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 Lawyer has compiled trainee solicitor salaries and newly-qualified (NQ) solicitor salaries from the UK’s largest law firms. Last full update: 22 October 2024 Last minor update: 1 November 2024 The latest salary figures are a reflection of the influence of American firms on the UK market. When Bingham McCutchen became the first firm to […]
London: Harbottle & Lewis has a new double-act: Last November, Tony Littner joined Charlie Leveque as joint-managing partner for a five-year term. It’s the first time Harbottles has changed its leadership structure in this way, and while it’s not unheard of to have two managing partners (look at Lewis Silkin or Bristows), most go for the […]
If you missed The Lawyer’s feature from last year about the civil war at Child & Child, go and give it a read now. It’s a cracking story of mismanagement, partner rivalries – and a private equity house that couldn’t fix the problems. Child & Child is the poster, er, child, for how private equity […]
Clifford Chance will retain 40 of its 56 final-seat trainees in newly-qualified (NQ) roles this spring, giving it trainee retention of 71 per cent. While 52 trainees applied for roles only 44 were offered positions, with 40 accepting, hinting at a situation where not enough jobs in favoured departments were on offer, although the firm […]
The most eagerly-anticipated list of the year is here: The Lawyer Hot 100 2024. Each year, it is our privilege to talk to the UK’s most adventurous, most innovative and most dynamic lawyers. They encompass barristers, private practice solicitors and in-house lawyers, of all ages, from Brighton to Birmingham and beyond. This year’s crop of […]
It’s a regional special this week, with insight into three firms in the North West.
In the TV programme Life on Mars, Detective Chief Inspector Sam Tyler is hit by a car and is transported back to the 1970s where he finds his modern methods of policing at odds with the boozy, semi-corrupt and sexist culture of that decade. Now imagine you’ve been similarly bopped on the head and wake […]
Oxford: All right, not really Gandalf’s lawyers, this isn’t an Ian McKellen thing. But the lawyers to the estate of JRR Tolkien are on the move. The Oxford-based, two-partner specialist commercial, IP and media firm Maier Blackburn, founded in 2012 by two former Manches partners, Cathleen Blackburn and Steven Maier, has been acquired by Howes […]
Unless Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pushes his term right to the last possible date, 2024 is likely to be a General Election year in the UK, and with the Conservative Party currently trailing badly in the polls, seat losses seem inevitable, even if an outright Labour victory is still far from certain. With this in […]
Opening a full-blown office in a new location is a complicated old business. There’s the property hunt, the logistical issues such as IT support and there’s always a risk of cultural dilution, which is why the ‘hub’ is becoming a popular choice. It allows a firm to test the waters before committing. At least three […]
The full list of the UK firms ranked 101-200 by revenue in 2023.
Sussex: Back in June Beyond the Bubble talked to Cripps’ new managing partner James Beatton about his plans for the firm and making a go of it in Tunbridge Wells. “The growth in our London office has been fantastic but there are only so many lawyers you can recruit into Tunbridge Wells, lovely though it […]