Welcome to the June edition of Byfield Bytes, your monthly update on the biggest stories and issues impacting the business of law.
The big story in the sector continues to be the A&O and Shearman & Sterling Merger. As people began to wind down for the summer, the management teams at both firms have been kept busy – and delivered a PR masterclass in the process. All eyes are now on the partner votes, which will be crucial if they want to fulfil their ambitions of becoming ‘the first fully integrated global elite firm’, as their merger statement says.
June also saw the publication of The Lawyer’s annual report analysing the financial performance of the top 50 US law firms in the UK. Looking at numbers, the report shows how much US firms have seriously strengthened in the last decade – with little sign of abating. That being said, the long shadow of the pandemic does appear to loom over the sector overall – with total revenue growth for the top 50 US firms rising 3% in 2022 as opposed to 19% in 2021.
Taylor Wessing, Mischon de Reya, Gowling WLG, Osborne Clark, Bates Wells, DLA Piper, DWF and Clyde and Co came together to sign a charter, Legal Charter 1.5, outlining a set of common principles to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other firms like Ashurst, Freshfields, Hogan Lovells, Pinsent Masons, Simmons & Simmons and Slaughter and May also played a role in developing an ambitious green charter.
The Financial Times’s revelation that Crispen Odey, the hedge fund founder, had been accused of sexual misconduct resulted in the asset management firm breaking itself up and selling off funds while it continues to be investigated by the FCA. It was also reported this month that Lawyers are being increasingly instructed for investigations which, until fairly recently, were uncommon. The CBI, in the wake of its own scandal, might have won its survival confidence vote earlier in June – but its future is still unclear as many believe the misconduct allegations and consequent investigations have broken the brand beyond repair. Many will now be wondering whether this will have a domino effect across the City, cascading into another #MeToo moment.
Technology continues to be a source of concern for firms, as they suspect that Chat GPT is being used to write training contract applications. However, the limitations of this popular chatbot were also made evident when earlier this month a New York firm was fined thousands of dollars after a court found that one of its lawyers had used Chat GPT to write a court brief which included false citations.
On the international landscape, the Indian legal sector is welcoming the government’s plan to establish a committee of senior lawyers to recommend reforms to the country’s arbitration regime in a drive to boost New Delhi’s status as an arbitration hub. This came only a few months after the Bar Council of India suddenly announced it would open the door of the legal sector to foreign firms.
On a lighter note, we are fast approaching the summer period, also known in the PR Lexicon as “silly season”. According to Indy100, The term was first attested in 1861, and listed in the second (1894) edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. The 15th edition of Brewer’s defined the silly season as “the part of the year when Parliament and the Law Courts are not sitting (about August and September)”.
Big Questions for July
- What will UK financials tell us about overall performance in comparison to US firms?
- How are firms looking to improve diversity with their summer intern intake?
- Will we hear more about appetites for the merger amongst the partnerships of A&O and Shearman ahead of the votes?
- Will there be any surprises on the horizon as firms finalise, or announce, their headline strategies?
- What sort of creative techniques will PR & communications teams deploy to make the most of the quieter summer months?
Social Media Post of the Month
Lawyer Quote of the Month
David Avery-Gee from Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP in Financial News’ Legal Leaders piece: “I don’t think London’s going anywhere, English law is not going anywhere. This is still the main place where people do transactions and where companies want to come. So big picture: we’ll be fine. But there is definitely an issue at the moment that needs to be addressed.”
Byfield Spotlight
- We had our annual Byfield summer party last night with some of our clients, contacts and friends. Thanks to all of you who were able to make it!
- Byfield was ranked by Chambers and Partners in Band 2 in Litigation PR & Communications and promoted to Band 3 in Crisis Management. Gus and I are also pleased to have been ranked as leading individuals for Litigation PR.
- Our very own Meg Tillay won Rising Star of the Year at the PRCA DARE awards. A very well-deserved recognition of her great work with clients.
- The Byfield team took part in the London Legal Walk, helping to raise money to fund much needed frontline free legal advice agencies.
- Gus wrote an article for PR Week about the Crispin Odey scandal and the reputational implications of investigative journalism.
Here’s a few you might have missed…
- In last week’s episode of Counsel Culture, Meg talked to Rosie Watterson, Associate at King & Spalding about disability in law.
- Previous episodes in June included a discussion with Elizabeth Robertson, Partner at Skadden and Executive Chair of PRIME, which covered social mobility in the legal industry and how to increase access to the profession. Meg also sat down with Rose Walker, former news editor at Law.com and newly appointed Tax Editor at Bloomberg Law to talk about strategies for merger announcements.
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