In research from The Lawyer ’s sister brand Econsultancy, marketing, digital and communications professionals from the legal sector give their insight into firms’ current activity and priorities, current key trends, and the challenges they face to following best practice. This research, conducted by Econsultancy in association with The Lawyer, is focused on digital marketing in […]
If you work in-house, are you frustrated by the uninspiring service or lack of innovation your external legal services providers offer you, but do you lack the desire to kick them where it hurts? Controversial? At least one of the UK’s senior in-house lawyers believes this is the reality. “We lack imagination, creative zeal and […]
From boutiques to global behemoths, entries to this year’s Business Leadership Awards are as diverse as they are high in their excellence. Last week around a dozen of the UK’s leading in-house lawyers spent some of their day debating the merits or otherwise of the entries for this year’s Business Leadership awards. It was quite […]
This week’s top briefings writers from TheLawyer.com are drawn from the intellectual property arena. Read on for details on the new IP Act 2014, whether Pharrell Williams has been misjudged and dealing with the rush of applications to trademark ‘Je suis Charlie’ Paul Herbert (partner), Goodman Derrick – ‘Intellectual Property Act 2014: a summary of the […]
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has joined the small but growing number of firms appointing legal project managers to take control of client work and fee allocation. The firm hired one project manager to its disputes practice in London in May and now plans to roll out the programme across all sectors and a number of […]
Latin America is an area of immense interest for investors, especially from the US, and this is translating into work for lawyers. Q: What are the main trends that you have noticed in your local legal market in the past 12 months? Edmond Grieger, managing partner, Von Wobeser y Sierra, Mexico: The main trends we are […]
Former winners of The Lawyer Awards and this year’s shortlisted teams and in-house counsel gathered last week for our first ‘Best in Class’ event, a networking and best practice exchange session ahead of tomorrow’s awards ceremony. During the Best in Class keynote session hosted by The Lawyer editor Catrin Griffiths, some of the awards’ judges […]
It’s not true that the legal industry is behind the times – in fact, innovation has always been a big part of what makes law such a satisfying profession. Our profession abounds with popular – if often misleading – narratives. One is that the legal industry is slow to change. I disagree: the pace of […]
Move of the week Fox Williams has appointed former Eversheds partner Audrey Williams to its employment practice in London. Williams joined Eversheds in 1989 after training at legacy Lovells. She advises on diversity and discrimination, and also tackles strategic boardroom issues. As well as working with major international corporates, she advises government departments on employment […]
When she was featured in the Hot 100 in 2013, Slaughter and May’s Sara Luder was preoccupied with defending Nationwide from HMRC in a tax litigation case – an unusual piece of contentious work for the firm’s tax practice head. “My practice has now reverted to a high proportion of non-contentious work and there has […]
Professional indemnity insurance does not cover parties for all eventualities. The solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) market has been subject to rampant uncertainty since the final stages of the review of arrangements were implemented in 2013. Further attempts to stabilise the market by the SRA have been widely criticised and reliance on unrated insurers is […]
Mind Candy, the creator of children’s online gaming phenomenon Moshi Monsters, isn’t just fun and games, says general counsel Jenifer Swallow. It’s hard to imagine any legal work getting done when walking around Mind Candy’s headquarters in Shoreditch, where plush toys and beanbags, log cabin-shaped meeting rooms and a helter-skelter slide coexist with engineers, consumer […]