A theme running through the Legal Week Awards 2006 (see supplement) is the ability of firms that have run into to trouble to mount successful fightbacks.
Such is the confidence currently emanating from the International Firm of the Year, Clifford Chance (CC), that its partners seem to have wiped the difficulties of its recent past from their collective memories. CC’s rebound has, nevertheless, been remarkable. The current managing partner, David Childs – who was commended in the Managing/Senior Partner of the Year category – deserves great credit for the discipline he instilled in the firm. But his predecessor, Peter Cornell, laid the groundwork by restoring partners’ confidence in management (see blog entry).
