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International Edition

Editor's comment: Brand Values

Before you can retain them, you have to attract them... A derivatives partner conceded recently that his department's efforts to retain young lawyers were focused mainly on keeping them on for a mere six months after they had become useful, such was the current demand for talented young lawyers from the investment banks.
3 minute read

International Edition

Tony Angel: Leading from the middle

Running a global law firm requires leadership and management; and they are not the same thing. Leadership is about providing vision, direction, motivation, energy and enthusiasm. Management is about providing systems, structures, metrics, rewards and controls. The problem is that most lawyers see leadership as good and management as bad. Yet both are essential and the real trick for a managing partner is to marry the two in a way that best achieves his three essential tasks:
5 minute read

International Edition

Management: Peak performance

Virtually every law firm in the country will have partners who could do better and contribute more to the firm. In many firms, a lack of a formal appraisal procedure means that their fellow partners are failing to take them to task. This can result in an established culture of underperformance within the firm, leading in some cases to complacency and poor profitability.
6 minute read

International Edition

Management and IT: The right resource

The holiday season is still a distant prospect but for law firms the New Year means the rapid approach of Easter and the long summer break. Juggling staff levels with client demand and natural peaks and troughs in activity is essential to ensure a firm's workflow does not slip into 'go-slow' in the summer. Yet how can the law, a people-centred business, balance ever-fluctuating resource planning needs with a trading environment which encourages firms to constantly drive down overheads?
7 minute read

International Edition

Management and IT: A lesson in retention

Knowledge and experience management is one of the top four most important strategic challenges faced by the UK's leading law firms, according to research conducted by Thomson Elite. Following a recent survey of the UK's 125 largest firms, 73% of those surveyed rated it as either a 'very important' or an 'important' issue.
7 minute read

International Edition

Management: Bedrock principles

Twenty years ago, partnership was the pre-eminent form of governance in most major professional sectors. In the 1980s, it began to decline in sectors such as accounting, consulting and investment banking to the extent that almost 50 of the top 100 accounting firms are now organised as privately-held or publicly-quoted corporations. So far, law firms have been slow to follow their lead, but in the UK the new Legal Services Bill brings with it the possibility of change.
7 minute read

International Edition

First among equals

The news that Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is to shed some 50 or so partners in the next year may have surprised a few at the firm's Fleet Street HQ, but at Linklaters the shock was that its arch rival had not acted sooner. Over at Silk Street, they have long shed the softly, softly approach to partnership that used to characterise the profession and managing partner Tony Angel has taken the firm in hand with obvious results.
6 minute read

International Edition

I predict...

What future trends are worrying managing partners in the US? A survey of 100 managing partners highlighted a range of concerns, such as regulatory changes, the rise of outsourcing and the generation gap. Patrick McKenna reports
7 minute read

International Edition

Survival of the fittest

With the Carter reforms set to take hold next year, insolvency is a very real threat facing law firms. David Miles offers advice on how not to go bust in 2007
6 minute read

International Edition

Law In Business: Out of site, out of mind

Searching archives stored on obsolete data formats presents a serious challenge to efficient and cost-effective e-discovery. Gordon Harris reports on how companies can index billions of files and facilitate information-searching procedures
5 minute read

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