From the King & Wood Mallesons collapse to the DLA Piper cyberattack, the last 12 months have provided a steady stream of headline-making incidents in the world of law. Here, we look back at some of the most popular articles on legalweek.com over the year.

  • January

One story dominated the headlines in January this year – the long-anticipated collapse of King & Wood Mallesons' (KWM) European arm.

Elsewhere, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer put 180 London secretaries on notice of redundancy in a move that would be mirrored across the market later in the year, while CMS, Nabarro and Olswang kicked off a support staff redundancy consultation ahead of their three-way merger in May.

  • February

As the fallout from KWM Europe's collapse continued, Legal Week revealed details of the firm's European partners repeatedly rejecting attempts to recapitalise the business in the years before its collapse.

Slaughter and May made its first-ever lateral hire in London with the recruitment of HSF pensions partner Daniel Schaffer, while Freshfields benefitted from the instability at Ashurst with the hire of a five-partner private equity team in Paris. Meanwhile, details of CC's use of its 'superpoint' tier emerged as the firm began to crack down on individual office performance.

  • March

This month saw Legal Week break the news that Freshfields was shedding its City aviation finance team as part of a more far-reaching shakeup of its finance practice. It also saw the start of a worrying new trend for law firms as Deutsche Bank said it would no longer pay for trainees and NQ lawyers after its latest panel process – a move which partners described as "shortsighted and foolish" and in-house lawyers said was "a poor move".

Meanwhile, to celebrate International Women's Day we ran a series of articles about the problems facing female lawyers and the difficulties firms have in retaining them. These ranged from a feature on how female practice heads made it to the top, to opinion pieces from Berwin Leighton Paisner's (BLP) Lisa Mayhew and Hogan Lovells' Ruth Grant.

Elsewhere, Slaughters demonstrated its continued investment in the hot fintech market, selecting five such companies to receive free legal advice, while KWM's pared-down Europe and Middle East practice – dubbed KWM 2.0 – set out its ambitions to rebuild.

  • April

As details of Freshfields' finance restructuring came to light, news of a similar process at Linklaters emerged, with partner exits coming amid a profitability push. The firm also scrapped individual partner targets under a new approach by senior partner Charlie Jacobs (pictured) and managing partner Gideon Moore intended to emphasise teamwork.

Chris Johnson also took an in-depth look at Hogan Lovells, analysing how the firm has fared in the seven years since the transatlantic merger of Hogan & Hartson and Lovells.

The move of the month saw White & Case dealmaker Richard Youle leave with fellow private equity partner Katja Butler to join Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom. Youle and his former partner-in-crime Ian Bagshaw discussed their split with Legal Week after many years as one of the City's best-known corporate double acts.

EY's legal chiefs spoke out about the continued push of the Big Four into law, while CC overhauled its lockstep once more, prompting confusion among some partners.

This month we also published our annual analysis of the limited liability accounts of the UK top 50, in association with Smith & Williamson, highlighting everything from the firms with the most debt to those with the highest staff costs.

  • June

The most-read story of the year – and one of the most-read stories ever published on legalweek.com – was the cyberattack that hit DLA Piper in late June, knocking out phones and computer systems across the firm.

As the firm worked with the FBI and NCA to get back online, Legal Week and The American Lawyer analysed the implications of the attack, looking at the security considerations and the key issues for law firm management.

Lawyers also played their part in one of the biggest national news stories of the month - the Grenfell Tower fire, with firms rallying to offer fundraising support and provide pro bono services to the victims of the disaster.

Bond Dickinson secured a merger with US alliance partner Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, and two analysis pieces struck a chord with our readers – one, by former Ropes & Gray COO Hugh Simons, which looked at the ever-expanding pay gap between elite US and UK firms, and another which revealed that female partner promotions at top UK firms were actually falling, despite firms' best intentions.

  • July

July brought more news of 2016-17 financial results for some of the UK's biggest firms, with a marked contrast at two of the magic circle – Allen & Overy (A&O) and Freshfields.

A&O posted double-digit growth across all key metrics, with profit per equity partner (PEP) rising to record levels, while at Freshfields, revenue remained flat after what the firm described as "a challenging year".

Freshfields' results had an immediate knock-on impact, with co-managing partner Chris Pugh stepping down after little more than 18 months in the role. James Booth gauged market reaction to the news, with one ex-partner describing Pugh as "the fall guy" for the results, while Chris Johnson took a closer look at the factors behind the firm's disappointing performance.

Meanwhile, White & Case was fined a record £250,000 by the SDT for failings around confidentiality and conflicts of interest, and it was not the only firm under regulatory scrutiny, with CC investigated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority over its controversial role in the long-running Excalibur case.

The month also saw Dentons continue its relentless global expansion via a tie-up with Scotland's Maclay Murray & Spens, while there was also a legal angle to one of the biggest mainstream media stories of the month – the revelations about the gender gap among the BBC's best-paid stars – with the broadcaster's annual report also shedding light on the earnings of the corporation's top lawyers.

  • Stars-at-the-Bar-2017_composite-1August

August's most-read article on legalweek.com was a ranking of the UK's most active deal lawyers in the first half of the year, with White & Case private equity co-head Ian Bagshaw coming out top.

Our annual Stars at the Bar feature, meanwhile, identified 12 of the best up-and-coming junior commercial barristers based on interviews with 200 solicitors, barristers, QCs and senior clerks. This year's stars offered their take on the future of the judiciary and the impact of Brexit on the Bar.

Another of the month's biggest stories centred around a dispute involving Barclays, with court documents revealing that Linklaters refused to represent the bank in connection with a controversial $3bn loan from Qatar at the height of the 2008 financial crisis.

And Chris Johnson's analysis of how GlaxoSmithKline got tough on fixed fees also proved popular with readers, with the company revealing that its outside counsel now work "almost exclusively" for flat fees.

  • September

Our analysis of this year's UK top 50 rankings dominated September's most-read list, with our lead article supplemented by a look at the winners and losers over the last five years and the firms which now have lower PEP than they did five years ago.

The Global 100 rankings, which we compile in conjunction with our parent company ALM, also shed light on the challenging financial conditions facing the world's largest law firms, with the 100-strong group seeing average PEP fall for the first time in seven years.

These challenges were reflected in a few of the biggest news stories of the month, with Pinsent Masons and Hogan Lovells both announcing major support cuts, while another, Ropes, came under the spotlight following a series of partner exits, with Rose Walker's news analysis uncovering evidence of frustration over "opaque" management.

  • October

The Ropes fallout continued into October with the news that associates at the US firm were being offered retention bonuses of up to $50,000 to prevent further exits.

And as the Harvey Weinstein scandal set in motion a series of sexual harassment revelations across a variety of industries, Legal Week surveyed lawyers on their experiences, finding that nearly two thirds of female lawyers have experienced some form of sexual harassment at work.

A&O was drawn into the scandal after it emerged that the firm had advised entertainment company Miramax in relation to claims made against Weinstein almost 20 years ago, and Legal Week editor Georgina Stanley argued that this is an issue that law firms need to be more open about.

October also saw news of another proposed transatlantic tie-up, with BLP confirming merger talks with Bryan Cave, while the month's other most-read articles included a new perspective on law firm profitability by Chris Johnson, and the intriguing tale of a former Linklaters partner who ended up at BLP after an announced move to Latham & Watkins fell through.

  • November

News of another surprise partner move made waves in November, with DLA Piper international senior partner and global co-chair Juan Picon quitting the firm to join Latham. Partners offered their take on what his departure would mean for DLA, while James Booth took a look at the management questions facing the firm.

Another big story saw Freshfields announce a major shake-up of its lockstep, introducing a new single ladder that will enable top performers to make six times more than those at the bottom. Partners described the move as "a big call", while Georgina Stanley questioned whether the shake-up would go far enough to keep hold of up-and-coming talent.

The month's most-read story, however, was news of the first wave of Linklaters associates taking up 40-hour per week contracts on reduced pay – a move likely to be closely watched by the magic circle firm's competitors.

  • December

December kicked off with news of the winner's of this year's British Legal Awards, with Fieldfisher taking home the coveted Law Firm of the Year prize.

And after the Equality and Human Rights Commission warned all five magic circle firms that it could take legal action if they fail to take action to tackle sexual harassment in the workplace, Legal Week published anonymous accounts of the experiences of a number of female lawyers.

The long-running Excalibur saga came to a head this month with CC's £50,000 SDT fine for its role in the controversial case, while the year ended with yet another big-name partner move – Freshfields private equity star David Higgins' $10m departure for Kirkland & Ellis;  a move one partner said left "a bad taste" after the magic circle firm's recent lockstep reform.