Blog

With its customary stiff upper lip, the UK legal sector has weathered the pandemic storm amazingly well. But my guess is the numbers disguise growing tensions within many law firms.

More often than not, an M&A deal can present like an episode of Takeshi’s Castle – a challenging obstacle course almost designed to ensure failure, where only the most formidable succeed.

There is, right now, a huge opportunity for good leaders to differentiate their firms with proactive culture building, and to create competitive advantage by getting all staff re-engaged in the firm’s plans.

Like the weather, our feelings and perspectives change and undulate throughout the day. When you look outside, you get a snapshot of the world in that moment.

SDLT is not stamp duty. This is something I have to say to firms too often. Whilst it has some of the same words in its name, it is not the former tax on property deeds that existed pre-December 2003.

Historians know precious little about the life of the author who gave the world 37 theatrical masterpieces. One of the few documents that we do have relating to his personal matters is his will.

It will be a great pity if any policymakers are influenced by this report because it suffers from some serious flaws and misinterpretations of what is going on in England and Wales.

In the absence of full-scale office-based working, law firms and corporate legal departments will need to find new ways of ensuring collaboration and knowledge sharing among their legal professionals.

What the pandemic has brought into sharp focus for firms is a desire to reduce costs. In 2019, research found cost reductions were last on a long list of priorities for firms; now they are near the top.

As my legal career progressed, I began to realise the reality was very different than I had envisaged. I was in a constant state of stress, working very long hours. I normalised the stress, as it seemed to be everywhere I looked.