Alex Novarese

August 03, 2010 | International Edition

Working on Legal Week Law, our new online library of briefings and reports, has given me a chance to take a much closer look at the kind of material being published by law firms. The quality varies enormously, though is generally higher than a neutral observer might expect. One of the most interesting reports I have yet seen is Nabarro's From In-House Lawyer to Business Counsel.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

July 28, 2010 | International Edition

When turkeys start voting for Christmas, something is amiss. That is something the new Government should (but won't) reflect on as it this week issues further detail on its controversial shake-up of City regulation. Because, as made clear in our recent focus on financial regulation, even legal specialists in the field - who stand to benefit financially from the sustained upheaval - don't believe in the Government's attempt to redraw the tripartite regulatory architecture.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

July 21, 2010 | International Edition

Anyone who doubts the value of sticking to your gameplan would do well to look at the recent performance of Travers Smith, which as we reported this month has outpaced all comparable City practices in 2009-10 by managing to hike profits per equity partner (PEP) by 53% to £705,000. In isolation, such a rise in profits can be dismissed in a year in which many firms saw rebounding PEP numbers on the back of tough cost squeezes. However, Travers was one of the few to also manage a rise in revenues - by a healthy 11.6% - so the firm is clearly growing the business.

By Alex Novarese

4 minute read

July 21, 2010 | International Edition

Is the legal press too negative? I had that theory expounded to me at length by a managing partner recently over a few too many drinks. We have made increasing efforts at Legal Week in recent years to stamp out a knee-jerk critical tone that it is easy for journalists to default to in favour of what I hope is a more constructive stance. But it is a difficult balance to get right. It doesn't help that the profession isn't the most charitable of places. It's not an industry in which senior lawyers tend to find much constructive to say about rivals, and reader comments on legalweek.com can certainly tilt towards the downright cynical.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

July 21, 2010 | International Edition

Is the legal press too negative? I had that theory expounded to me at length by a managing partner recently over a few too many drinks. We have made increasing efforts at Legal Week in recent years to stamp out a knee-jerk critical tone that it is easy for journalists to default to in favour of what I hope is a more constructive stance. But it is a difficult balance to get right. It doesn't help that the profession isn't the most charitable of places. It's not an industry in which senior lawyers tend to find much constructive to say about rivals, and reader comments on legalweek.com can certainly tilt towards the downright cynical.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

July 14, 2010 | International Edition

The UK's top law firms have managed a major rebound in profitability this year despite the aftermath of the global recession handing the group its first collective fall in revenues in recent memory. Legal Week's 2009-10 results, the first comprehensive picture of the performance of the UK's top 50 law firms, shows revenues across the group fell by £461m, from £12.33bn in 2009 to £11.87bn.

By Alex Novarese

4 minute read

July 14, 2010 | International Edition

Challenging? Interesting, perhaps? Pick your recessionary euphemism. Actually, topsy-turvy seems to more accurately reflect the year of highs, lows and contradictions that 2009-10 proved to be. The UK top 50 hit its first absolute contraction in fee income since Legal Week began tracking its results, with total fees falling 4% from £12.3bn to £11.9bn after last year's exchange rate-assisted growth. Yet the group as a whole, having cut hundreds of millions of pounds from its cost base while trimming equity partner ranks, managed a considerable rebound in partner profits.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

July 08, 2010 | International Edition

With Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer's financial results today confirmed, some judgments can be made about how the UK's big four law firms have fared over the recession and the subsequent slump in commercial activity - a period roughly spanning 2008-09 and 2009-10. Unsurprisingly, the worst recession for at least 25 years had taken a considerable toll. In 2008, the group collectively billed £4.816bn, a figure that has now fallen to £4.567bn, meaning £249m has disappeared from the top line, including £132m at Clifford Chance (CC). All four firms have been through major partnership restructurings in the last four years and CC, Linkaters and Allen & Overy (A&O) in addition last year pushed through large-scale redundancies for junior lawyers and support staff.

By Alex Novarese

4 minute read

July 07, 2010 | International Edition

"Last year you told me law firms would be okay through the recession. I thought you were mad but maybe you had a point." So said a partner with a New York law firm recently, pointing out an offhand comment I apparently made. Whether it was right is debatable, but the quote is a measure of how rattled some lawyers were last year as the recession bore down on the profession - it's supposed to be the journalists dishing out the apocalyptic doom-mongering, not the industry veterans.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

June 29, 2010 | International Edition

In October 2008 Legal Week carried a story about a property deal by Halliwells that generated a substantial pay-out for the firm's equity partners. It seemed an unusual little story, but scarcely one of dramatic interest. In hindsight it was probably the single event that most directly led the high-profile Manchester firm to last week file a notice of its intention to appoint an administrator, effectively signalling a sale of its assets.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read