Alex Novarese

January 21, 2010 | International Edition

Women and law, eh? Same old, same old! Loads enter the profession but most fall off the career track of large City law firms by the time it comes to handing out partnership. By most estimates, more than half of the lawyers entering the profession are women, but a commercial law firm that manages to have a 20% female partnership is reckoned to be doing pretty well - over 40% and your managing partner becomes an automatic pundit on female empowerment.

By Alex Novarese

4 minute read

January 15, 2010 | International Edition

I don't know about you, but reviews of litigation procedure and costs just don't get my heart pumping like they used to. More than 10 years after the Woolf reforms largely failed to achieve the aims of faster dispute resolution and more proportionate costs (it did rather better on the access to justice front), it's hard to have much confidence in a solution for what ails civil litigation emanating from within the legal profession.

By Alex Novarese

4 minute read

January 13, 2010 | International Edition

Two pieces of research this week give as good an indication as any of the mood and fortunes of commercial law firms as they face up to 2010, somewhat anxiously but also thoroughly glad to be seeing the back of a brutal 2009. Those are our quarterly business confidence poll and figures from our M&A research provider, Mergermarket, on activity levels within the transactional practices that drive the UK's largest law firms.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

January 06, 2010 | International Edition

One thing you quickly learn from writing about business - the corporate world, much as it likes to pretend that commerce is a frightfully complicated but essentially scientific and logical process, actually does a lot of stuff because of fashion. Call it group-think, fad or collective adoption of dumb jargon - many trends happen in various industries largely because they become the received wisdom of the day. This thought occurred recently reading an article by The American Lawyer's Aric Press, which recounts a recent industry debate during which one frustrated general counsel threatened to "let those animals at some of our service providers". The animals in question are the procurement teams that large companies routinely roll out for various kinds of, well, procurement. But not law. As Aric recounts, even the suggestion in the debate led one law firm leader to ruefully respond: "Thank God I'm old."

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

February 05, 2009 | International Edition

I blame the recession. After writing what feels like that 35th consecutive piece on job cuts/pay freezes/the credit crunch, I've this week felt utterly bereft of inspiration to blog.CC's less-than-shocking partnership restructuring? What is there left to say? With my ability to punditise so lacking, I even toyed for a moment with writing about Chelsy Davy going toA&O . But apart from thinking that she's going to stick out like a sore, yet well-tanned, thumb amid the playground atmosphere of a City law firm's junior ranks (she should have gone to Farrers), I haven't got an opinion.

By Alex Novarese

2 minute read

July 22, 2011 | Law.com

The U.K.'s top law firms have endured turbulent market conditions to achieve their best growth performance since 2008, with the top 50 firms expanding their revenues by 3.6 percent over the last financial year. In addition, the group as a whole saw profits per equity partner rise by 4.4 percent.

By Alex Novarese

5 minute read

July 22, 2011 | Law.com

The U.K.'s top law firms have endured turbulent market conditions to achieve their best growth performance since 2008, with the top 50 firms expanding their revenues by 3.6 percent over the last financial year. In addition, the group as a whole saw profits per equity partner rise by 4.4 percent.

By Alex Novarese

5 minute read

August 04, 2009 | Law.com

Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz, two top banking partners recruited last year from White & Case, are to quit Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer less than 18 months after joining. Freshfields insiders said the decision was amicable and that Allen and Goetz were expected to look for a more entrepreneurial environment. The move, which ends weeks of speculation regarding the pair, marks a dramatic -- and swift -- end to one of the most high-profile lateral hires ever made in London.

By Alex Novarese

2 minute read

October 24, 2007 | Law.com

You can make a strong case to support the assertion of Peter Kurer, UBS' general counsel, that the legal services market is "dysfunctional." With partner profits having more than doubled over the last decade, it does seem evident that something is not right with the market, says Legal Week's Alex Novarese. Yet it seems hard to fathom why general counsel believe the primary fault lies with advisers. Ultimately, the responsibility to assert purchasing power is the client's, Novarese says.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

May 01, 2010 | Corporate Counsel

Top London firms get their clients? approval, but GCs want more flexibility on billing.

By Alex Novarese

2 minute read