Alex Novarese

June 29, 2011 | International Edition

I have not the slightest illusion that the Government cares what I think about legal aid. They largely didn't care what the profession had to say on the subject, judging by what has emerged from the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill. The reasons for pushing through the most draconian withdrawal of legal aid since its launch 60-odd years ago are two-fold: the state of the public finances and the high costs of our legal aid regime in comparison to other countries. The first is inarguable; the latter, far more open to debate given the difficulties of comparing our justice system to other jurisdictions and the propensity to imprison/relative criminality of the British, which underpins the size of criminal legal aid spending.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

June 22, 2011 | International Edition

For Addleshaw Goddard, its own reputation must now seem as much a burden as it was recently an asset. Indeed, judging from the problems that have hit the firm over the last two years, a cynic would wonder if there was something of a prize 'got without merit' in its image. The firm had two well-handled mergers behind it, a superb client base, plenty of good partners and a reputation for cohesion and tight management. With the exception of its sizeable real estate team, several years back the upwardly mobile and decisive firm seemed one of the best bets to buck the post-crunch gloom.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

June 15, 2011 | International Edition

Legal Week's in depth strand has been timely of late. While May's focus on libel and privacy coincided with sustained hysteria about injunctions, this month's international firms in London focus comes as Weil Gotshal & Manges pulls off arguably the most significant City raid yet inflicted on a leading UK law firm. If nothing else, the resignation of a four-partner funds team from Clifford Chance (CC) is evidence that a select band of US law firms is becoming a steadily more menacing threat to the City's finest.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

June 08, 2011 | International Edition

With the dust settling on the surprise merger talks between arch-rivals Clyde & Co and Barlow Lyde & Gilbert, the question is how likely a deal will be to happen. As Legal Week went to press, the odds looked maybe better than even, with talk that a proposal could be put to the firms' partnerships in a matter of weeks – most likely in July. The need to press on is understandable. If mergers are worth doing they get done quickly – at least once they have gone public. At the least, both firms will want to resolve the situation before the summer dead-zone starts.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

June 01, 2011 | International Edition

The legal profession is facing a period of unprecedented upheaval that will see clients push through radical changes at service providers and usher in new technology to hugely improve efficiency. Actually, I don't believe a word of that sentence, but you won't struggle to find such pronouncements made about the legal profession. In fact, you wouldn't have struggled at any time during the last 10 years, but a banking crisis, a deep recession and a wave of law firm restructurings gave a bit more weight to such predictions.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

May 27, 2011 | International Edition

Recording a podcast recently, one of my hosts, the media lawyer and writer David Allen Green, argued that City law is intellectually humdrum. The gist was that much commercial practice is vapid and repetitive and that City law is a club that sucks up the academically solid and socially acceptable but not those with independent intellects. This leaves more agile and questioning minds gravitating strongly towards mid-tier practice or the Bar.

By Alex Novarese

6 minute read

May 25, 2011 | International Edition

As we march into a secular age, society is getting oddly moralistic. Certainly, to judge from the extraordinary and sustained controversy over injunctions, the whole idea of the guy with a spotless past getting to throw the first rock is now dead and buried. And so the mounting storm over privacy law – far from being calmed by the long-awaited publication of the Neuberger report on Friday – rumbled on over the weekend, culminating on Monday, after yet another day of developments, court hearings and outpourings on Twitter, in an MP using Parliamentary privilege to flout a court order.

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

May 18, 2011 | International Edition

It has become a truism when looking at what ails a law firm, particularly one struggling to keep up with rivals, to argue that the solution is simple: be more ruthless. The logic is that if these sleepy firms could only kick the collective rear of their partnership – and kick out a fair chunk of underperformers – then the law firm would achieve its true greatness. Certainly, the 'don't spare the rod' school is frequently espoused by journalists, who then tend to moan when the suitably toughened firm starts firing staff (I'm sure historically Legal Week has been an offender on this regard – apologies).

By Alex Novarese

3 minute read

May 18, 2011 | International Edition

It is a mark of the media frenzy over privacy injunctions that the topic has continued to hog the headlines even while a related issue of arguably far more significance has played out: the dramatic escalation of the phone-hacking scandal. True, the issue has dogged News International for years but it was only last month that the company issued an apology and moved to compensate victims – a measure that came a week after two senior News of the World (NoW) journalists were arrested on suspicion of unlawfully intercepting voicemail messages.

By Alex Novarese

4 minute read

May 13, 2011 | International Edition

What better way to relax after a hard week's sweating over an extended focus on libel and privacy law than listening to The Guardian's editor give a lecture on libel reform? A minor streak of obsession with the topic had set in by the time I sat down in the lecture theatre at City University on Tuesday to hear from Alan Rusbridger. As you'd expect, he put the position for libel reform, freedom of speech and concern over privacy law somewhat better than most of the self-serving fluff the media has served up in recent weeks.

By Alex Novarese

8 minute read