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International Edition

Litigation support and e-discovery: Sooner rather than later

The English Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) were amended in 2005 to give more clarity in respect of electronic discovery (ED), yet it was some three years later before a substantive judgment was given in this area. In Digicel v Cable & Wireless, Mr Justice Morgan highlighted the fact that the parties had not conducted a case management conference to address the subject of ED - as defined in the revised CPR 31. Clearly, most of the issues in the case should have been discussed and resolved at this stage rather than in court.The legal team spent 6,700 hours systematically reviewing around 1,140,000 electronic documents and emails. They determined that about 5,200 were relevant at a cost of around £2m. Mr Justice Morgan determined that "the rules do not require that no stone should be left unturned. This may mean that a relevant document, even 'a smoking gun' is not found. This attitude is justified by considerations of proportionality".
9 minute read

International Edition

Litigation support and e-discovery: Entering the spotlight

During the past six months we have met with mor than 100 law firms in the UK to discuss their current approach to e-discovery, their anticipated requirements in the context of the current economic climate and their expectation of increasing levels of disputes. We have concluded that the use of e-discovery technology for UK law has reached a tipping point whereby it will become normal practice to use e-discovery technology in relation to even relatively low value disputes.
8 minute read

International Edition

Management: Greasing the training wheels

In response to constrained budgets for 2009-10, most learning and development teams have focused on real and immediate needs and driving down costs. This has most commonly meant that career-critical training programmes have remained sacrosanct, attendances at external conferences require strong justification and the use of external training providers has been significantly curtailed.
5 minute read

International Edition

Management: Career makeover

As the effects of the economic slowdown take their toll on all aspects of UK industry, an increasingly negative atmosphere has begun to pervade the legal workplace. In a lot of firms, staff may well feel insecure about their position and feel the need to show their skills to the best of their ability, in order to become indispensable to the business and avoid possible threat of redundancy.
6 minute read

International Edition

Management: Ready, set, audit!

When law firms first considered the move to limited liability partnership (LLP) status, one of the barriers cited was, somewhat euphemistically, 'disclosure'. In reality this was the disclosure of partners' remuneration. Other aspects of disclosure were either just accepted or, possibly, not contemplated at all.
6 minute read

International Edition

The domain game

In June 2008 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced a process for applying for new generic top-level domains (gTLDs). A TLD is the last part of an internet domain name; that is, the letters that follow the final dot of any domain name, including .uk, .com, .net and .org.Alongside the TLDs we have all grown familiar with, consumers and businesses will need to be aware of potentially hundreds of new suffixes. Law firms will need to be up to speed with the applications process for and the implications of the new gTLDs before this raft of new domains is introduced. Companies may well need to adapt their clients' domain name strategies in order to protect their online brands from being compromised or diluted by opportunists wishing to profit from making speculative registrations
6 minute read

International Edition

All for one?

As the economic turmoil intensifies and law firms face up to the possibility of further job cuts at increasingly senior levels, partners need to rapidly develop a more complex and subtle understanding of their partnership. Now more than ever law firms need to take a long-term view and appreciate the intricate system of fine checks and balances that partnership creates. Partnership can be a very special relationship, developed gradually over time and carefully nurtured. But it can be destroyed by careless action on the part of management, and the relationship could prove impossible to rebuild.
6 minute read

International Edition

Management: A chance to leave the merry-go-round

There is no doubt that the UK legal sector is facing significant upheaval with employees being affected at all levels. Firms are announcing restructurings and redundancies on an almost daily basis, with the total number of redundancies across UK law firms now standing at well over 2,000 - and there is little optimism about the immediate future.
5 minute read

International Edition

Management: Betting on the big four

The big four magic circle firms (Allen & Overy, Clifford Chance, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters) have had an incredible run over the past 15 years. All of them achieved the benchmark of extraordinary success for a large law firm - profits per equity partner (PEP) near or over $2m (£1.4m) and gross revenues of around $2bn (£1.4bn). What made their success all the more impressive was that in the early 1990s their standing was less than 'magical' relative to premier US firms. As much as these firms achieved over these last 15 years, the current economic crisis raises real questions about how they will fare in the future.
5 minute read

International Edition

It's automatic, baby

As 2009 ushers in new regulations as part of the Legal Services Act (LSA) 2007 to support multidisciplinary partnerships and firm-based regulations, understandably there is apprehension among some segments of the industry in terms of its implications for law firms. However, regulation is the catalyst for change, which, if dealt with in the right spirit, is usually for the better. In the current economic climate, the LSA is a positive development for the UK's legal sector. For instance, it will allow law firms to receive inward investment from other sources including national and international businesses.
5 minute read

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