going through a turbulent period, or at least major change. Given that it's our starting point when investigating such issues to provide the benefit of the doubt, this means that we will always go out of our way to see what successes there are to counter-balance the rather more obvious reverses.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read