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 if 2025 needed just another little dollop of big legal news, Taylor Wessing and Winston & Strawn are set to become the fourth major transatlantic merger in two and a half years.
So The Lawyer Podcast is back for an unexpected bonus episode as they talk through the announcement.
The second transatlantic tie-up in a month, the team discusses what the firms are up to, what it means for Germany and the rest of Europe...
As 2025 draws to a close, it feels like 2025 has been an inflection point for the legal sector.
While firm financials largely look good, fundamental changes are underway on both sides of the Atlantic.
Technology, investment, mergers and even politics all shook the business of law this year.
So for the final episode of The Lawyer Podcast in 2025, we take a look back at what has changed for the sector this year, and what i...
Unlike A&O’s tie up with Shearman and Sterling, Ashurst’s announcement that it had agreed a merger did not come as a surprise.
The firm had been in the market for a US-merger for more than two decades, yet its new partner, Perkins Coie, did still come as a bit of a surprise.
The silver circle firm clearly needed to make its move, but was it the right one?
Tune in to the new episode of The Lawyer Podcast as hosts Catr...
The Lawyer’s editor Catrin Griffiths and director of insight Matt Byrne are back from a fact-finding mission in New York, and merger mania is gripping the city’s lawyers.
As firms seek scale, reach and private capital clients, some of the oldest firms in the Big Apple are pondering how a tie up could help their bottom line.
And while private equity investment into firms is all the rage in the UK, in the US it is startin...
Tax rises for partnerships may be on the way in next month’s Budget – and potentially big ones at that.
Many lawyers were left shocked after the news broke last week that the Government is considering adding the equivalent of employer’s national insurance onto partnerships.
So on the new episode of The Lawyer Podcast, we ask what that might mean for a range of firms, whether it is a good idea (or just good politics), wh...
Private equity investment in law firms has accelerated in the past 12 months. Essentially every UK200 law firm in the country has been approached, and many have already accepted the opportunity. Now the question is whether firms at the top of the market might join in.
But is it actually a good idea? Can law firms offer the rapid turnaround that private equity demands? Or is it just a chance for equity partners to cash ...
The Lawyer's UK200: Top 100 report, sponsored by Legora, is out and it contains 100 stories of firms forging ahead or falling behind. But which are the most interesting of all?
In this week's episode of The Lawyer Podcast we dive into the sea of data and analysis that is the UK200 report and come up clutching four firms that are particularly worthy of attention this year. Who are they? Why should you care abo...
Gardening has transformed from an old-fashioned past-time to a popular trend in the past few years, and now, even law firms are getting in on the action.
Firms like Eversheds, Switalskis and CANDEY are leading the charge, but there is so much more that could be done. After all, who wants to look at a grey bit of concrete all day.
So as the Autumn weather sets in and as we all try to distract ourselves from the news, The...
The kids are back in school, the clouds are rolling in, and offices across the land are filling up with lawyers returning from their holidays.
And just in time, The Lawyer Podcast is back after the summer break. But just like in Westminster, it was far from a quiet summer for the legal sector.
So on our first episode back, we bring you the stories you missed while you were on your holidays.
From Addleshaw Goddard’s salar...
There is a radical reconfiguration taking place in the world of BigLaw that may make terms like magic circle or white shoe firm obsolete.
The transatlantic, private capital corridor between New York and London is now the stamping ground for some of the world’s best and most profitable law firms - firms that The Lawyer are now calling the Global Elite.
The Lawyer’s brand new The Global Elite report sets out those firms m...
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
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.
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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