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  • 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

  • November 5, 2008 |

    Macfarlanes takes lead on CompAir sale

    Pinsent Masons and Macfarlanes have bagged lead roles on CompAir's £197.5m sale to industrial manufacturer Gardner Denver. The deal saw Macfarlanes instructed for regular client Alchemy Partners, as the majority shareholder in air and gas compressor business (CompAir). The City firm fielded a team led by corporate partner Ian Martin, and including partners Paul Davies, Marc Israel and Elizabeth Sherwood.Meanwhile, Pinsents was brought in to advise CompAir's management with a team led by technology head Andrew Hornigold, assisted by corporate associate James Willmott.

    1 minute read

  • November 5, 2008 |

    Why Heller died

    When Heller Ehrman partners gathered at Santa Barbara, California's Bacara Resort & Spa in March 2007, there was already reason to be concerned about the firm's future. Several practice areas were slow. The firm's national and global ambitions were in disarray. And partners were increasingly skeptical about management's ability to address the problems. But that weekend they were determined to laugh at this worrisome predicament. The final night of the retreat featured a $300,000 (£186,000) skit. Performers from the Los Angeles Opera, accompanied by a professional orchestra, portrayed chairman Matthew Larrabee (pictured) and other firm leaders frantically searching for a merger partner. "Some people were laughing, but I thought it was surreal," says one former partner.

    1 minute read

  • November 3, 2008 |

    Bakers in top-level management revamp

    Baker & McKenzie has revamped its executive committee, electing Dallas-based corporate partner Alan Harvey and Tokyo managing partner Jeremy Pitts to the board. Harvey and Pitts replace partners David Hackett in Chicago and David Jacobs in Sydney respectively on the firmwide committee, after the pair come to the end of their three-year terms.The news comes as Bakers also announces two new regional management positions, with San Francisco and Palo Alto managing partner Peter Engstrom appointed as the firm's managing partner for North America.

    1 minute read

  • October 31, 2008 |

    Bakers set for Abu Dhabi office launch

    Baker & McKenzie is set to open its third office in the Gulf with the launch of an Abu Dhabi arm later this year. The new office will mark the firm's 69th base worldwide, and will specialise in banking and finance, corporate and M&A, private equity, securities, capital markets, projects arbitration and real estate.Former Prague managing partner Boris Dackiw will head up the office, leading a team of 50 lawyers. He will also become managing partner of the Gulf region.

    1 minute read