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  • January 15, 2009 |

    Cadwalader's Link to head up firm's City recovery

    Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft has parachuted in Bob Link to head up the London office after the firm was rocked by a seven-partner walkout yesterday (14 January). Firm chairman Christopher White and Link (pictured) flew to London yesterday in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the seven partners to stay.

    1 minute read

  • January 14, 2009 |

    A guiding light in corporate social responsibility

    Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming an increasingly serious business at UK law firms. Ad hoc sprees of well-intentioned do-gooding are out, replaced by projects carefully designed to make use of lawyers' skills. The London arm of Weil Gotshal & Manges, for example, assists human rights organisations monitor proceedings in the international criminal court in The Hague. Wragge & Co, meanwhile, gives free legal advice to local charities. And Weightmans runs a project providing work experience for the unemployed.All of this looks impressive on paper, but how does the modern CSR programme work in practice?

    1 minute read

  • January 13, 2009 |

    Jones Day seals Lat-Am launch with Mexico merger

    Jones Day is set to launch its first office in Latin America with a merger with its referral partner in Mexico City. The firm is set to consolidate 20 years of referral work with De Ovando & Martinez del Campo with a full merger, which will gift the firm its 31st branch worldwide. The combined office will focus on M&A, banking and finance and transactions along with real estate and capital markets work.

    1 minute read

  • January 12, 2009 |

    Taylor Wessing secures triple hire in Paris

    Taylor Wessing has bolstered its Paris arm after recent losses in the French capital with the hire of two new partners and a senior associate. The firm has moved to shore up the office with the hire of Simon Christiaen and Evelyne Friedel as partners. Christiaen joins from Landwell, where he was a partner, while Friedel arrives from Jones Day, where she was a counsel. Senior associate Valerie Aumage has joined from Field Fisher Waterhouse in Paris.Christiaen is an intellectual and industrial property lawyer with a particular focus on patent law related issues. Friedel focuses on economic and commercial law and is also a competition litigator.

    1 minute read

  • January 6, 2009 |

    Nabarro seals high-profile Dechert partner hire

    Nabarro has sealed its first major lateral hire of the year, bringing in the head of Dechert's real estate and finance group, Ciaran Carvalho. Carvalho is expected to join Nabarro's London real estate practice later this month after more than 20 years with Dechert. He has held various management positions at the US firm and currently serves as a member of the London management board and as one of 13 partners on Dechert's global policy committee - the body responsible for strategy decisions at the firm.

    1 minute read

  • December 17, 2008 |

    Jones Day reveals 40 new partner promotions

    Jones Day has unveiled a bumper round of partnership promotions with 40 new partners added worldwide, including four in London. The new partners in the City are Edwin Borrini in banking and finance, Paul Bromfield in business restructuring and reorganisation, Alistair Grant private equity and Julian Runnicles in M&A. The new appointments bring the firm's total partner numbers in London up to 53 after a number of lateral hires over the year, including Peter Baldwin from Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft and Michael and Stephen Brown from Mayer Brown.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    ...Legal Week Lunchbox: 11/12/08...

    The five most popular articles on legalweek.com today; the pick of the day's posts; and more

    1 minute read

  • November 19, 2008 |

    Redundancy consultations start as Nabarro feels the economic pinch

    Nabarro has become the latest firm to feel the effects of the downturn, with the firm this week launching a redundancy consultation with 13 fee earners and nine business support staff. The consultancy started on Monday (17 November) and will last for one month, with the resulting cuts expected to be made across a number of practice in the firm's Sheffield and London offices.

    1 minute read

  • November 19, 2008 |

    A landscape that's changed forever

    The mantra of responsible investors is diversify. Don't be too heavily committed to one sector or one type of investment. A balanced portfolio is the key to success. In the good times, you won't get the spectacular results but in the bad times you'll avoid painful losses.But many of the top US law firms have ignored - even flouted - that rule. Few firms are as focused on one sector as the big Wall Street law firms are on financial institutions. In past downturns, no one questioned that the premier firms would fare just fine. They were too prestigious, too wealthy, too strong. But this downturn, everyone agrees, is different. This time, should the big New York law firms be worried?

    1 minute read

  • November 19, 2008 |

    Bigger isn't better

    The rise of large, high-quality, global corporate law departments started more than 20 years ago. It was aimed, in part, at breaking up the monopolies that law firms had with corporations. Using a range of initiatives from requests for proposals to auctions, in-house counsel sought to end these cosy relationships and introduce a measure of competition into the law firm-client dynamic. The mantra of 'lawyers, not law firms' was uttered so often that it became a cliche.Because of these pressures - among others - law firms increasingly focused on becoming more effective business organisations. Some followed globalising clients and looked to provide cross-speciality, cross-border service, either through acquisitions or organic growth, or both.

    1 minute read