Following Bruce MacEwen and Mark Brandon’s debate over corporate structures in law firms, LOD’s Tim Bratton asks what it means for clients. The quality of a blog post can often be measured by the quality and quantity of the comments appearing beneath it. Recent articles in The Lawyer examining the most desirable structure for tomorrow’s […]
In response to Bruce MacEwen’s article on future law firms, Overture’s strategy director Mark Brandon argues that a corporate structure is not the way to go. Bruce MacEwen’s stimulating article in The Lawyer about how you’d build a [big] law firm from the ground-up takes another asymmetric swipe at that annoyingly perennial kudzu – law […]
You may have heard about the Business Leadership Summit being organised by The Lawyer, taking place in London September 22—23. (More information here; registration here.) The theme is “embracing change in the delivery of legal services,” and here are a few of the highlights: The keynote speaker on day two will be Peter Kalis, chairman […]
Big Law in Australia is taking on board innovative UK strategies as the two countries vie for a slice of the Chinese infrastructure investment pie
When the economy crashed seven years ago, so did people’s trust in business, to the detriment of society and UK plc. It’s time to start earning it back.
Peter Kalis, the keynote speaker at The Lawyer Business Leadership this September, discusses leadership through disruptive change. Does the unprecedented level of “disruptive change” we’re seeing make it the toughest time to be a law firm leader, whether managing partner or head of a business services team? Change is a constant in our business. It […]
Firms need to juggle real estate costs with providing a modern environment. Balancing the economics of growing a City law firm to keep pace with rising global markets against a backdrop of expensive office rents is a conundrum facing many managing partners. Real estate spend is, after all, the biggest cost to law firms after […]
Firms that let talented, tech-savvy thinkers go are losing out to New Law upstarts that are deploying hardcore R&D to break down barriers By Andrew Chamberlain, head of the service delivery executive, DWF In the past 24 hours I have attended three meetings, each with someone who had been a senior member of a top […]
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 […]
Firms need to do more than just update their IT systems to beat the competition. All the talk in legal circles of late is of ‘innovation’. Law firms should innovate, create, adapt and develop, we hear. A Sword of Damocles simply dripping with the venom of demanding, increasingly wily clients is hanging over firms every […]
Lawyers must champion IT and infrastructure innovation to maintain the capital’s status as the pre-eminent disputes resolution centre. The position of London as the global centre for international dispute resolution must be recognised, celebrated and built upon. The challenge is to retain that status in the 21st century and beyond. Commercial clients from around the […]
Contractual blind spots affect not only general counsel, but whole companies too. The corporate contractual process is failing. Epically. And that’s a big problem. Despite the swarms of people and astonishingly high spend devoted to this category, contract life-cycle management in most companies is a low-tech, disorganised process fragmented across numerous legal and non-legal functions. […]