Hall of fame: Juerg Birri
Global head of Legal Services KPMG Global Legal Services, Juerg Birri explains how the practice is disrupting the legal profession and delivering meaningful change for clients.
What do you see as the main points that differentiate KPMG Global Legal Services from your competitors? In today’s complex business environment, organizations need more than just good lawyers, they need business-savvy legal advisors. Our clients want legal services tailored to their unique priorities, challenges and needs and they want the convenience and efficiency of …
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Hall of fame: Max Berger
Max Berger, co-founder, discusses how Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP is adapting to changing client needs.
What has been your greatest achievement, in a professional and personal capability? My greatest achievement as a professional was the co-founding of my law firm in 1983. During our growth – from the four founding partners to a law firm of approximately one hundred fifty lawyers in four cities – we have never wavered from …
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Hall of fame: Paul Friedland
Partner Paul Friedland discusses how White & Case LLP is adapting to changing client needs.
What has been your greatest achievement, in a professional and personal capability? Earning and keeping the respect of colleagues, whether junior or senior, and of peers inside or outside my firm. What do you do differently from your peers in the industry? I don’t presume to be different or better than peers. I hold myself …
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Interview with: Fernando Vives
Garrigues’ managing partner and executive chairman talks
organic growth, managing through recession, and why it is
impossible to predict the future of law.
How would you define your firm’s culture? In our kind of business, a strong firm culture easily recognizable by clients is essential. Garrigues has developed a global culture, based on strong ethical values and a commitment with excellence, shared by our 2,000 people team in 13 countries. The client benefits from the fact that they …
Continue reading “We all face a common challenge”
Interview with: Gavin MacLaren
Law firms must be fast followers of new tech to offer clients the best systems on the market, says Corrs Chambers Westgarth’s senior partner and CEO.
How would you define your firm’s culture? Culture is intrinsically linked to, and the foundation for, success. It is what drives behaviour and decision making at every level, and ultimately determines our ability to deliver outstanding results for our clients. At Corrs, our culture is focused on excellence, collaboration – both internally and with our …
Continue reading “If you are standing still, you’re going backwards”
Interview with: Peter McCormick OBE
McCormicks Solicitors’ senior partner on the pressures of acting for high-profile clients, why young lawyers can’t be nervous groupies, and why all lawyers need to be
better at collecting their fees.
How would you describe your practice? A wide-ranging and extensive sports practice covering football, rugby union, rugby league, cricket, horseracing, cycling, boxing, and athletics. Football is the best known and most extensive. We cover the full range of football entities from the Premier League, Leeds United, Harrogate Town in the National League to the Bostik …
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Interview with: Terence Tung
Mayer Brown’s senior partner in Asia talks about avoiding silos, a commitment to pro bono, and working as a collective.
How would you describe your firm’s culture and how important is it to you? Is it different in Asia from the home base in Chicago? Mayer Brown has a strong one-firm culture that enables us to be seamless in serving our clients. This is possible because we operate as a global partnership, rather than in …
Continue reading “Talent retention is critical and unity is strength”
The Bar
In a recent speech given at Middle Temple, Three New Square senior clerk Nicholas Hill reflects on his three years as chair of the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks
By the time you read this, I will recently have completed my three year term as chair of the Institute of Barristers’ Clerks (IBC). It comes with a mixture of emotion. Any relief I may have at not having to give another after dinner speech is more than outweighed by the sense of sadness that …
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Interview with: Vanessa King
O’Neal Webster’s managing partner talks talent retention, EU blacklisting, launching a New York office, and the difficulties of having an open door policy
How do you define your firm’s culture and how important is that culture to you? We have a very collaborative, supportive, family-based culture in the firm. I am not saying this because I am the managing partner, but it has been described as such by outsiders who have observed us and it is a culture …
Continue reading “Tell your people where they stand”
Country spotlight: New Zealand
Too small, too far away, but a good place to be. Asia Pacific deputy editor Andrea de Palatis considers New Zealand’s steady legal market
New Zealand is a country that has a long history of being left off the world map, including on wall maps sold by Ikea and displayed at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. Producers of A-level geography books and board games are also guilty of the omission. Are New Zealanders offended? Not quite. They respond …
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