Interview with...
Norton Rose Fulbright’s global chair on why having senior female role models is important, evolving client expectations, and why it’s no longer enough just being a high-quality lawyer
What is the leadership structure at Norton Rose Fulbright? The firm is led by global and regional managing partners. They are supported by global and regional chairs that sit on our various boards and undertake a range of responsibilities that involve business strategy, firm culture, diversity and inclusion, and charitable initiatives, among other things. Since …
Continue reading “Tricia Hobson: Women lawyers have every reason to aim high”
Interview with: Paul Martenstyn
From clerking to funding, Paul Martenstyn explains how his time in chambers prepared him for a new challenge in litigation funding and what the future holds for the market
Paul, you spent ten years as a clerk and deputy senior clerk at Fountain Court. Tell us why you decided to leave chambers for Vannin Capital and what your responsibilities will be as the litigation funder’s new UK managing director. I had a tremendous time as a clerk, especially at Fountain Court, where I was …
Continue reading “Funding can create value”
Interview with: Suciu Popa
Miruna Suciu and Luminita Popa discuss the importance of maintaining standards and why neither ethnicity nor gender should impact a lawyer’s advancement
How would you define your firm’s culture? How important is firm culture to you? Our culture is based on several main values: contribute effortlessly to create long-lasting effects, make a difference by a positive approach, take the lead and engage to create solid results that will stand the test of time. The driving force of …
Continue reading “A bad reputation is a killer”
Interview with: Vidisha Joshi
Hodge Jones & Allen’s managing partner recounts her journey to the top of law firm management, underscores the importance of developing careers, and explains her firm’s innovative new ownership structure
Explain the culture at HJA. How important is that culture to you? There’s a very collegiate culture at HJA. We are all working for one common purpose – social justice. It is that commonality which binds people in all our departments together. There’s also a great deal of shared pride about the results we achieve. …
Continue reading “I’m a good example of how you can progress”
Leadership: Richard Crump
Richard Crump talks exclusively to UK Solicitors editor Georgina Stanley on HFW’s international expansion,
targeting US growth, and the prospects of a future mergers
When Richard Crump took up his current role of senior partner role in 2007, Holman Fenwick & Willan, as it then was, had roughly 240 lawyers working across eight offices and revenue of just over £67m. Today, newly reappointed for a fifth three-year term, the rebranded HFW has more than doubled its office and head …
Continue reading “When growing, it’s
essential your partners are on board”
Hall of Fame
Deutschland editor Anna Bauböck talks to members of The Legal 500’s Hall of Fame on the past, present, and future of the legal profession
‘Associates today think one is talking about the Stone Age when describing how you spent nights at the fax machine because no evening support staff was available and email did not exist’, says Dr. Werner Meier, head of Simmons & Simmons German finance and restructuring practice, when asked about starting his legal career in 1992. …
Continue reading “That was then, this is now”
In conversation
Since 2015, a barrister practising criminal law in the UK started blogging and tweeting under the pseudonym ‘The Secret Barrister’. The aim was to shine a light on the inadequacies, and indeed failings, of the criminal justice system.
This culminated in 2018 with the publication of Stories of the Law and How It’s Broken, which became a surprisingly mainstream success, remaining in the Sunday Times Top 10 bestsellers list for twenty four weeks, selling over 165,000 copies across all formats. The content would surprise many readers outside of the UK, which is frequently …
Continue reading “The Secret Barrister”
Interview with: Andrew Leaitherland
DWF’s managing partner and CEO on rewarding lawyers based on merit, implementing the latest tech for the benefit of clients, and the power of partners’ buy-in
How would you define DWF’s culture and how important is that culture to you? Culture is incredibly important. It sets the expectation for how our people work together and, in turn, how we work with our clients. Our culture is underpinned by our values which prioritise innovation, collaboration and high performance, and which give us …
Continue reading “Delivering value isn’t about ‘more for less’”
Interview with: Bougartchev and Moyne
The co-founders of Bougartchev Moyne Associés explain why they left ‘Big Law’ to launch their own Paris-based litigation boutique
Kiril, Emmanuel, how would you define your firm’s culture? Firm culture is essential to us. After 30 and 20 years, respectively, of professional practice at international law firms, we chose to create in January 2017 an ambitious business litigation boutique with a strong white-collar crime focus where lawyers – 15 as of today – combine …
Continue reading “Independence, liberty, flexibility, and creativity”
Interview with: NautaDutilh
Jaap Jan Trommel, Chris Warner, and Petra Zijp detail the challenges facing firms in the Netherlands and why future competition won’t revolve around price, but client experience
How would you define your firm’s culture and how important is that culture to you? Our culture is deeply rooted in the power of the collective and in these days that togetherness – within the partnership, among the fee earners and the staff – is what`s needed to help our clients be successful. Clients are …
Continue reading “Misconceptions don’t hold us back”
