Letter from London

Jews

Letter from London: Our Greatest Fear

When Hitler came to power in January 1933, more than half of Berlin’s 3,400 lawyers were of Jewish origin. All of them, alongside the thousands of other Jews practising law throughout the rest of Germany, were forced to re-apply for admission to the national bar. At which point, only German-Jewish lawyers who had qualified before […]

Biglaw

Letter from London: Occupy Biglaw

When news emerged last week that the Wall Street protests were spreading to London, I dared to dream. Maybe I could inculcate myself among the protesters, I wondered, and persuade their leaders to target a Biglaw firm rather than a bank. Then, I fantasized, having obtained the relevant door-code from one of my disgruntled Biglaw […]

Biglaw

Letter from London: Curing a ‘Sick’ Society

Last week it emerged that a British teenager had been jailed for two months for taking a photo on his cellphone from the public gallery of a courtroom. Now, I know in the U.S. you’d probably just have executed the kid, but to us effete Europeans it seems a little harsh to dish out prison […]

Biglaw

Letter from London: Curing a ‘Sick’ Society

Last week it emerged that a British teenager had been jailed for two months for taking a photo on his cellphone from the public gallery of a courtroom. Now, I know in the U.S. you’d probably just have executed the kid, but to us effete Europeans it seems a little harsh to dish out prison […]

Allen & Overy

Letter from London: How To Squander an Empire

Somehow, the UK’s legal system has avoided being dragged into a spiral of decline. Yes, they're still good at law -- so good, in fact, that London is the top destination in the world for international companies to settle disputes, and English law the most popular among international in-house counsel (40% use it, with just 14% opting for New York law). The question turns, then, to the UK's ability to sustain this legal dominance....

Allen & Overy

Letter from London: Chelsy Davy Joins Biglaw

Maybe it was the hypnotic effect Pippa Middleton’s ass had on Prince Harry? Or perhaps it was simply that Chelsy Davy didn’t want to marry into the crazy old royal family? Either way, shortly after William and Kate tied the knot in April, Harry and Chelsy split up. And what did the Zimbabwean blonde bombshell do next? She became a lawyer....

Biglaw

Letter from London: On the Brink of a Double Dip?

Welcome to Letter from London, a weekly look at the U.K. legal world by our London correspondent, Alex Aldridge. He asked various managing partners what European debt contagion would mean for large law firms in the U.K. And, predictably, they reeled off the standard recession line about law firms being “well placed to handle the anticipated wave of restructuring work.” The worry is what happens after the restructuring is complete...

Celebrities

The Royal Wedding: A Legal Look (Part 3)

Ed. note This is the final installment in London-based journalist Alex Aldridge’s series of stories for Above the Law about the royal wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton. You can read the prior posts here and here. Well, they got married. Best man Prince Harry remembered the ring. None of Wills’ disgruntled exes […]

Allen & Overy

The Royal Wedding: A Legal Look (Part 2)

Ed. note This is the second in a series of posts that Alex Aldridge, a London-based journalist who covers legal affairs, will be writing for Above the Law about the upcoming royal wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton. You can read the first post here. In Britain, middle-class people who don’t know what […]

Celebrities

The Royal Wedding: A Legal Look (Part 1)

Ed. note This is the first in a series of posts that Alex Aldridge, a London-based journalist who covers legal affairs, will be writing for Above the Law about the upcoming royal wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton. So, you wish you had a royal family, eh? Judging by the content of your […]