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The Lawyer Hot 100 recognises the most daring, innovative and creative lawyers from in-house, private practice and the Bar. Whatever the year, everyone who is named in the Hot 100 has one thing in common: they are the lawyers of the moment. All those on the current list are shaping the legal profession right now; though many already have a distinguished career behind them, no one is included because of past glories.
As always, the 2019 edition of the list includes a broad spectrum of lawyers: well-known names from the top ranks of the profession; experienced figures who have recently come to prominence after years of hard work; and rising stars who we will all become very familiar with in the decades to come.
For details of how to nominate someone for the Hot 100, click here.
The sole female partner in Macfarlanes’ corporate group, Jessica Adam is flying the flag for women who want to progress in this male-dominated field. Promoted to partner in 2013, Adam is at the forefront of decision-making for the firm’s junior lawyers, chairing its associate committee with a focus on diversity and career pathways. Having started […]
It is what every lawyer dreams about after returning to work from maternity leave: the onset of GDPR. This is what awaited Travers Smith’s Louisa Chambers in 2016, some 18 months before the all-important data deadline for the firm’s corporate clientele. She got straight to work and, recognising a sense of panic in the market, […]
Nazir Dewji, partner at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, was asked to take on the role of head of UK real estate at an exciting time for his firm. Having just signed off its transatlantic merger with Bryan Cave, BLP propelled the construction lawyer to a top position at the newly merged firm on the back […]
In the three years since joining Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, Kate Downey has been appointed its first female private equity funds head in Europe and has overseen the growth of the funds practice from three partners and six associates to six partners and 20 associates, making it one of the largest teams in […]
Following his 2014 promotion to the partnership Gareth Eagles has rapidly risen to be the star partner and top-biller in White & Case’s European bank finance group. He is trusted to generate, lead and execute work for some of the firm’s biggest and most strategic clients, such as GSO Capital Partners, which is part of […]
Melissa Fogarty is fast becoming a prominent player at Clifford Chance, having been appointed co-chair of the firm’s London corporate practice over the summer. As well as specialising in bank M&A, for which she is the client relationship partner for several large institutions, her practice encompasses a broad spectrum, including the aviation and media sectors. […]
In a climate of fear over data privacy issues, Pinsent Masons’ David Barker is the lawyer increasingly taking the calls from big corporates. Last year, the firm’s head of TMT disputes led on some of the largest disagreements for big-name clients, including the first two UK High Court trials on ‘right to be forgotten’ cases. […]
Dutch-born-and-bred lawyer Christine Braamskamp, who in her words “came out of the clay in the north of Holland”, admits she still finds it hard to believe that she now plies her global investigations trade in the heart of the City of London. But 2018 was the year when any doubts she might still have about […]
Back in 1962, Cliff Richard was one of the first two clients of the firm that, by 2018, would be known as Simkins (the other was TV impresario Lord Lew Grade). Jump forward more than five decades and Simkins is still taking great care of the now Sir Cliff’s interests. Stepping up to do battle […]
Last year, Charles Brasted was sorting out two of the biggest concerns for Londoners; Brexit and the potential loss of Uber. With Transport for London stripping the taxi app of its City licence in 2017, the Hogan Lovells litigator was called in to save the day in one of the most high-profile battles of the […]
Des Collins makes his second appearance in the Hot 100. This year, it’s for his work on the Infected Blood Inquiry, examining why thousands of haemophiliac NHS patients were given contaminated blood and blood products throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It is the UK’s worst peacetime tragedy. The Government finally announced the opening of a […]
In her first full calendar year as a Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan partner, Liesl Fichardt has proven her considerable worth to the decade-old London outpost. The former Clifford Chance head of tax investigations and disputes arrived at Quinn Emanuel (QE) as the first dedicated tax partner in the London office in late 2017, handling […]
Long regarded as one of the most talented up and coming in-house leaders, Katherine Bellau’s work at financial services comparison business and consumer champion moneysupermarket.com has attracted some notice. 2019 will be Bellau’s year as she moves into the general counsel and company secretary role and member of the executive team at the fast-growing FTSE-listed […]
Amy Brookbanks joined Ocado in 2009 as a commercial solicitor and has been part of a team that has grown both in size and visibility at the online retailer. Over the past couple of years, Ocado has landed key international deals, which has meant that the legal team has had to negotiate the licensing of […]
In the space of only four years – she joined the company as legal adviser in 2012 – Laura Brunker has been elevated to the role of general counsel at McLaren. She leads a team of six in-house lawyers dealing with McLaren’s legal affairs on a global scale: interaction with governments on supply chain strategy, […]
Sabine Chalmers can raise a toast to 2019; the GC at BT has made it through a year of reformation. Having been out of the country for 23 years, she landed in London in April to take on the GC mantle from Dan Fitz. The climate was somewhat frosty – BT had announced that it […]
After jointly leading the five-way merger and the bond, bank finance and convertible debt refinancing that created the Ardonagh Group in 2017, last year saw Ardonagh’s dynamic chief counsel Frances Coats lead on one of the group’s acquisitions, two private bond taps, adding additional lenders to the company’s revolving credit facility and a backstop letter […]
Airbnb’s general counsel for the EMEA region Fiona Dormandy manages more than 20 lawyers in a team spread across seven countries, in one of the world’s most high-profile and rapidly growing disruptive businesses. The speed of Airbnb’s expansion has brought with it an inevitable, presidential suite-sized suitcase of legal issues, not least a raft of […]
It is unprecedented for the Hot 100 to contain an anonymous figure. However, The Secret Barrister’s contribution to the legal profession last year deserves recognition. His or her book, The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, did an immense amount to bring the plight of British justice to wider public attention. […]
With over 30 years served at the construction Bar, Stephanie Barwise QC has plenty of experience in all manner of complex disputes. It was perhaps her work on the Ladbroke Grove rail crash inquiry 20 years ago that set her up to take on one of the biggest matters of our generation: she is providing […]
Though he has made a career for himself as a health lawyer on the side of the practitioners, it was an issue far closer to home for 1 Crown Office Row’s Martin Forde QC that dominated the silk’s year. Forde’s work in 2018 focused heavily on the Windrush generation, taking on the role of independent […]
Though Emma Hargreaves was only called to the Bar six years ago, the reputation she has developed in that short time is superb. The Serle Court barrister has carved out an unexpected niche as a specialist Chancery barrister, focusing on major divorce cases for high-net-worth individuals. Last year, she estimates her split of work was […]
3VB’s Christopher Harris QC, who was elevated to silk at the start of 2019, has carved out a strong reputation in investor-state arbitration and the enforcement of treaty awards. He spent much of 2018 leading on substantial investment treaty claims against Bulgaria, Poland, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka. Two cases have involved significant submissions on […]
In March 2018, Matthew Hill was at a children’s party handing out the jelly when he got an urgent call from the Home Office. Could he come in urgently? They could not say why. It transpired that Hill’s assistance was needed in relation to the Salisbury nerve agent attack on Sergei and Yulia Skripal. The […]
Michael Bates has already come to wide notice as a banking dealmaker and latterly managing partner of Clifford Chance’s London office. However, his inclusion in the Hot 100 recognises his imaginative leadership of two important projects for the global firm: the acquisition of Carillion’s legal operations hub in Newcastle, and the agenda-setting approach to gender […]
There cannot have been many blank spaces on Farmida Bi’s calendar last year. After a long career within the transactional practice at NRF, Bi took over as its first female chairman of EMEA last May. From then on, it has been a whistle-stop waltz for Bi around every one of the firm’s offices in that […]
Withers family partner Claire Blakemore has a thriving practice. What put her on this year’s Hot 100 list was her leadership and contribution in transforming Withers’ London office. Following her promotion to the London managing director role at the end of 2016, one of her major projects was the office move – a two-year process. Blakemore […]
It is fitting that Joanna DeBiase is managing partner of IBB, because it is a certainty no one knows her firm better. A litigator who qualified in 1992 and joined IBB in 1999, she has held a plethora of roles at the firm, including head of technology and information services; compliance partner; deputy MLRO; COLP; […]
Few stories have created as much interest in and around the UK legal market as the trend for law firm IPOs. Indeed, there is enormous interest not only in the businesses that have gone public but also the people driving forward this seismic shift. And none more so than the person behind the era change […]
Kerry Glanville, who until last year was the senior partner and head of real estate dispute resolution at London-based property and private client firm Pemberton Greenish, has just taken on a major new role. Glanville is now head of the Chelsea office at freshly merged Cripps Pemberton Greenish, a firm that can claim to have […]
Ben Allgrove makes a return to the Hot 100 after a first appearance in 2012. Back then, he was listed for his top-tier IP work and The Lawyer made no mention of his reputation in artificial intelligence – but it has been an interest of his for the past 15 years, since he was an […]
When Shilpa Bhandarkar was appointed as Linklaters’ first innovation supremo, she knew she had to completely reshape the way technology and new solutions were conceived at the magic circle firm. Tapping into her experience both as a lawyer and as a tech entrepreneur, she created a network of fee-earners tasked with finding new solutions to […]
You may not have heard of a digital revolution knowledge lawyer before. That is because the role did not exist until September 2017. Catherine Hammon is waving the flag for the digital revolution, ensuring all of Osborne Clarke’s lawyers are tooled up to understand its commercial and legal implications for clients. Because of this, it […]
Taylor Wessing’s Graham Hann has been studying, living and breathing technology since the beginning of his career. A former programmer for Siemens, he spent two years as head of legal of a technology business in the midst of the dotcom revolution, when the internet became mainstream and start-ups snapped up lawyers from private equity. Since […]
Latham & Watkins’ Fiona Maclean became a partner aged 33. This pioneering technology lawyer sits at the nexus of data and regulation, designing new corporate trajectories in transformational fintech, cloud and innovation deals. Financial services organisations are adapting their internal processes to a new cloud-based environment and Maclean has made a name for herself by […]
As Squire Patton Boggs‘ global co-head of labour and employment, Caroline Noblet leads a mammoth team of 160 lawyers worldwide. Multi-jurisdictional outsourcing projects traditionally entail massive costs when it comes to keeping up to date with changing employment laws across different latitudes. To solve the issue, last year Noblet stepped out of her comfort zone […]