Christian is the Litigation Editor at The Lawyer, where he covers domestic and global disputes, as well as writing The Hearing and Disputes Signal. He also co-hosts and produces The Lawyer Podcast. Prior to joining The Lawyer, he worked at Times Radio. Christian was a commercial and sports disputes solicitor for several years in London and New Zealand before becoming a journalist.
The UK arm of a global IP battle is over after the appellant discontinued proceedings just before Christmas last year. The Lawyer understands that the Manuka Honey Appellation Society (MHAS), a representative of New Zealand’s Manuka honey industry, has thrown in the towel in its appeal just a day after the skeleton arguments were filed […]
The Lawyer Podcast is back for 2023. In the first episode of the year, The Lawyer’s editor Catrin Griffiths and litigation editor Christian Smith are joined by deputy editor (City) Rachel Moloney to discuss all the rumours surrounding Hogan Lovells’ merger talks with Shearman & Sterling. We also speak to Hill Dickinson partner Jessica Neary […]
Welcome back to The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the litigation market. This week, it’s all about The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases for 2023, which was unveiled on Monday. October is the cruellest month: Let’s talk headline numbers. This year’s Top 20 features 41 chambers, 45 law firms, 192 barristers (including 85 silks) and […]
Welcome to 2023 and the return of Our Verdict. As the courts have just started the Hilary term on Tuesday, we have a mixture of judgments from the end of last year to the start of this year.
Happy New Year and welcome back to The Hearing, the insider’s guide to the UK litigation market. Quinn’s latest London results are out and they have left us wondering what happened to all the double-digit growth? But first, if your New Year’s resolution is to cut out any Royal-related coverage from your life, then we’re […]
With the court term ending next Wednesday, this will be The Lawyer’s last Hearing before Christmas. So as the year draws to a close, this week’s bumper edition has a definite festive feel … More elves needed at this workshop: At least one team at Herbert Smith Freehills will be heading into the break feeling […]
There’s an international theme to this week’s edition of Our Verdict. Morocco, Mozambique and Spain are all centre stage, while Blackstone Chambers, Carter-Ruck and Peters & Peters all celebrate wins. Meanwhile, bucking the trend, art is back in the headlines as RPC’s aristocrat client failed to prove negligence against her art dealer. Court of Appeal […]
As the temperature plummets, Christmas parties fill your diary and you crawl your way to the end of the year (if your firm lets you out, that is), why not take a break with the latest edition of The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the litigation market. Cold? Warm yourself by the IP fire: […]
Welcome back to The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to what’s happening in the world of litigation.
After a search spanning several years, Morrison Foerster has added a four-strong intellectual property litigation team in London. The US firm’s London office has hired a team led by Steven James from Brown Rudnick. James, who starts at MoFo’s offices in the Scalpel on Thursday, was head of the IP practice across Brown Rudnick’s UK […]
Claim over Russian oligarch’s estate proceeds to trial A claim against the ex-wife (Galina Besharova) of the late Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, made by his estate, will proceed to trial. Berezovsky’s estate seeks the repayment of £2.5m, a claim which Besharova failed to have struck out in the High Court. Besharova and Berezovsky divorced in […]
Welcome to The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the litigation market. A month ago, we predicted that “law firms would be wise to invest in a good bucket and brush” as Just Stop Oil had been targeting corporations with orange paint. Well, Eversheds, we hope you listened. Earlier this week, a small group from […]