Filter This View

  • February 25, 2011 |

    Lateral hiring – totally disastrous (except when it's a roaring success)

    It's the most common tool law firms reach for to upgrade their practice - a fact underlined by a Legal Week article yesterday that showed that 2010 was the most active year yet for US law firms hiring partners in the UK. And, yet, there is surprisingly little research on the ups and downs of hiring shareholders into your business. Partly plugging that gap, the consultant Motive Legal this month produced research tracking the retention of partners hired in the UK over the last five years, covering 1,944 moves. While the results confirmed what many already suspected, it is nevertheless striking to see it in data form: 44% of those partners hired in 2005 were no longer with the firm that hired them by 2010. Even looking at the figures over a three-year timeframe, 30% had quit between 2007 and 2010.

    1 minute read

  • February 22, 2011 |

    Law firm bankruptcies - rescues gone wrong?

    The email from Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe chairman Ralph Baxter to newly-tapped Coudert Brothers chair Clyde Rankin on 12 February 2005 was short, friendly and direct: "Skip, congratulations on your election. I look forward to seeing you this week. Let's talk on Monday." The message, it turned out, wasn't just an electronic high-five from one firm leader to another. It was also the start of what evolved into talks between Baxter and Rankin about a possible merger of their firms. The email's inclusion in a lawsuit filed in December against Orrick by the administrator overseeing the bankrupt Coudert estate underscores where those talks led.

    1 minute read

  • February 16, 2011 |

    No more half measures: can Barlows' management prove the doubters wrong?

    "We're focusing on stability," says Barlow Lyde & Gilbert senior partner Simon Konsta. And who could query those sentiments? Despite having built a reputation as one of the City's top insurance and litigation firms, Barlows has had an unhappy recent history. The last 15 years have been marked by a series of strategic shifts, while over the last five years financial performance has increasingly lagged behind its peer group. Since 2007 the firm has made repeated efforts to update its management and reshape its practice, with Barlows moving to refocus its business around its insurance core. The result has been a series of partner departures and a firm still searching for the stability Konsta cites.

    1 minute read

  • February 16, 2011 |

    The executioner's song - getting on with turning Barlows around

    When we commit 4,000-plus words to the state of a single law firm - as in this week's analysis of Barlow Lyde & Gilbert - the subject tends to be going through a turbulent period, or at least major change. Given that it's our starting point when investigating such issues to provide the benefit of the doubt, this means that we will always go out of our way to see what successes there are to counter-balance the rather more obvious reverses.

    1 minute read

  • February 15, 2011 |

    Clydes hires Insurance Australia GC for corporate practice in Shanghai

    Clyde & Co has strengthened its corporate insurance practice in Shanghai with the hire of Insurance Australia group general counsel Michael Cripps. Cripps, who will join Clydes' Shanghai office at the end of February as a partner, has been brought in with a remit to develop and grow Clydes' corporate insurance practice in China. He becomes the third corporate insurance partner in Shanghai and the eighteenth in the practice globally.

    1 minute read

  • January 31, 2011 |

    Dealmaker: Ben Knowles

    Clyde & Co's Ben Knowles on battling Goliath (more than once) and his ability to work the wrong room...

    1 minute read

  • January 26, 2011 |

    Clydes LLPs show rising pay for top earner

    Clyde & Co saw the average number of members in its limited liability partnership (LLP) increase from 112 to 126 during the last financial year, with the highest-paid member taking home £885,250. Clydes' LLP accounts for 2009-10 show the top earner received nearly 5% more than the firm's highest earner the previous year, who took home £845,467.

    1 minute read

  • December 8, 2010 |

    Reed Smith loses London transport finance team to Watson Farley

    Watson Farley & Williams has boosted its London asset finance practice with the hire of a team of transportation finance lawyers from Reed Smith. Reed Smith finance partners Rex Rosales and Siva Subramaniam are due to join Watson Farley's London office next Monday (13 December) accompanied by three associates. The departures leave Reed Smith without a UK transport finance team.

    1 minute read

  • December 7, 2010 |

    Law Firm of the Year

    Neville Eisenberg, longstanding managing partner of Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), was on hand to collect the Law Firm of the Year Award, which was decided by the judging panel on the night. BLP beat strong competition from the other contenders. It won the judges' approval for the transformative journey it has been on under Eisenberg's watch. Since its creation via the merger of Berwin Leighton and Paisner & Co in 2001, BLP has been the definition of the innovative, upwardly-mobile City law firm.

    1 minute read

  • December 7, 2010 |

    Clydes hires Minter Ellison partner to head up China construction team

    Clyde & Co has hired Minter Ellison construction partner Ian Cocking to take up a newly-created role as China construction head. Cocking will join Clydes' Hong Kong office early next year from the local arm of Minters. He specialises in major construction projects including project documentation and commercial contracts, advice on contractual issues and dispute management and resolution.

    1 minute read