Neil Kinsella

Neil Kinsella has often wondered if he made the right career choice. For the rest of us watching him over the last 10 years transform Russell Jones & Walker into a multi-award winning firm in his role as Chief Executive, there is absolutely no doubt that he did. And this week never more so, as he announced plans to merge with the world's first listed law firm Slater & Gordon. But Neil's alternative choice was to be legal adviser to the iconic Factory Records founder, the late Tony Wilson. Ever since he turned down Tony's personal invitation to take on the role, he has always wondered what could have been....

I dropped by to see Neil on Tuesday evening. The man was exhausted after two days of solid press interviews. Everyone wants to know more about the merger. I asked him to talk to me about something we wouldn't read from the press. A more personal take on the story...

"I tell you what I feel really passionate about: why is it that personal injury lawyers have lost so much respect? There's something really wrong here. I remember the days working with Rodger Pannone on the Manchester air disaster and we were seen as heroes, campaigning for justice for the little men and women being fobbed off and sidelined by big suits in a corporate monolith that didn't want to accept any responsibility for what they'd done wrong and how many lives they'd ruined. And we weren't the only heroes around. Where are the Michael Napier's of today?"  [He is referring to Michael Napier CBE QC, founder of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers and famous for his legal campaigns to help the victims of the Zeebrugge disaster, also victims of the Thalidomide tragedy, widely recognised as one of the worst medical disasters of modern times. 

"Today, personal injury lawyers are seen as not much better than robbers," he continues. A fantastic spin job by the insurance industry. Of course there have been some dreadful cases of fraud and exploitation, but we don't celebrate the heroes in this field anymore - and that's wrong.  I honestly believe there's space to promote a firm of campaigning lawyers to the market and re-ignite the faith of consumers.

I also feel very strongly that when it comes to legal services reform and ABSs that the legal profession should be bold, and grasp the opportunity.  Why are we standing aside and letting the retail brands swoop in to take the space? Consumers want something different, that's clear. But it's really important for the profession that there is a proper, independent law firm brand to provide this, not just the retail brands. The legal profession should be standing up and saying "We can do this." Hopefully RJW now is.

Well, Neil may continue to dream wistfuly about the dazzling, exotic career he could have had as a music lawyer. But to me, he's always been super cool.

***

We love Lawyers On Demand's ad campaign in Legal Week  - "Be free: to practise law on your own terms." Billed as "a Berwin Leighton Paisner innovation", (they have won numerous awards for the concept including a prestigious FT Innovative Lawyers Award), LOD offers an alternative way for top lawyers to work freelance without having to dumb down the level at which they operate - in turn, offering clients a more flexible legal resource with lower overheads.

The "Practise law on your own terms" ads dominate the pages of the magazine with their stand-out colours and strong imagery.  They leap off the page enticing lawyers to re-think the way they work, with arresting open-ended phrases and questions such as  "I wish I was free to  "  "I can choose to  "   "I would be happier if I  "

How would you fill in the blanks?

***

Had to keep schtum about a fantastic stunt at Netlaw Media's new Partners Club this week, a networking event for senior lawyers and law firm managers. 7 Bedford Row Chief Exec Fay Gillott gave the opening speech and she told me mid-week there surprise in store for guests, but I was sworn to secrecy until after the event.

Champagne was handed out on arrival, with a pouch attached to each glass containing a fake diamond and details of a prize draw.  And the prize? A real diamond! Well that set everyone in the room a-quiver.

The only catch was that you had to be in the room when the winner was drawn at 8.30pm or you wouldn't qualify for the prize and the draw would be done again.  Bet that made sure no-one left early! Smart marketing - if a little extravagant!

Francesca Kaye

Francesca Kaye is a woman with a lot of very challenging things to say about reform of the UK's litigation system.  And being head of commercial litigation at 'Contemporary London' firm Russell-Cooke, not to mention Vice President of the London Solicitors Litigation Association (LSLA), she certainly knows how to put a strong argument across. Lord Justice Jackson has been listening carefully to what she has to say.

"The trouble with the present round of reforms" she says, "is that really they are focussed on only one half of the issue - ie the recoverability of litigation costs, whereas equally pressing is the need to reduce inefficiencies and excessive costs inherent in the court process itself.  IT infrastructure is particularly key here for example - and to be frank, Government rhetoric about the progress of computerisation in our courts is at best hollow.  The Jackson Review has been our one big chance to focus minds on litigation reform, reduce costs and really improve access to justice - a very real and pressing issue in my view - and the opportunity is in danger of being wasted."

  
So the right solution to the wrong problem?

"I do think the reforms hit smaller law firms and their clients unduly hard, and impact very little on the large firms and businesses that are much better positioned to afford them. If the cost-cutting is going to focus pretty much exclusively on lawyers' fees, rather than savings that could be made in the court system or process itself, this seems particularly unfair.

"The UK has a very privileged position in being the world's favourite centre for international litigation. Our system is more certain, transparent, our judges more consistent and their judgments more easily enforced than arguably anywhere in the world.  Yes of course we need to move with the times, to evolve, and as we do this we need to make the right judgements (with an 'e'!) to be sure of maintaining our lead position in the market for international litigation, without adversely affecting access to justice for all. It's critical to get these points right." 

Well, with Francesca and the LSLA focussing minds on the right issues, I'm confident we will.

***

An unusual degree of emotion was displayed this week by the normally very dispassionate BBC News 24 presenter Chris Eakin this Thursday, as he talked through the next day's broadsheet headlines with guest David Davies. He couldn't quite believe that hardly any of the papers were choosing to lead with the story about Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Exec Stephen Hester's controversial £963,000 bonus on their front pages, singling out The Mirror and The Times in  particular. Not usually one to express a personal opinion on the news, his transparent exasperation rather gave him away.

The debate quite rightly rages on, demanding why the Government allowed the bonus to be paid given British taxpayers own 84% of the bank's shares. But we don't expect our newsreaders to show quite such a degree of passion.  This controversial decision clearly stirs up a lot of emotion. I wonder why...?

***

Excited about V&A's new exhibition: Hollywood Costume, five years in the making and now scheduled to open later this year. The exhibit will display over 100 of the most iconic costumes in film, from Audrey Hepburn's little black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany's, to Judy Garland's gingham dress from The Wizard of Oz. Curator and Hollywood costumier Deborah Nadoolman Landis was interviewed on Radio 4 this week, talking about the exhibits and her own work.  She is probably most famous for the costumes she created in Raiders of the Lost Ark, in Michael Jackson's Thriller and also in The Blues Brothers.  On this last point, laughed out loud to hear her comment that she was "...proud to be the brains behind the most popular budget fancy dress costume in the entire world!"

The exhibition runs from 20 October 2012 until 27 January 2013. To book tickets now, click here.

Andrea Carta Mantiglia

Italian lawyers have such an elegant way of doing business - well, at least the Italian lawyers I know, at 'continental elite' firm Bonelli Erede Pappalardo.  I have blogged in these page before about conversations with the firm's senior partner, Renaissance Man Alberto Saravalle.  This week I caught up with his colleague and fellow Board member, Milan-based corporate partner Andrea Carta Mantiglia, to chat over the firm's strategy and plans for 2012.

Andrea talked to me in detail about the firm's newly announced three-pillar strategy: to promote its leading role on the international stage - BEP advised for example on Prada's Hong Kong listing last year, on the high-profile Bulgari / Louis Vuitton share swap, its private equity team has just this week been short-listed for the coveted IFLR Europe Award and Andrea talked me through some of the firm's high-profile work in China and India; the Second pillar in the strategy is to focus on digging deep into what clients really want from their lawyers, taking an increasingly innovative and entrepreneurial approach to delivering this, social media playing a key role here for example; and third - and this is the element I find so elegant - to underline the firm's 'institutional' role as part of the very fabric of Italian life, interacting with government, publishing academic or public interest papers and contributing to the arts and wider Italian society.

In conversation Andrea told me:
"We have a significant heritage as a firm, and we are rightly proud of that, but those leading the firm today are thinking about the legacy we will leave tomorrow."

Takes the UK's approach to Corporate Social Responsibility to a whole new level.  Something here for other European firms to think about...

***

Most entertaining moment of the week has to be Ian Hislop's fearless report to the Leveson Inquiry on media ethics.  We all know his view - that more statutory regulation of the media is not necessary, the point being that the activity that has most shocked everyone in this sorry saga - phone tapping, policemen taking money - is already well and truly illegal.  But the way he chose to illustrate his arguments was absolutely choice.

Classic quotes include: "A reasonable editor would not have thought 'I must hack into a murdered girl's phone', or 'I must run a story about someone about whom there appears to be no evidence and say he's a murderer'."

On Express Newspapers owner Richard Desmond: "The person who didn't understand what ethics was, was Mr Desmond. You shouldn't use that as a rule of thumb for anyone else."

On ex Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan: "Piers' memory is quite selective. He is capable of remembering things that didn't happen... perhaps his diaries weren't written contemporaneously: there are a number of glaring errors. He has tea with the wrong prime minister for instance."

Brilliant!  If you missed the interview on the day, you can view it here.

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Entertainment of a very different type came in the form of Hollywood's Golden Globes Film & TV awards this week, with Britain turning in a stellar performance.  Awards abounded for Downton Abbey, British born Kate Winslet won a best actress award for her role in Mildred Pierce, as did Meryl Streep for her portrayal of a British icon in The Iron Lady, and the Hollywood event itself was hosted by our very own Ricky Gervais.  (You can check out the gowns here.)

David Cameron has been 'encouraging' the British film industry to focus on blockbusters, which apart from them being very hard to spot before box offices open, is in my view a sure way to kill off innovation and creativity in new forms of film-making and story-telling.  What the Brits do best is the quirky and the nuanced, as these awards attest.  Leave it to the creatives and keep the politicians out.  Please!

Tony Williams

So the Golden Age of legal services is over?  I had lunch with Tony Williams this week, formerly managing partner of Clifford Chance and worldwide managing partner of Andersen legal, now principal of Jomati Consulting, the leading international management consultancy specialising in the legal profession.  Well, we all knew 2012 was going to be another challenging year, but it's sobering to hear Tony's thoughts on how the profession is unlikely ever to return to the levels enjoyed in the 'Golden Age', even come the recovery.

Tony talked to me about a report Jomati is due to publish later this month. After the Golden Age : The New Legal Era.  Here he defines the Golden Age as the period from the mid-1980s up to the crisis of 2008, when partner profits were typically rising by more than 10% year on year, lawyer fee rates were going up regularly without being questioned by clients and firms were rarely challenged about what they billed and how.  Of course this all changed with the crunch in 2008 and Tony's view is that there has since been a fundamental shift from "compliant client to active and questioning client" that has changed the marketplace forever.

"Anyone not convinced we really are entering a new era, who still assumes we will soon roll back to where we were in 2007, needs to look at the facts.  To my mind it's clear on the evidence there's no turning back."

He cites a number of factors: first, that in-house lawyers are more sophisticated buyers of legal services, far more aware of inefficient working in their law firm suppliers and ready to challenge; second, an increasing insistence on foxed fees - the death throes of the hourly rate has of course been widely reported elsewhere - and an attitude that law firms should share more of the risk; and in addition to this pressure on fees, associates and non-legal staff continuing to demand pay rises and bonuses which firms need to fund somehow if they want to avoid losing talent to rivals; then there's the threat of competition in the guise of new forms of production, ranging from the Legal Process Outsourcers to the online document producers, also undermining fee levels at the commoditised end of the market, with a knock-on effect on mid-level work.  The list goes on...

But it's not all bad news.  Tony believes that firms prepared to grasp how the game has changed and innovate will find new, perhaps even better, ways to prosper.  In particular he believes that for many, embracing globalisation will be key to growing revenues and profits.

"Those that adapt may then consider that moving out of the Golden age was not a negative step, just the beginning of something new."

To receive a copy of After the Golden Age: The New Legal Era, the Jomati report which publishes later this month, contact tony.williams@jomati.com.

***

We love the new-look Lawyer magazine!   And what a bold move!  the weekly print edition is now devoted entirely to analysis features and comment, with breaking news the preserve of the website, www.lawyer.com.  A confident stride forward from a publication renowned for its strength in breaking news, that is prepared to face up to the changing reality of how news is consumed in the modern day and adapt accordingly. 

We love their new sections The Notebook, (where news pages used to be), Judgment Call (a litigation round-up), and a double-page spread now devoted to Opinions.  Click here for a whistle-stop tour from editor Cat Griffiths herself.

And they've been cute about what stories work best in which medium: online makes total sense for breaking news, given consumers are now used to the speed of Twitter and other more immediate news sources; and as for more in-depth stories, as Cat says, "the big issues of the day are best serviced analytically and at length - it's what print does best".

Nice One!

***

Kysen's first innovation of the year is the creation of our first app: a PR reporting tool for clients on the run, who are less available for formal catch-ups on their accounts.  Created quite a flurry of excitement in our office this week.

So far we have developed our first prototype for one particular firm.  Next we will be showing it to our clients and friends asking for feedback, to see whether/how it could add something useful to other firms' accounts.

An exciting start to 2012!

Father Christmas

Felt privileged to catch up with Father Christmas this week, as we know what a busy time of the year this is for him. He was in surprisingly good cheer, considering the stories he was telling me about all the red tape and regulation he has to cut through these days.

“The job is certainly not as straightforward as it used to be” he chuckles. “Just as well I have magic on my side! It’s you mortals I feel sorry for, having to cope with all this without.”

He talks to me at length about the layers and layers of Health & Safety legislation he now has to comply with, given he’s taking (at times quite unpredictable) animals up into the sky, flying at high altitudes in an open-top vessel, not to mention landing his sleigh and reindeer on roofs of varying construction designs and strengths across the globe. Then there’s the tussle he’s had this year with the Aviation Authorities over additional security checks they now insist on. “Every present has to be scanned now, which of course adds quite a few hours on to an already long night’s work. But heigh-ho!”

He’s also being forced to rethink the diversity of his workforce, no longer able to insist on only using elves to help him. “It’s actually been a very happy development, this” he chortles. “Magic being such a big part of the job description for any of my helpers, I’d long thought only elves could ever fit the bill. But being forced to look further, I’ve discovered there’s a merry band of professional services marketeers who are required to work magic everyday, so we’ve brought some of those on board too now and I’ve made some lovely new friends.”

One piece of legislation he’s particularly delighted about this year though, is the end of the default retirement age.

“I thought I was going to be forcibly retired this year now I’ve reached the grand old age of 350. But now the default retirement age has been scrapped in the North Pole, I’m happy to say I’ll be bringing Christmas cheer all over the world for a good few years to come.”

***

I had to put up with a bit of stick from colleagues when I relayed this conversation with Father Christmas. A definite lack of respect – they even suggested that perhaps he might not be real. I pointed out that they needed to watch their step: a belief in Jedis has been deemed protectable under anti-religious-descrimination laws embedded in the employment legislation, so I’m sure a belief in Father Christmas would be similarly protected.

Besides, if they’re not nice about it, clearly they’ll end up on the Naughty List and won’t be getting any presents!

***

We’re all looking forward to our Christmas party next Wednesday – an afternoon out at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. It’s been a fantastic year at Kysen: a move to Covent Garden, and into the Cloud, plus a new website showing our renewed confidence and excitement in who we are and what we do. Lots for us to celebrate!

Merry Christmas everyone and a very Happy New Year!

Jane Dudman

Jane Dudman is looking back at a fantastic year of journalism at The Guardian - and looking forward as well, continuing to lead the pack in digital news publishing. This week the editor of the paper's ground-breaking PublicLeaders Network was addressing a small celebratory party announcing a new advisory board. The PublicLeaders Network is a highly influential digital forum for senior leaders of public services to exchange ideas and practice notes as well as discuss the issues at the top of their professional agendas. 

In conversation she tells me "Having built up a phenomenal following of senior public sector managers over years in hard copy, I have to say that I was extremely nervous when we took the bold decision to switch to online only. But our loyal following switched with us and the Network has gone from strength to strength. Ours was the first of the Guardian's 13 online business hubs, so as such we created the mould for one of the paper's biggest digital successes."

Jane talked of her pride in watching the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics, knowing it was her colleagues who first broke the story of the phone hacking scandal. She could also have mentioned the fact that the paper is already Newspaper of the Year and Digital News Service of the Year, second only to the Mail Online in terms of online newspaper readership and renown for 'constantly raising the bar by which other newspaper websites are judged'. 

It is these twin strengths that impress me the most at The Guardian - on the one hand its reputation as among the best for investigative journalism and old-style journalistic values; on the other, its reputation as leader in digital news publishing. 

*** 

... But for coverage of the professions, The Times is still my favourite personal read, I have to say.  So it was delightful this week to catch up with all my friends at The Times' Christmas party at the Reform Club: Frances Gibb, Edward Fennell, Clare Hogan, Linda Tsang, Alex Spence, Jonathan Ames, as well as the amazing Karen Snell, PR Head at Lovells - sorry, Hogan Lovells she keeps reminding me - and freelance public affairs supremo Louise Restell.  It was a far later night than I intended, (I blame you, Karen >:S) but brilliant fun!

***

News that IT giant Atos is banning email in the workplace for internal communications and replacing it with instant messaging, Facebook and other social media platforms, set me thinking this week about how long it took some professional firms to embrace email in the first place. Obviously many firms have proud reputations as early adopters, keen to grasp new technology and see if/how it can be intelligently applied to their business - and we are lucky that our clients tend to fall in this category. But to be honest these firms are the exception rather than the norm, in a section of the business world famous for its conservatism. 

The most extreme example I recall - and of course I wouldn't dream of naming names - was a firm whose fee earners would dictate email to their secretaries, who would then type them out in hard copy with a special header reminiscent of old fax headers saying 'ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION', hand back to the fee earner for signing, and then scan and email the document as an attachment! You couldn't make it up!!

The legal world may be catching up these days. Trouble is, the rest of the world keeps moving on even faster.  

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Can you come to my party? Wonderful news this week that members of Massive Attack and Radiohead played a surprise gig at Occupy London's Christmas party. The gig took place in the basement of an abandoned UBS building renamed The Bank of Ideas. Whatever you think about our anti-capitalist protesters they clearly have good taste in music - might even be better than most bankers'... 

Edmund Parker

"I never used to have much to do with my colleague Edmund Parker until 2008..."

This was David Allen's opening gambit at a meeting this week with Edmund and a BBC Business journalist, set up to take the broadcaster through the background on some derivatives cases coming up over the next weeks and months.  David is one of the global heads of litigation at Mayer Brown and Edmund global co-head of derivatives, but pre-2008 David says, he had more to do with his US and Asia litigation colleagues than the derivatives regulatory team working in the same office as him in London.

It all changed when the credit crunch hit.


"All of a sudden, on receiving our third or fourth derivatives litigation instruction in a row, we clocked the pattern developing. A lot of people's positions changed pretty much overnight and unexpectedly. So suddenly a hedging, options or futures deal done just months before started to look a lot less attractive. We were inundated with parties looking to see what they could do to set a transaction aside - or stop the other side from doing exactly that! It was at this point that Edmund and I started to get to know each other very well."

I've always liked this 'matrix' approach of Mayer Brown's - pulling together cross-disciplinary, cross-jurisdictional teams in response to big global stories - a global business defaulting; a global bank in trouble. The firm set-up is designed specifically to field bespoke teams according to the needs of a particular task/job/case, eg bringing an in-depth understanding of complex financial instruments together with top-notch litigation expertise (this is the team that ran some of the first cases in the Supreme Court as it opened), and fielding regional experts in a particular jurisdiction as needed. But whereas some firms merely talk the talk - we all know how the wording goes on any big law firm website or credentials statement -  Mayer Brown really walk the walk.  The simple reason being that these guys have been working across their various offices around the globe for a very long time and cross-team working is part of the firm's cultural fabric - unlike some firms whose transatlantic or global capabilities have been forged much more recently. Remember, the Mayer Brown Rowe and Maw merger was a very long time ago back in the '90s. 

The collapse of Lehmans was a case in point. Mayer Brown pulled a rapid response team together in hours, working as one unit but covering three different jurisdictions - in New York, London and Hong Kong.

This is my favourite kind of PR job - a firm that has an excellent story to tell, but just needs a platform to tell it. No need for smoke and mirrors here. Mayer Brown are the real deal.

***

There but for the grace of God... I was lucky enough to be invited to National Brain Injury Charity Headway’s Annual Awards Luncheon, courtesy of Prolegal. As a member of the Brain Injury Group, an organisation that promotes the use of dedicated brain injury lawyers to handle personal injury claims involving head injuries, Prolegal supports Headway to help promote awareness of the reality of life after such catastrophic and complex injuries.

I read the booklet beforehand: awards would be given out for Volunteer of the Year, Campaigner of the Year, Achiever of the Year, Outstanding Contribution to Headway, as well as Carer of the Year. I was expecting to hear some moving stories. But what I wasn't prepared for was the fact that so many of the nominees and winners were individuals who had suffered brain injury themselves, and having been so brilliantly supported by Headway throughout their journey to recovery (or at least some semblance of a normal life), they wanted to give something back. This really stopped me in my tracks.

***

Well, I'm truly in the Christmas spirit now. Have to say, Covent Garden really knows how to do Christmas! This being our first Winter in our new neighbourhood, it has been such a welcome surprise to see how everyone in Seven Dials and Covent Garden more widely works together to get the area ready for Christmas. Almost makes up for the passing of the Summer and the fact that we can't use our wonderful roof garden at the moment! As many of you know already, I am the very proud owner of an I Love Covent Garden discount card. Back in November the organisers advertised a 20% discount day to take place on the 1st December - and I promptly booked the whole day off! So now I can smugly say most of my Christmas shopping has been done. But most fun of all, was just to enjoy the community spirit. How nice to work in a district in Central London with such a strong sense of community.