Georgina Stanley

June 27, 2013 | Legal Week

As new research reveals lawyers are finding their jobs more stressful than ever, Georgina Stanley asks whether law firms are doing enough to combat work-based anxiety and other mental health issues Statistics on mental illness speak for themselves. Every year, about one in four people in the UK will experience a mental health problem, with about 10% of the population suffering from depression and anxiety issues. Figures from Mind, a UK mental health charity, suggest that 8% of those suffering from mental health issues in any year will require specialist psychiatric help, while 2% will have problems so severe they require in-patient treatment.

By Georgina Stanley

5 minute read

June 20, 2013 | Legal Week

A lot has changed in the world in the 35 years since Travers Smith's outgoing senior partner Chris Carroll joined the firm in 1978. But as globalisation has driven many of the firm's most comparable City rivals through a series of international office launches and mergers, Travers has remained resolutely independent. Granted, with just over 60 partners and 250 lawyers, it is much bigger than it was when Carroll joined, when it numbered just 13 partners and employed just one female lawyer. Beyond these shifts in size, diversity and – of course – technology, much at Travers has remained the same. Even the firm's Snow Hill headquarters in Farringdon has moved just four doors down the road.

By Georgina Stanley

18 minute read

June 20, 2013 | International Edition

A lot has changed in the world in the 35 years since Travers Smith's outgoing senior partner Chris Carroll joined the firm in 1978. But as globalisation has driven many of the firm's most comparable City rivals through a series of international office launches and mergers, Travers has remained resolutely independent. Granted, with just over 60 partners and 250 lawyers, it is much bigger than it was when Carroll joined, when it numbered just 13 partners and employed just one female lawyer. Beyond these shifts in size, diversity and – of course – technology, much at Travers has remained the same. Even the firm's Snow Hill headquarters in Farringdon has moved just four doors down the road.

By Georgina Stanley

8 minute read

June 13, 2013 | International Edition

As market speculation around the potential tie-up between SJ Berwin and King & Wood Mallesons went strangely quiet this week, attention instead refocused very much closer to home. Well, 400 miles away from London, but still distinctly closer than Asia. The reason? Ashurst's decision to build a low-cost back office and legal support centre in Glasgow, which puts the job security of some 350 support staff in London under threat but, at the same time, promises to bring roughly 150 new jobs to Scotland within the next 12 months. And, given the recent upheaval in the Scottish legal market, some might say this second point is no bad thing.

By Georgina Stanley

2 minute read

June 13, 2013 | Legal Week

As market speculation around the potential tie-up between SJ Berwin and King & Wood Mallesons went strangely quiet this week, attention instead refocused very much closer to home. Well, 400 miles away from London, but still distinctly closer than Asia. The reason? Ashurst's decision to build a low-cost back office and legal support centre in Glasgow, which puts the job security of some 350 support staff in London under threat but, at the same time, promises to bring roughly 150 new jobs to Scotland within the next 12 months. And, given the recent upheaval in the Scottish legal market, some might say this second point is no bad thing.

By Georgina Stanley

5 minute read

June 06, 2013 | Legal Week

You know the outlook is bleak when even the most genial of law firm managers privately suggests they probably wouldn't encourage today's university students to pursue a career in the law. Or at least a career as a partner in a City law firm. Ever-more demanding clients and growing pressure on firms to maintain profits despite stagnating or even falling revenues means that, for most, the path from junior lawyer to the heady heights of partnership is long, and getting longer. And for the exclusive few who do make it there, the view from the top is decidedly more precarious than it used to be, with annual pruning now the norm rather than the exception.

By Georgina Stanley

5 minute read

June 06, 2013 | International Edition

You know the outlook is bleak when even the most genial of law firm managers privately suggests they probably wouldn't encourage today's university students to pursue a career in the law. Or at least a career as a partner in a City law firm. Ever-more demanding clients and growing pressure on firms to maintain profits despite stagnating or even falling revenues means that, for most, the path from junior lawyer to the heady heights of partnership is long, and getting longer. And for the exclusive few who do make it there, the view from the top is decidedly more precarious than it used to be, with annual pruning now the norm rather than the exception.

By Georgina Stanley

3 minute read

June 02, 2013 | Legal Week

Norton Rose Fulbright has confirmed its full management line-up, as the transatlantic merger between the two firms goes live, creating a global top 10 giant with combined revenues of around $2bn (£1.3bn). The union between legacy UK firm Norton Rose and Texas firm Fulbright & Jaworski, announced in November last year, has formed a firm with close to 3,800 lawyers, more than 750 of which are in the US.

By Georgina Stanley

3 minute read

June 02, 2013 | International Edition

Norton Rose Fulbright has confirmed its full management line-up, as the transatlantic merger between the two firms goes live, creating a global top 10 giant with combined revenues of around $2bn (£1.3bn). The union between legacy UK firm Norton Rose and Texas firm Fulbright & Jaworski, announced in November last year, has formed a firm with close to 3,800 lawyers, more than 750 of which are in the US.

By Georgina Stanley

1 minute read

May 30, 2013 | Legal Week

Sometimes law firms' efforts to boost female representation in the partnership can seem a little trite. We all know the statistics – more than half of new trainees are female and yet many City firms are struggling to get women to make up 20% of their partnerships, despite numerous initiatives in recent years to try to rectify the problem. And the higher up the chain you go the worse the problem inevitably becomes, meaning you don't even need all the fingers on one hand to count the number of female leaders of top 50 law firms. Mentoring, women's groups and flexible working are all now on offer to some degree at most firms in a bid to meet the challenge, with a few going further and introducing targets for the percentage of female partners they want or for women in management roles.

By Georgina Stanley

5 minute read