Beyond the Bubble: Clarion’s world takeover
Clarion is making significant strides in the international legal market – despite having only one office and belonging to no formal network.
Alex Taylor
Alex is The Lawyer’s international editor. He joined in 2017 as a reporter covering litigation and the Bar, leaving in 2019 and returning in 2021.
Linklaters team defects in Stockholm
A seven-lawyer real estate team led by one of Linklaters’ longest-serving partners in Stockholm has left the firm to join a local player. Longstanding real estate partner Magnus Lidman retired from the Linklaters partnership earlier this year, but has re-emerged as the star name among this group leaving to join Sweden’s Gernandt & Danielsson (G&D). […]
TV show triggers partner dismissal and internal review at Euro 100 firm
Danish firm Horten is undertaking a thorough internal review following the release of a TV documentary series that engulfed the firm in scandal and resulted in the dismissal of a key partner. The firm published a statement last week saying that insolvency partner Nicolai Dyhr had left the firm with immediate effect and that it […]
Phone vs Whatsapp: UK200 firm assesses lawyer-client communication
Junior lawyers at regional outfit Howes Percival are being encouraged to adopt a greater range of communication methods with clients, as firms seek to address generational differences between associates and partners. The firm, with locations across Cambridge, Leicester, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Northampton, Norwich and Oxford, said it is responding to changing behaviours in both clients and associates. It is encouraging its […]
The Passport: Latham’s City office is steaming ahead of Germany
Welcome to The Passport, your regular round-up of the most important stories to come from the European legal market. In this edition we compare and contrast Latham’s City performance and how it’s faring in Germany; and why A&O Shearman associates in Central and Eastern Europe might be better off looking for partnership elsewhere. Latham’s German […]
De Brauw faces further challenge over Royal Imtech claim
Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek is hoping that the latest claim it faces from the trustees of a bankrupt engineering client will be its last, as a dispute between the pair continues to run after almost a decade. De Brauw’s annual report showed that a Rotterdam court had permitted an appeal to a decision […]
De Brauw’s investment costs hit €19.3m after office kit-out
Dutch firm De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek grew by 9 per cent in the 2023 financial year, recording a record revenue of €192.7m (£164m). The result sees it fall desperately short of double-digit growth from the previous year’s €176.8m (£150.5m). The firm saw a series of significant outlays to its cash position over the course of […]
Willkie’s beginning to look a lot like Latham
Latham’s loss of four partners in Germany provides a case study in how past relationships govern moves of the future. Willkie Farr and White & Case have poached a pair of partners each from Latham’s Hamburg and Frankfurt offices: restructuring and insolvency duo Jörn Kowalewski and Ulrich Klockenbrink are heading to Willkie Farr, while equity […]
No one should write off a challenger brand
Danish firm Accura posted its financials last week and in doing so two significant milestones were passed. Firstly, Accura posted a psychologically important 10-digit revenue figure in Danish Kroner for the first time to slightly above 1bn kr (£114.5m) (2022: 863.8m kr (£98.9m)). Secondly, for the first time in Danish legal history all five major […]
Eversheds set to close Berlin office
Eversheds Sutherland is set to close in Berlin after a thorough review of its German business. Berlin is a relatively small office for Eversheds, housing 14 lawyers and business services staff in total. Of those, two are partners in Carsten Brüninghaus (tax) and Christian Hilpert (restructuring, and banking and finance). Hilpert is not a full-time […]
Goodwin hits Euro 100 firm to bolster Luxembourg office
Goodwin Procter has given its Luxembourg office the early moving-in present of a new partner, hiring European 100 firm AKD’s co-head of investment funds. The US firm is bringing in Virginie Leroy to strengthen its European funds practice. Leroy spent more than four years at AKD, having joined from Canadian firm DSL in March 2020. […]
Great idea, terrible timing: the reasons behind Hannes Snellman’s Nordic retreat
Execution, as one lawyer says, is “easy to plan, but really ***ing hard to do”. That word ‘execution’ will be resting heavily on the minds of Hannes Snellman’s senior leadership. Earlier this year, the firm split in two; Helsinki and Stockholm are going their own ways. It effectively brings to an end one of the […]