The Lawyer Podcast
Hosted by editor Catrin Griffiths and litigation editor Christian Smith, every second Thursday The Lawyer Podcast brings you our take on the top stories, trends and views moving the legal market. For more news, analysis and data, go to www.thelawyer.com. The Lawyer Podcast can be contacted at podcast@thelawyer.com.
Episodes
As the government launches a sweeping review into parental leave, The Lawyer Podcast takes a look at the challenges faced by parents and other carers working in the legal sector. Are firms pulling their weight? Are men? How far have we come and what more can be done?
SHOW NOTES
The Lawyer's Working Parents Report can be read here.
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Lewis Silkin and Freshfields are two very different law firms.
But they now have one thing in common – they won one of the two big awards at The Lawyer Awards 2025 last week.
Now, The Lawyer Podcast is not typically a podcast to gush and coo.
But with Lewis Silkin taking home UK firm of the year this year, and Freshfields winning Transatlantic firm of the year, on this episode, the team wanted to ask what these two firms...
We have never seen such rapid investment in the London legal market like Paul Weiss’s recruitment spree since 2023.
Between 2023 and 2024 alone, the firm's London headcount tripled and its estimated turnover grew by more than 550 per cent.
But that was just the start of the story for US firms in London over the last financial year, as private capital doubled down on the London market.
So is it all rosy for American ...
On the surface, litigation funding and class actions are booming in the UK. Over the past five years, dozens of class actions have been filed in the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) and just at the start of this month, a new £5bn action was filed against Google. The 60 cases now in the CAT are said to be worth more than £160bn. And they are all backed by a litigation funder.
But with the judgment in Merricks v Masterc...
News broke last week that the first ever AI law firm had been given the green light by the SRA. The rush by law firms to adopt Artificial Intelligence has been the standout feature of the past two years.
But amongst all the hype, the promises, the bizarre naming of internal chat bots (we’re looking at you, Mishcon de Reya), it’s difficult to get a handle on who is doing what – and if your firm is going to be left behin...
Trump’s attacks on some of America’s most famous law firms has set in motion a chain of events that has thrown the world of BigLaw into chaos.
In episode three of The Lawyer Podcast's mini-series on Trump v BigLaw, Christian, Catrin and Richard assess what the crisis means for the junior members of the legal profession. The team speaks with Rachel Cohen, whose resignation on a point of principle from Skadden and s...
Trump’s attacks on some of America’s most famous law firms has set in motion a chain of events that has thrown the world of BigLaw into chaos.
On this second episode of our podcast mini-series, Catrin, Christian and Richard look at how firm managements are responding to Trump’s targeting.
The team speaks to former Ashurst senior partner Charlie Geffen and former Weight Watchers and Kenneth Cole General Counsel Michael C...
Trump’s attacks on some of America’s most famous law firms has set in motion a chain of events that has thrown the world of BigLaw into chaos.
Across the course of three episodes, The Lawyer Podcast will be talking to figures across the political and legal spectrum on both sides of the Atlantic, from Trump supporters to liberal academics, senior partners to students, associates to judges, to understand the crisis facin...
Law firm listings are out of fashion, but private equity interest in firms has never been higher.
With more deals already struck this year, The Lawyer Podcast crew sets out the state of PE investment in firms, debates the benefits and challenges of PE involvement, explores the experience of DWF, and ponders what the future will bring.
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Dynamic. Modern. Exciting. From Revolut to Bloom & Wild, Darktrace to Fever, startups are increasingly the place to be in the UK - and that is the case for lawyers too.
So as the potential avenues for a career in law grow and grow, Catrin Griffiths and Christian Smith are joined on The Lawyer Podcast by Tech Editor Lucie Cruz – and some special guests – to discuss what it takes to be a lawyer at a startup.
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Poland’s GDP per capita could surpass Japan’s next year and may exceed the UK’s by the end of the decade.
Such statistics help explain why the Eastern European nation is seeing an influx of international business - and legal work.
Addleshaw Goddard is to take over Linklaters’ office in Warsaw in April, Clyde & Co is keenly poaching from Dentons, while Wolf Theiss and Schoenherr are also on the hunt for talent.
So wha...
Absolute scenes: Freshfields, Willkie and how Merricks v Mastercard bankrolled the litigation market
£20m is a number most recently associated with top private equity partners, but that’s the amount a team from Willkie Farr & Gallagher has been paid for its work on the iconic Merricks v Mastercard litigation.
Now as the case wraps up, Catrin and Christian are joined by deputy litigation editor Annabel Tinson to discuss the story behind the case and its controversial settlement, and ask: what will its legacy be?
Is ...
As Donald Trump and his allies put corporate ESG on both sides of the Atlantic in their crosshairs, is now the time for law firms to stand up and prove that their sustainability programmes are not just all for lip service?
To mark the launch of The Lawyer’s Sustainability Hub, the podcast team discuss the future of law firm sustainability, which firms need to up their game, why the Slaughters’ partner dining room is pr...
Losing more than a dozen partners in a year isn’t good for any firm, but it’s particularly bad if you are a top of the market type practice like Latham & Watkins.
But after such a stumble in London and across Europe last year, which saw the firm recalibrate its partner remuneration and bonus structure to hold on to top talent, the time has come to ask: should Lathamites be worried, or is a little turbulence all par...
The Lawyer Podcast is back with for 2025!
Every January for the past 15 years, The Lawyer has published its Top 20 Cases to look out for in the coming year. Each year’s list boasts of the skill and depth of the legal market, and the high drama of the English courts.
So what makes this year different, and what can it tell us about the current state of law, business and politics? Well to kick off the New Year, Catrin and ...
It's less than a week until Christmas and across the country, fires are blazing, trees are twinkling and pigs in blankets are roasting. But in offices, lawyers still have their noses to the grindstone.
For those who celebrate it, the Christmas break can be a time to put your feet up and relax. But many still need to work over the festive season, and many still find it difficult to stop. So for our final podcast o...
Editors Catrin Griffiths, Christian Smith and Richard Simmons are back to reveal the five firms in the second hundred of the UK200 they are watching in the coming years – for good or for ill.
Tune in as we discuss firms from around the country: RBG, Lawrence Stephens, Enyo Law, FBC Manby Bowdler and Simpson Millar.
And please remember to like and subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.
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The announcement that Herbert Smith Freehills would merge with US firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel has got chins wagging across the transatlantic market.
But is this a new mega-firm in the vein of A&O Shearman, a shrewd building block for HSF to make advances in the US, or a bit of an anti-climax?
What is clear is that HSF will need to prove to markets on both sides of the Atlantic why the Kramer Levin deal ...
It is a moment of change for the European legal market.
With firms like Kirkland and Paul Hastings making major recent moves in the EU, US firms are starting to seriously disrupt the European order.
This is most visible in Germany, France and the Nordics.
So on this episode of the The Lawyer Podcast, our international editor Alex Taylor joins us after a recent visit to Oslo to discuss how US firms are impacting their loc...
In part two of our two-part podcast series, celebrating the 20th edition of The Lawyer's UK200, editors Catrin Griffiths, Christian Smith, Matt Byrne, Katy Dowell and Richard Simmons are back to reveal the five firms they are watching in the coming years – for good or for ill.
With a list of 200 law firms, it’s not difficult to find some which pique our interest…but why have they?
Tune in as we discuss Freshfields,...
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