The best news, features and analysis from Legal Week over the last seven days

Legal Week | Editor's Comment
April 5, 2016

Millennials, Panama Papers, Kirkland-related pay rises and more on KWM - the best of Legal Week over the last week
The best news, features and analysis from Legal Week over the last seven days

Keeping flighty and praise-hungry millennials on side is an issue facing all law firms today, so it's little wonder that the most popular article on Legal Week over the last week is a video interview for Legal Week's Best Employers Report looking at why most firms are still a long way from recognising the scale of the retention challenge.

One firm making its junior lawyers a little happier last week though was Sidley, which upped the salary of all of its London associates to at least £100,000 to match the pay of the team of partners and associates joining from Kirkland & Ellis' London office.

Elsewhere exits are continuing to mount at King & Wood Mallesons, with six partners leaving in Paris to launch a local office for Goodwin Procter. The exits, which are unrelated to plans to slash 15% of the legacy SJ Berwin partnership, come as the firm has overhauled its profit distribution system after repeated delays paying partners.

Elsewhere we looked at whether Clyde & Co's traditionally macho culture was likely to hold it back as the firm continues its ambitious assault on the international insurance market or whether senior partner James Burns could consign it to history and create a more diverse firm.

The international story of the moment though highlights why law firms need to significantly improve their data protection systems, with a law firm inadvertently the source of the world's biggest ever data leak - the so-called Panama Papers. Some 11.5 million confidential documents revealing the tax avoidance plans of wealthy individuals leaked from Panama offshore firm Mossack Fonseca, with Simmons & Simmons among advisers named in the papers.

Other highlights over the last week include:
Allen & Overy and Hogan Lovells among firms targeted by cyber criminals for M&A information

‘Work experience is the new job currency' - Allen & Overy's Morley on driving social mobility in the legal profession

Former Holman Fenwick Willan partner banned from practice after charging clients for his holidays

Law firm mergers don't benefit clients, report finds

Ex-Gibson Dunn Djibouti partner sues firm for unfair dismissal

Clifford Chance wins spot on Serco panel alongside Pinsents and DWF

White & Case tops global and European M&A rankings as quarterly deal volumes slump to three-year low

Gateley hires former KWM and Herbert Smith partner Chris Fanner

Linklaters lands mandate on National Grid's £11bn gas distribution arm sale