Thanks for the slides Jaysen, I would be really interested to read your accompanying notes if you locate them
Found them but they aren't very helpful -- I used the slides as guidance for most of my presentation, so much of the notes won't make sense/they don't cover most of it.
Feel free to ask if you want me to cover anything in the slides.
What am I going to cover?
- Why does it matter?
- The City
- How law firms fit into the City
- The business of law firms
- Inside a law firm
- Why do lawyers do?
- Working on a deal
- Law firm strategies
- Global trends
- The future
- The Corporate Law Academy
Why commercial law? Why does it matter?
- Do you really want to be a lawyer?
- Help you justify and perform well at interview
- Because most of what being a lawyer is business
- Help you understand what kind of firm you’d be interested in
Why is the City important?
- Why England finance
- Historical
- English law
- Presumption – protection
- Safety/anti corruption
- Commercial courts
To understand what commercial law firms do and where lawyers fit into that picture,
- The market is all about connecting those that need money with those that have it.
- Who has money?. So pension funds, insurance companies, banks, hedge funds.
- Who needs money? Individuals, Companies, governments – borrow to make up deficit.
- To connect these two, you have banks.
- Why?
- Players
- Exchanges
- Intermediaries
·
Banking – can be broken down simply, you are acting for the various lenders. Lenders want to give out loans, they want to increase their profits and want to limit their risk i.e. the borrower defaulting. Profits come from knowing they will get their money back, acting against the risk that a company will not default. This is where lawyers come in, to assess the financial capacity of the obligor and whether it is a worthy measure. And even if the company does default, to know that they have security over an asset by having a charge over say the land.
Why do firms merge or acquire? (this was adapted from the M&A guide)
I’ll use law firms as an example. They often merge, or adopt structures called Swiss vereins – which allow firms to share branding and marketing, but keep their finances separate.
In the legal world, it can be hard to find organic growth, or organic growth can be very slow. Clients like to shop around, which can make it hard to retain existing business. It’s competitive – other law firms can poach valuable partners, and bring their clients with them. And whilst entering new markets is attractive; it’s expensive, often subject to heavy-regulation and means challenging the existing players in that market.
So, consolidation can help law firms – squeezed between lower-cost entrants and the global players – to compete. A combined firm is bigger, less vulnerable to external shocks, and has access to more lawyers and clients. The three-way merger between Olswang, Nabarro and CMS is a good example of this. The year before its merger, Olswang had revenues below £100m and a 77% fall in operating profit. Now, under the trading name, CMS UK, it’s one of the largest UK law firms by lawyer headcount and revenue.
Mergers speed-up entry into new markets. If Dentons had opened an office in China, it would have been difficult.
It’s a different market. Chinese clients, especially state-owned enterprises are less likely to pay high legal fees. Local expertise and personal relationships play a bigger role. There’s regulation – non-Chinese lawyers can’t practice Chinese mainland law, and there’s competition from established Chinese law firms. Instead, Dentons merged with Dacheng – a firm with decades of experience and an established reputation in the Chinese market. And now, Dentons can serve clients investing in China and Chinese clients looking for outbound work. A market position that’s worth billions.
Mergers can also create synergies. Firms can save costs by closing duplicate offices and laying off support staff. A combined firm generates higher revenues and that means more options; it can often lower prices to win work or negotiate better terms for its investments.
But that’s not to say mergers are necessary. Many law firms have grown just fine by organic means. Some attract new clients by developing their sector expertise. For example, Bird & Bird is renown for its intellectual property team and Withers for private client work. Some firms achieve a global reach by opening up offices. Others, like Slaughter & May, operate best friend groups, and partner with law firms to serve their international clients.
It’s true that vereins have led
DLA Piper and
Baker Mckenzie to develop very strong brands. But, collaboration hasn’t always worked out. Internal problems plagued the merger of Dewey & LeBoeuf. Bingham McCutchen couldn’t keep up with costs. And most recently, King & Wood Mallesons made the mistake of merging with an already troubled SJ Berwin. So, only time will tell whether Dentons’ 31 combinations will be a success.
Things to know right now
o GDPR
o Legal tech
o Trump tariffs
o Economy right now
