When news of the demise of Cobbetts was announced in the press earlier this year, many people left comments online. But one in particular stood out:

Aspiring lawyer: set your sights on either a seriously big ticket firm and be ready to trade away most of the hours of your life for decent pay and reasonable security, or a big player at the bottom end of the market and accept you’ll never be paid as much… By the time you qualify most of the middle ground will have gone one…

BD is good for your firm. But is it good for your career?

Law firms are rubbish at business development (BD). Despite the proliferation of specialised BD managers over the past decade, as well as BD training for all levels of lawyer, law firms still seem to struggle to implement strong strategies to develop client relationships and create new or expand existing revenue lines.

And according to recent research by NatWest and BD specialist Huthwaite Legal,…

How can you tell if your firm’s about to collapse?

When Cobbetts called in the administrators, a common reaction seemed to be one of sadness but not surprise. This despite the fact that the firm had published solid half-year results in December and was still recruiting right up to mid-January.

DWF has moved fast to snap up the failing firm, which will be a source of hope to some employees. But as they wait to hear their fate, they may wish that they’d been more…

Is Proskauer’s apprenticeship scheme a game-changer?

These days, it’s common to pick up a newspaper and find a story related to tuition fees and their impact on hiring emerging talent. Many of the Big Four accountancy firms, for example, have developed souped-up school-leaver schemes to attract young stars who don’t want to be lumbered with educational debt.

Proskauer is leading the way among US firms by introducing its own apprenticeship scheme. Last month it…