A wave of litigation work has helped protect global law firms from the worst ravages of the financial crisis. But with the post-Lehman dispute boom starting to die down, Caroline Thorpe asks whether regulation is emerging as the new ‘no cap’ area of legal business
September 2007. A month Ian McDonald remembers well. “My banking and finance colleague Kevin Hawken came to see me and said: ‘What do you know about SIVs [structured investment vehicles]?’” recalls McDonald, London head of commercial dispute resolution at Mayer Brown. “I thought it was a kitchen gadget. I really had no idea – but that is part of the challenge as litigators.”
