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March 2007 Archives
Between the devil and the deep blue sea
1/03/2007
If there was a prize for the most time-consuming application form on the planet, the one would-be QCs have to fill in would surely be in contention.It took newly made-up QC James Rowley, of Byron Chambers, a full five days...An unsentimental education
2/03/2007
Several years back, College of Law chief executive Nigel Savage must have been tempted to give up.The College was doing OK but pesky law school upstarts in Nottingham and Oxford – as well as London rival BPP – had secured...Mayer Brown cull is long overdue
6/03/2007
When Mayer Brown Rowe & Maw took the unusual step of appointing what was effectively a three-man committee to run the firm on the impending retirement of current chairman Ty Fahner, I noted that to many this would smack of...Heller 2.0 pulls off one hell of a reboot
8/03/2007
Who would have thought that the most promising UK law debut for years would have been made by San Francisco’s Heller Ehrman – for years dismissed as one of the much-hyped Californian legal community’s dullest members?Yet here is Heller, officially...Cadwalader's very predictable succession problem
8/03/2007
So it was rumored, so it has come to pass.The persistent gossip in restructuring circles was that Andrew Wilkinson would be quitting Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft as the Eurotunnel restructuring winds down for a major investment bank (see comment). And...Beringer's broadside needs a PEP
9/03/2007
Is Guy Beringer’s broadside against profits per equity partner (PEP) as a measure of law firm performance a case of the lady – or in this case the senior partner – protesting too much?In an article on Allen & Overy’s website,...Law Society's IT review deja vu
12/03/2007
Given half the chance, a bureaucracy’s natural inclination is to find things to do.The Law Society is no exception to this rule and fought long and hard for the right to maintain its position as both trade union and regulator.Having...Deal Week’s Manhattan transfer finds New Yorkers less than bullish
15/03/2007
Breakfast with Cravath, coffee with Sullivan, now on to Wachtell – it has been a busy week on Legal Week’s ongoing tour of Manhattan.The purpose of all the glad-handing (aside from providing material for the Deal Comment blog) is preparation for...Diversity is as elusive as ever
16/03/2007
A senior female QC confided to me the other day that she did not believe she could have achieved the equivalent status she now enjoyed – as well as having a family - if she had been a solicitor. This is...Barclays gives CC a shot at big league but A&O could find it hard to go Dutch
21/03/2007
Even in these days of buccaneering takeovers and rampant private equity activity, bids like this don’t come along often. By size alone Barclays’ high-stakes bid for ABN Amro is the fourth-largest merger ever in Europe.But its significance obviously goes far...Budget draws out partner opinions
22/03/2007
Lawyers are well-known for their diffidence, but they have been far from slow to offer their opinions on Chancellor Gordon Brown’s Budget yesterday (21 March).City partners welcomed a reduction in corporation tax from 30% to 28% in April 2008 in...EU offers more than red tape on 50th birthday
26/03/2007
The navel-gazing about the EU that has accompanied its decidedly low-key 50th anniversary celebrations reminds me of the gag in the film Monty Python's Life Of Brian asking "what have the Romans ever done for us?".For a decidedly more upbeat...Field Fisher leaves its halfway-house
26/03/2007
Are European alliances going out of fashion?In 2003, Denton Wilde Sapte pulled the plug on its Denton International network, signalling the end of its attempt to build an alliance of like-minded firms in Western Europe. Last year, Lawrence Graham performed...Listening to associates is necessity, not democracy
29/03/2007
“We are not a democracy.” This used to be the stock response of a former colleague of mine whenever it was suggested that staff be consulted on a proposal.In the business world, law firm partnerships are about as close as...Through the looking glass with leveraged finance
29/03/2007
Those searching for a better example of the current through-the-looking-glass mood of the European leveraged finance market won’t find a better example than the current fuss regarding “covenant-lite” debt.The deals that the have attracted the most attention are from JP...