Rich is The Lawyer’s deputy editor. He has a particular focus on firms outside the UK top 50.
He was previously editor of The Lawyer’s student publication Lawyer 2B, and as such also has an interest everything to do with legal education, training contracts and pupillage, as well as lawyers’ ongoing career development.
The Higher Education sector is in big trouble. As we reported last month, universities are struggling to fill places on their undergraduate courses – not least for law degrees. Many are in financial distress. Tuition fees for home students have been capped at £9,250 since 2017 and are falling well behind what is profitable, but […]
Forty-four of the UK’s top 100 law firms posted double-digit revenue growth in 2023/24, the highest number since before the great financial crisis. In 2007/08, 61 of the top 100 grew by double digits; that figure dropped to 15 the following year and nine the year after as the economy collapsed. Last year, nearly all […]
As revealed in The Lawyer’s Horizon email on Friday, law firms’ use of Twitter as a platform to self-promote has diminished significantly in the last year. Before the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, the UK top 50 firms collectively posted about 2,000 Tweets a month, spiking during the lockdowns. Since then, and particularly since Elon […]
“I’ve seen the future, and it’s porn, sharks and Nazis.” Twitter hadn’t even been founded at the time, but the above quote from the niche 2005 sitcom Bromwell High turned out to be unintendedly prophetic when considering the journey of one of the planet’s largest social media companies. Once ‘the world’s town square’, Twitter, latterly […]
This week, a Yorkshire firm is investing to meet its staff’s new demands after doubling revenue in three years, while Walker Morris employees try a new hobby.
Which is the best personal injury firm in the country? Irwin Mitchell, perhaps? Maybe Leigh Day, or Slater & Gordon? Wrong, wrong, wrong. The answer in fact is Cheshire six-lawyer outfit Gavin Edmondson Solicitors, which according to the website reviewsolicitors.co.uk scores better than almost 2,500 PI firms across the country for its quality. What about […]
Weeks after the start of the university clearing process, many institutions have not yet met their quotas for undergraduate law students. Clearing runs over the course of the summer and allows students to secure a place at universities that still have places available, with many of the most popular courses filling up in a matter […]
Concerned that its Elizabethan heritage may conjure up too many visions of dusty parchment, the world’s oldest firm is attempting to show its tech credentials.
A Clifford Chance partner is one of those feared missing after a British yacht sank off the coast of Sicily. Clifford Chance partner Chris Morvillo is among the passengers missing along with former DWF chairman Jonathan Bloomer. The superyacht Bayesian was hit by a powerful storm in the early hours of the morning of Monday […]
This week in Beyond the Bubble, in association with LexisNexis… London: Fee-earner time spent on innovation at Harbottle & Lewis will be recorded and rewarded as the firm launched its new “Innovation Fund” in June, which will be used to invest in new technology to make processes more efficient for the business. The move is […]
An old-school Lincoln’s Inn firm with royal connections. A media-savvy employment specialist. And a full-service regional outfit with a non-lawyer CEO. The similarities aren’t immediately apparent but Farrer & Co, Lewis Silkin and Birketts all passed £100m in revenue in 2023/24, leaving rivals trailing in their wake. That’s what’s so impressive about these three firms. […]
Ampa, the group that includes Shakespeare Martineau and Mayo Wynne Baxter (MWB), recorded growth of nearly 14 per cent in the last financial year. Overall, Ampa’s revenue shot up from £104.8m to £119.2m. Of that turnover, £7.4m was generated by the group’s non-legal service lines, the largest of which is Marrons, a planning consultancy, which […]