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International Edition

Commercial Bar: Silver is the new gold

"Commercial barristers are struggling," said an article ('The Bar Barometer') in the pages of Legal Week in December 2006, offering analysis of the future prospects for leading chambers and supported by tales of woe from several leading commercial sets.
8 minute read

International Edition

Commercial Bar: No 'I' in team

The line between the work of barristers and solicitors is becoming increasingly blurred as both professions undergo simultaneous transformations. For those practising independently at the Bar, these changes undoubtedly affect working styles, as well as the nature of their relationship with solicitors.
6 minute read

International Edition

Management: Tact is the best form of defence

Many years ago, I received the sort of phone call that any public relations adviser dreads - a solicitor client had been accused of assaulting a woman at his Belgravia offices and the press were all over the story. Allen Chubb, then senior partner at a firm called Child & Child, had apparently rugby-tackled Laura Harold, the wife of a wealthy property developer, following a dispute in which he refused to hand over the deeds of her home before an outstanding bill was settled. Chubb was ultimately convicted of falsely imprisoning and causing actual bodily harm to Harold and faced a three-month suspension by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The tale, unsurprisingly, resulted in reams of salacious media coverage - and that was in 1996.
6 minute read

International Edition

Management: Year-end relief

We are rapidly approaching the end of the tax year and, soon thereafter, Gordon Brown's 10th anniversary as Chancellor. Political speculation suggests he will not be in his current post for much longer, but his elevation and a move along the street are unlikely to presage a change in the Government's tax policy.
8 minute read

International Edition

Editor's comment: Brand Values

Before you can retain them, you have to attract them... A derivatives partner conceded recently that his department's efforts to retain young lawyers were focused mainly on keeping them on for a mere six months after they had become useful, such was the current demand for talented young lawyers from the investment banks.
3 minute read

International Edition

Tony Angel: Leading from the middle

Running a global law firm requires leadership and management; and they are not the same thing. Leadership is about providing vision, direction, motivation, energy and enthusiasm. Management is about providing systems, structures, metrics, rewards and controls. The problem is that most lawyers see leadership as good and management as bad. Yet both are essential and the real trick for a managing partner is to marry the two in a way that best achieves his three essential tasks:
5 minute read

International Edition

Management: Peak performance

Virtually every law firm in the country will have partners who could do better and contribute more to the firm. In many firms, a lack of a formal appraisal procedure means that their fellow partners are failing to take them to task. This can result in an established culture of underperformance within the firm, leading in some cases to complacency and poor profitability.
6 minute read

International Edition

Management and IT: The right resource

The holiday season is still a distant prospect but for law firms the New Year means the rapid approach of Easter and the long summer break. Juggling staff levels with client demand and natural peaks and troughs in activity is essential to ensure a firm's workflow does not slip into 'go-slow' in the summer. Yet how can the law, a people-centred business, balance ever-fluctuating resource planning needs with a trading environment which encourages firms to constantly drive down overheads?
7 minute read

International Edition

Management and IT: A lesson in retention

Knowledge and experience management is one of the top four most important strategic challenges faced by the UK's leading law firms, according to research conducted by Thomson Elite. Following a recent survey of the UK's 125 largest firms, 73% of those surveyed rated it as either a 'very important' or an 'important' issue.
7 minute read

International Edition

Management: Bedrock principles

Twenty years ago, partnership was the pre-eminent form of governance in most major professional sectors. In the 1980s, it began to decline in sectors such as accounting, consulting and investment banking to the extent that almost 50 of the top 100 accounting firms are now organised as privately-held or publicly-quoted corporations. So far, law firms have been slow to follow their lead, but in the UK the new Legal Services Bill brings with it the possibility of change.
7 minute read

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