This issue holds our annual Legal Business Global London survey results.
To view the editorial commentary of the rankings go to: legal500.com Continue reading “Legal 500 data: The Legal 500 Global London rankings”
Keystone Law has made last year’s 11% uptick in turnover look ordinary by comparison, today (28 April) announcing an eye-catching 27% boost in revenues from £55m to £69.6m.
This rate was bettered by the profitability increase: adjusted profit before tax stood at £9.1m, representing a pacey 52% jump from last year’s £6m figure. Overall, Keystone is in a healthy financial position, boasting zero debt and a strong operating cash conversion of 103%, with cash generated from £10m in operations.
Continue reading “Keystone hails £400k saving on overheads as revenue rockets 27% and profits soar”
I saw a seagull trying to drink a glass of red wine the other day. I was at the House of Lords for an event on ESG governance and standing on the balustrade of the terrace was a massive seagull sticking its beak into a glass of red. It knocked one glass into the Thames and then another. There are so many awful things going on in the world but this kind of thing keeps me amused!
In high school I got fascinated by courtrooms, the idea of standing in front of a judge and arguing! I’ve always loved to play with language and debate. I wanted to be in private practice, that was my dream, thinking that I knew what that was, which of course, I didn’t! When you’re so young and idealistic, it was more conceptual, looking for justice, rather than understanding what you really want when you’re 15.
I wanted a career that appealed to my academic side but was also practical; set in real life. Law appealed to both sides.
Based on the aim of compliance with the objectives of the European Green Deal, Turkey’s e-mobility sector has been experiencing a significant development to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector and to accelerate the transition to a cleaner and more sustainable mobility. Therefore, Turkey has recently introduced new regulations and various incentive schemes relating to e-mobility.
In this context, an amendment of the Electricity Market Law Nr. 6446 entered into force on 21 December 2021 that regulates the procedures and principles on e-mobility activities as well as the rights and obligations of the market participants. Furthermore, new regulations on operation licences for electric vehicle charging stations and on installment of charging points in parking areas have been introduced. In addition, regulations that provide the legal framework for the e-scooter sector as a significant part of micro-mobility entered into force. The Turkish government has also adopted incentives for investments in electric vehicle charging stations. As a result of these regulations, it is expected that the number of electric vehicles and the electric vehicle charging stations will significantly increase in Turkey within the following years. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Legal framework for Turkey’s transition to e-mobility has been introduced”
Given Turkey’s recent economic problems including the currency crash and inflation together with continued problems created by the Covid-19 pandemic, how is this affecting your firm?
The economic recession in Turkey existed a year before the beginning of Covid. Covid has just made this situation obvious. Serious fluctuations in currency along with over 100% inflation rate have deepened the existing economic crisis. This has caused a disruption in all kinds of production in the markets. The fact that banks kept up the markets through loans has greatly disrupted the balance in the market. As a consequence, the case portfolio in our office has shifted to legal procedures such as breach of contract, mediation, litigation and internal arbitration. Continue reading “Sponsored Q&A: Osman Ertürk ÖZEL, LL.M., managing partner, ÖZEL Attorney Consultancy”
My mum is Syrian and my father’s Iraqi. I was raised in Saudi Arabia and Lebanon. I was influenced by the war in Lebanon and then the war in Iraq. Constantly moving and never having a place that you can call your own, but also fighting to be educated.
As a girl in Saudi Arabia, I had to dress up as a boy to go swimming and horse riding. All the things women weren’t allowed to do. When I became a teenager, I wasn’t allowed to any more. It was very obvious that I was not a boy and I found my world cut in half. Continue reading “Life During Law: Diala Minott”
New and bold ideas often come from young people. We see the effect the new generations have on innovative technologies, especially due to the increase in digitalisation and the adaptation of the older generation to digital life being slower than the younger generation. Startups are on the minds of most of the young business people who think that their creative ideas cannot grow within the huge bureaucratic and cumbersome holdings and joint stock companies.
The startup, in words of famous entrepreneur Neil Blumenthal, is a term used for companies working to solve a problem where the solution is not obvious and success is not guaranteed. Since a not-so-distant past, we have often heard this term and have seen entrepreneurs’ success and failure stories. The number of entrepreneurs who do not want to be a part of corporate culture, who have new and extraordinary ideas and who adopt a flexible working culture is rapidly increasing. When it comes to startups, success, investment, growth and earnings are on one side of the coin; whereas the other side holds the problems of the crawling period, financial difficulties and the difficulty of finding investment. Perhaps even those of you who are reading this article have or have had a successful or unfortunate startup adventure. Not everyone who touches, nurtures and feeds on the startup ecosystem is immune to the difficulties experienced in that painful birth and crawling process of a startup. Perhaps one of the most challenging of these difficulties is the problem of financing. While some entrepreneurs in Turkey benefit from sources such as KOSGEB or TÜBİTAK funds or micro-loans, some of them are knocking on venture capital companies’ and angel investors’ doors to solve the financing problem that can determine the fate of a startup. Apart from these, another source of financing frequently used is the savings that the entrepreneur has made up to that day or the financial support they received from family, relatives and friends. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Turkey: A paradise for startups and angel investors”
I. Understanding SAFEs
SAFE is an acronym for ‘Simple Agreement for Future Equity’ that is concluded between investors and the target startups; where the investors give the funds to startups in advance, in exchange for a promise from the company to give shares to the investor at a future date when the startup raises money on a priced round. It is possible for the startups to sign SAFEs with numerous investors at the same time with different terms, as by nature, SAFEs let startups reward investors who are willing to move first by taking more risk, with lower valuations. Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Understanding SAFEs and complexities in the ‘Simple’”
We are witnessing unexampled times… In the light of the pandemic, there have been economic ramifications in Turkey and all around the world. Yet, this was also an opportunity for finding tools in order to ensure business continuity, since no one had any idea on when the pandemic will cease. Thankfully, we are in an era where we can get the most out of technological developments. In that regard, virtual interactions have become an essential part of life for businesses. Needless to say, the legal sector is no different than any other sector. The trend has even accelerated during the pandemic, with both clients and law firms inclining towards video-conferencing and other appropriate forms of virtual interactions, eg, e-hearings and e-meetings.
Not long ago, interest in virtual interactions has focused on the ‘metaverse’, which seems to be the latest fashionable concept in tech viewed as a form of cyberspace. What makes the metaverse different? Well, basically, it allows us to immerse a version of ourselves as avatars in its environment via augmented reality or virtual reality. However, at this point, lawyers are inclined to ask who or what will govern the metaverse? Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The metaverse law – are we ready for the challenge?”
In another batch of strategic recruitment, Keystone Law’s flexible working model has attracted ten new partners, the firm has announced.
The new hires include five corporate specialists: Michael Holter, who counts aviation and e-commerce companies among his clients, and Rupert Weber, who has expertise in investments into and from Africa, arrived from McDermott Will & Emery; Keith Gilbert from Freeths, and Paul Toolan and Stephen Fuller from Ince. Additions in the real estate space include hospitality sector expert Ed John from Howard Kennedy, Amanda Lloyd from Penningtons Manches Cooper, and Minesh Patel from stevensdrake. Private client partner Simon Mackie joined from Irwin Mitchell and insurance expert Ruth Hite arrived from Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance. These additions follow a dozen partner level hires in January. Continue reading “Revolving doors: Keystone makes partner group hire as Morgan Lewis builds in City”
Renewed commitment among US agencies to punishing corporate wrongdoing has pushed investigations to the top of the risk register. We partnered with OpenText to find out how this is impacting GCs in the DACH region
In September 2021 the video games industry suddenly found itself in the spotlight after allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination at Activision Blizzard – one of the biggest publishers in the world and the target of Microsoft’s largest-ever acquisition – sparked investigation by US regulators. Coming just months after a new Biden administration had pledged to crack down on the full spectrum of corporate wrongdoing, it was a timely reminder of the many and varied investigations risks now faced by global business. Continue reading “Sponsored survey: Maximising compliance and minimising risk: corporate investigations in the DACH region”
‘There was a point where centres in Africa, Asia and other parts of the world started saying, “hang on, we have lots of parties from this region doing international arbitration but they’re all going to London, Paris, Geneva – we should have some of it here”,’ recalls Herbert Smith Freehills London-based global arbitration partner and president of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), Paula Hodges QC. Continue reading “More seats at the table”
Two years on from the UK’s first lockdown and the buzz has returned. Litigators might now work part-time from their homes and courts persist with virtual hearings for simple procedural hearings and the like, but a level of pre-2020 familiarity has been restored. Continue reading “Back to life – cases of the year”
Budusan & Associates on being a white-collar defence and compliance practice in Romania Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The first Romanian law firm dedicated to white-collar crime”
Stephenson Harwood considers the current scope of the Quincecare duty and some of the practical issues of which banks need to be aware following the latest judgment from the Court of Appeal Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The Quincecare duty: when shouldn’t you follow instructions?”
Zamakhchary & Co provides an overview of the main commercial terms that may face the risk of unenforceability before a commercial court in Saudi Arabia
Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Enforceability of commercial contract terms”
Eugene Sokoloff discusses what the Biden Administration’s antitrust overhaul means for litigation and enforcement Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: The new antitrust”
Stewarts’ Julian Chamberlayne, Bradley Meads and Stuart Carson consider the most significant developments in relation to costs recovery, cost management, security for costs, conditional and contingency fees, litigation funding and insurance Continue reading “Sponsored briefing: Costs and funding”
