Legal Week

April 15, 2009 | International Edition

There are fees and then, to judge by the UK administration of Lehman Brothers, there is something else entirely. Certainly, the six-month report from the bank's administrator, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), confirms what lawyers were saying last year: this will be one of the largest assignments in European legal history. With Linklaters earning £33.5m in the six-month period to mid-March, the City giant has billed nearly £1.3m a week on average. That almost certainly constitutes more than 5% of its global revenue during that period and well over 10% of London revenue. For a firm of Linklaters' diversification and global scale this is a startling amount to generate from a single mandate. Few though will doubt the firm earned its money given the complexity and scale of the insolvency, on which at various times Linklaters has had several hundred lawyers engaged.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

April 08, 2009 | International Edition

We reel in Norton Rose's Richard Sheen to discuss fishing, explosive near-misses and grumpy old men

By Legal Week

4 minute read

April 08, 2009 | International Edition

"My firm has offered me and my fellow trainees scheduled to begin in September 2009 a sum of money to defer for a year. I am anxious to begin my legal career and I'm not looking forward to a year of unrelated work."However, if I opt to reject the offer to defer, will the quality of training I receive suffer due to the reduced work levels at the firm during the downturn? I am also afraid that rejecting the deferral offer may harm my chances of being offered a NQ position down the line. Are these fears justified?"

By Legal Week

1 minute read

April 02, 2009 | International Edition

So Thursday (2 April) proved to be the day the phoney debate on City associate salaries finally ended. After all, you could have still made a case that a course of action wasn't entirely set when Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer led the market by announcing that it was to halt the associate track back on 9 February, holding assistant salaries at 2008 rates. But by the time Allen & Overy announced it was freezing salaries later that month, any genuine debate was over. That still left most of the City 'reviewing' their salaries. This week that 'process' finished with Clifford Chance following suit on Monday (30 March). When even Slaughter and May - perhaps the one firm that could conceivably have made a business case for bucking the trend - announced a freeze yesterday, the fat lady had not only sung but made it home and put her feet up.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

April 02, 2009 | International Edition

Slaughter and May has become the latest firm to freeze salaries in response to the difficult economic climate, it was announced today (2 April).Executive partner Graham White confirmed that Slaughters has opted to hold salaries across the firm at current levels as a result of its 2009 salary review. The decision, which could be reviewed again later this year, means lawyers will receive the same in 2009 as they did in 2008 despite having one year's more experience.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

April 01, 2009 | International Edition

For most people, the structures available under the Legal Services Act (LSA) still seem to be a distant development. However, from 31 March, 2009, under the new rules up to 25% of a firm's partners can now be non-lawyers. This marks the first phase of deregulation under the Act, potentially changing the landscape of the legal profession forever. Those that sit and wait for the introduction of alternative business structures in 2011-12 risk being left behind in the competition, irrespective of whether they are a multinational practice or a small partnership. So, firms with a truly strategic outlook now have an opportunity to gain a commercial advantage.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

April 01, 2009 | International Edition

Eversheds insurance and reinsurance group head David Webster has left the firm to join Reynolds Porter Chamberlain (RPC), it was announced today (1 April). Webster will join RPC's 36-partner insurance group later this month (14 April) after 13 years at Eversheds. He joined the national firm from Waltons & Morse in 1996 to set up and subsequently lead Eversheds' contentious and non-contentious insurance and reinsurance group across Europe. He specialises in reinsurance litigation and arbitration, professional indemnity and product liability disputes, and has acted in a number of disputes across the US, Australia, Canada, France, Italy and Greece.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

March 26, 2009 | International Edition

Glancing at our latest Big Question survey, it's clear that while the magic circle concept still excites controversy, no-one doubts the power of the brand. Views are understandably more mixed over whether the name reflects genuine superiority. Some respondents go as far as to accuse lazy journalists of forcing the tag on an unwilling profession (my favorite was the guy ranting about reptiles). Others put forward that most seductive of arguments for magic circle-bashers: clients don't instruct on the basis of it.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

March 24, 2009 | International Edition

For lovers of reviews of legal regulation, these are truly glorious days. With the Legal Services Board (LSB) today kicking off its review of the independence of the profession's regulatory bodies, we now have our sixth review of regulation either recently finished or ongoing (this doesn't include the barrage of consultations issued by the Bar Council and Bar Standards Board which are surely too much to ask even the most dedicated scribe to keep up with). Law Society.jpgWho would have thought the subject, widely ignored despite constant grumbling from most sections of the profession and public for years, would become so popular. And the Road to Damascus award for new-found enthusiasm for debating reform goes to the Law Society. This is a body that gave the issue such priority, it took more than five years to update its own code of conduct, and yet has been responsible for commissioning not one but two of the reviews (by Nicholas Smedley and Lord Hunt).

By Legal Week

3 minute read

March 23, 2009 | International Edition

Welcome to Legal Week's 2009 partner promotions round-up. Here you'll find all the latest news stories about partner promotions gathered in one place, as well as links to relevant blog entries and any other bits and pieces we think might be of interest.

By Legal Week

11 minute read