Riverview is one of the new breed of legal businesses created to deliver corporate legal work in a new way based upon the belief that the law is just another business service. One of the key people behind the company is Karl Chapman who recently agreed to speak with me about the inner workings of his company.

This candid post is the result. So is Riverview going to be the shape of things to come in the legal world? You decide.

How would you best describe Riverview…

Earlier this year, a U.S. District Court approved the payment of $310 million in attorney fees to 116 law firms in a single case (TFT-LCD Antitrust Litigation), with one firm receiving $75 million in fees and another receiving $49 million. While that case may be an extreme example, the median hourly rate for partners in U.S. law firms is $625 per hour and the average patent lawsuit…

When I talk about the virtues of CRM systems with people I get one particular response more than all the others added together “That’s Great Mike but I just don’t have the time”. Well I’ve got news for anybody who shares that view – you don’t have the time NOT to use CRM and…

The Law Society's Annual Statistical Report was published on April 17th and many commentators were suggesting that we are seeing the first signs of the widely predicted decline in practising Solicitor numbers. Admittedly, the figures are over nine months old but since then, we have to say, the legal sector has not seen anything to suggest the downward trend is a blip. 

Although the numbers of Solicitors on the Roll as of July 2012 increased by 4% to 165,971. Private Practice Solicitor…

Following on from Manchester United winning the 2012/13 Premier League, it has been announced that the former United boss is to undergo hip surgery during the summer.  A hip replacement is a commonly performed piece of surgery and is conducted where replacement of a damaged hip joint is needed.  The artificial replacement is also known as a prosthesis.  Thankfully, following on from his retirement, Sir Alex will now have a sufficient period to recover, which usually results in a return to…

Hello everybody, it's Star Blogger time again!



Every now and then we like to honour a Defero Law member with 'Star Blogger' status. A member who contributes insightful, informative and entertaining blog posts that are of benefit to our members and audience.

This time round we're…

In a recent episode of The Big Questions (broadcast April 28 2013), Nicky Campbell tackled the issue of social media misuse and abuse.

The context?

Two days prior on April 26 2013, Dean Liddle and Neil Harkins were both handed down suspended sentences (see…

Alan Dewar QC presented a paper on test purchasing and under age sales to the CLT Licensing Conference on 8th May 2013 and commented, in particular, on the recent landmark Inner House decision in LIDL UK GmbH v City of Glasgow Licensing Board [2013] CSIH 25, 5th April 2013. Alan appeared in…

#JustSaying.  They say that less is more. Res ipsa loquitur... “The thing speaks for itself”. Or, as the hashtag goes on Twitter: “Just Saying”. Could you sum up your career in 140 characters?  That’s what I’ve tried to do over the last two years – posting employment law tips on Twitter in 140 characters or fewer, using the hashtag #EmploymentLawTip. Forget the Latin maxims and legal prose ... just punchy tips on HR and employment law in bite-size chunks.  140 of them, no…

Did I or didn’t I cut the grass I hear you ask? 

Well I did, but not when I had expected or planned to do it. I had expected for Saturday morning to be the day to do it, but the weather took a different view on that. Not just a bit of rain, but torrential hail of significant size delayed my plans.

Fortunately, with it being a bank holiday weekend, I was granted the luxury of an extra day to get all of my tasks complete, so all was not lost; after all, I could get a job done…

Michael Porter, the Competitive Analysis guru states "Beware of the Buzz"

How many times in the last decade have you heard about the next big thing in your industry?

An idea or new market entrant which is going change the way we do things?

Tesco Law?

The many "Dot-com" companies who came, saw off people's money and failed dramatically?

Some were surprise failures but Porter states that they failed to take into account the "switching costs" or as the cool…

Design patents have been making the news. Last summer, Apple’s $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung was famously based, in part, on the finding that Samsung infringed Apple’s rounded-rectangle and edge-to-edge glass designs. Since then, Yamaha, Thule, Oakley, Nike and Spanx, to name just a few, have litigated in the U.S. over the design of headphones, ski racks, sunglasses, footwear and women’s undergarments. And just last month, former head of the USPTO, David Kappos, published an OpEd…

There’s no bigger creature of habit than me.  I always eat ready salted crisps and I always have crunchy nut cornflakes for breakfast. The current Mrs Ode is no different, she always has Lasagne whenever we go out - I’ve even seen her try and order it in an Indian restaurant.



We are all like this in some way, ok, maybe not with the freaky lasagne fetish but we all have habits.  Sticking with the ‘norm’ is fine.  It feels safe and in many ways you are in your comfort zone.  However,…

Most businesses will be familiar with this scenario: you enter into a contract and then later, for whatever reason you want or need to exit.…

Looking out from the offices today I see that the sun is shining and we have some glorious blue skies across Cambridgeshire.  I can only hope that it will last through to the weekend so that I can give the grass its second cut of the year. 

To match the great weather I saw the release of the Move with Us Residential Property Market Review Q1 2013 (that’s a mouthful).  If you haven’t seen it, get a copy (z-mag…

Many people believe that as a signatory to the Declaration of Independence, Benjamin Franklin became President of the United States of America.  Although it was often used by Mark Twain, the phrase ‘The only two certainties in life are death and taxes’ actually originates in a 1789 letter from Benjamin Franklin to a French scientist.  One of the founding fathers of the United States was expressing his concern as to the high levels of morbidity in fledgling America.

In 2013,…

You might recall that a while back we added 'Mr Lawyer' to our Cartoon Character in Legal Services League Table. Well, 'Mr Lawyer' suddenly came back into my conciousness this week on the back of a Google search.…

Northern Ireland's largest independent law firm, Carson McDowell has been cooking up something special: their marketing and branding campaign really is something different.

While out and about in Northern Ireland I've come across a number of exciting and eye catching Carson McDowell advertising boards. This is new territory for lawyers in Northern Ireland. Such ostentatious acts were long beyond the legal establishment; the reserve rather of car dealers, global merchandisers, drinks…

Criminal Solicitors could be on the move over the next few weeks as the May 2013 Criminal Duty Solicitor rota deadline approaches - and a survey has revealed that they are almost three times more likely to be looking to move for work/life balance than other legal professionals.

Douglas Scott Legal Recruitment's 2013 Salary and Benefits Benchmarker, which processed over £19m of salary data, questioned legal staff all over the UK about their roles, their incomes and their job…