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  • December 11, 2008 |

    Law firm of the year

    This award is always one of the most hotly contested, and 2008 proved to be no exception.Ashurst has continued to invest heavily in its international network, doubling its headcount in Dubai, opening an office in Abu Dhabi and recruiting shrewdly in Tokyo and Singapore. A Hong Kong office is planned for 2009. With a focus as well on identifying new areas of demand for legal expertise, Ashurst is showing the initiative required to succeed in turbulent conditions, the judges said.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Spain: Versatile movers

    The credit crunch that is walloping the rest of Europe has not spared Spain. The Spanish real estate market began slumping in early 2007, and all but collapsed last year. Stringent regulation by Spain's central bank saved banks from exposure to toxic mortgage-backed securities, but financial turmoil elsewhere in the world has depressed lending in Spain, and credit has become extremely tight.Nevertheless, the lawyers at Spain's independent law firms are busy because, notably, they've been able to redeploy themselves from one practice area to another. All of the lawyers who commented to Legal Week's Independent Law Firms in Europe supplement about what effect the financial crisis is having on their practices in Spain hit an upbeat note. All but one said that the shuffling of lawyers from practice area to practice area was a key to their success during hard times.

    1 minute read

  • December 10, 2008 |

    Sweden: Swede success

    Stockholm's legal market has long been dominated by the major Swedish firms, such as Mannheimer Swartling and Vinge, and international firms including Linklaters, White & Case, DLA Piper (DLA Nordic), Baker & McKenzie and Eversheds. However, three years ago top Finnish firm Roschier launched a Stockholm office, while in September its Helsinki-based rival Hannes Snellman announced it was planning to do the same.Hannes Snellman's imminent launch in the Swedish capital has been met with much interest, not least because the firm's entry comes with five big-name lateral hires. New office head Fredrik von Baumgarten, an M&A specialist, arrives from Vinge, one of Sweden's top firms, while capital markets partners Soeren Lindstroem, Richard Aakerman and Jan Jensen have been recruited from 150-lawyer Swedish firm Setterwalls. Linklaters' Stockholm head of litigation Martin Wallin, who had initially announced he was going to join Setterwalls, has been persuaded to follow them.

    1 minute read

  • December 3, 2008 |

    Eye of the storm

    For lawyers working in banking, the bad news just keeps coming. Ever since the credit crunch gripped the financial services sector in August 2007 it has been a worrying time for anyone in finance, but there is now no doubt that the dramatic escalation of the crisis facing the industry, thanks to the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, has raised the stakes considerably.Before Lehman, lawyers, particularly those working in the central legal teams, were seen as being among the least vulnerable staff in banking. Sure there were widespread claims that lawyers working in badly-hit transactional departments and legally-trained staff working on document management had been hit. But the general consensus was that, in an environment in which regulation, compliance and litigation had become greater issues, in-house legal teams were viewed as some of the most secure jobs.

    1 minute read

  • November 26, 2008 |

    Managing a law firm: Going it alone

    My decision to start my own firm came while I was at Baker & McKenzie. I enjoyed my time there - and at HM Revenue and Customs where I was before that - meeting great people who have been influential in my career. I learnt how to operate in a commercial environment and also the need to focus on the overriding objectives of client service and profitability. I then went into partnership with a small firm for a year. For various reasons, the move was a total disaster. Leaving and branching out on my own was the most difficult decision I have taken in my career.I have often felt lawyers are risk-adverse and non-entrepreneurial. In 2002 I completed an MBA, which gave me an insight into effective commercial structures and how to identify and develop niche markets. I realised that the mentality of our profession, and the conventional structure of law firms, often discourages entrepreneurialism. Decision making in firms can be slow and inflexible. I was keen to avoid this.

    1 minute read

  • November 19, 2008 |

    Ashurst and Eversheds make Mid East postings as flight to region continues

    The flight of lawyers to the Middle East shows no sign of abating even as the region starts to feel the impact of the global economic crisis and the falling price of oil. Top 10 UK law firms Eversheds and Ashurst are the latest to post additional lawyers to the region, with Ashurst installing a local head of real estate in Abu Dhabi and Eversheds set to relocate a partner to Doha next year.

    1 minute read

  • November 10, 2008 |

    Cads and Shearman shrink as US firms' growth slows

    Staff growth at America's largest law firms slowed in 2008, according to new research, with a host of major firms contracting in the face of the ailing economy. The National Law Journal's 250 survey, a closely-watched annual snapshot of staffing at the US's largest law firms, shows the group added 4.3% more lawyers over the last 12 months, down on the 5.6% growth in 2007.The 2007 gains represented the largest increase in lawyer numbers since 2001, when numbers ballooned by 8.2%. In 2006, law firm growth was 4%, while in 2005, it was 4.4%.DLA Piper held its position at the top of the list, with a total of 3,785 lawyers. It grew by 4.5% in 2008.

    1 minute read

  • November 6, 2008 |

    Stars at the Bar: Future stars at the Bar

    Who are the Inns of Court A-listers of the future? Dominic Carman meets 10 up-and-coming young barristers who are being tipped for the top

    1 minute read

  • November 5, 2008 |

    Analysis: Pulling it together

    DLA Piper has always been a firm in a hurry. In the mid-1980s Nigel Knowles, now co-chief executive of the firm, was busy earning his management stripes running Dibb Lupton Broomhead's office in Doncaster.Since then, Knowles - who became managing partner of the firm in 1996 - has been gambling DLA Piper's future on an unrelenting diet of growth and international expansion. First, a merger with Alsop Wilkinson (the firm that put the 'A' in DLA) delivered greater critical mass in London. Then came expansion in Europe, first through an alliance with local practices and later by opening DLA's own offices.

    1 minute read

  • November 5, 2008 |

    Freshfields, Ashurst take flight on Lufthansa's €400m BMI bid

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Ashurst have landed lead roles in Lufthansa's bid to take a controlling stake in UK airline BMI, in a deal valued at a reported €400m (£314m).Freshfields won an instruction from the German national airline, which announced last week that it is to take a further 50% stake in BMI. London-based corporate partner Sundeep Kapila led the team for the magic circle firm.The firm has advised Lufthansa regularly in the past, including on the establishment of a freight airline with DHL Express in 2007.

    1 minute read