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The Lawyer Podcast is back with for 2025!

Every January for the past 15 years, The Lawyer has published its Top 20 Cases to look out for in the coming year. Each year’s list boasts of the skill and depth of the legal market, and the high drama of the English courts.

So what makes this year different, and what can it tell us about the current state of law, business and politics? Well to kick off the New Year, Catrin and Christian are joined by senior litigation reporter Annabel Tinson to discuss the lessons from this year’s top cases.

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It's less than a week until Christmas and across the country, fires are blazing, trees are twinkling and pigs in blankets are roasting. But in offices, lawyers still have their noses to the grindstone. 

For those who celebrate it, the Christmas break can be a time to put your feet up and relax. But many still need to work over the festive season, and many still find it difficult to stop. So for our final podcast of the year, The Lawyer looks at workaholism and why lawyers so susceptible to it. 

Joining hosts Catrin Griffiths and Christian Smith to highlight the growing awareness around workaholism in the legal profession are James Browning, an academic researcher into addiction, and psychotherapist counsellor Paul Arnold.

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Editors Catrin Griffiths, Christian Smith and Richard Simmons are back to reveal the five firms in the second hundred of the UK200 they are watching in the coming years – for good or for ill.

Tune in as we discuss firms from around the country: RBG, Lawrence Stephens, Enyo Law, FBC Manby Bowdler and Simpson Millar.

And please remember to like and subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.

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The announcement that Herbert Smith Freehills would merge with US firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel has got chins wagging across the transatlantic market.

But is this a new mega-firm in the vein of A&O Shearman, a shrewd building block for HSF to make advances in the US, or a bit of an anti-climax?

What is clear is that HSF will need to prove to markets on both sides of the Atlantic why the Kramer Levin deal makes sense.

Tune in to the new episode of The Lawyer Podcast as Catrin and Christian are joined by the team leading The Lawyer’s new “global elite” coverage, Matt Byrne and Nikhil Raj Aggarwal, to assess the numbers, drivers and rumours behind the latest transatlantic tie-up.

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It is a moment of change for the European legal market.

With firms like Kirkland and Paul Hastings making major recent moves in the EU, US firms are starting to seriously disrupt the European order.

This is most visible in Germany, France and the Nordics.

So on this episode of the The Lawyer Podcast, our international editor Alex Taylor joins us after a recent visit to Oslo to discuss how US firms are impacting their local rivals, and what UK firms need to do to avoid being forgotten.

Listen to our February episode on Europe here.

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In part two of our two-part podcast series, celebrating the 20th edition of The Lawyer's UK200, editors Catrin Griffiths, Christian Smith, Matt Byrne, Katy Dowell and Richard Simmons are back to reveal the five firms they are watching in the coming years – for good or for ill.

With a list of 200 law firms, it’s not difficult to find some which pique our interest…but why have they?

Tune in as we discuss Freshfields, Hill Dickinson, BDB Pitmans, Osborne Clarke and BCLP.

And please remember to like and subscribe on your favourite podcast platform.

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If this year's UK200 is anything to go by, the majority of UK law firms are in robust health. Indeed, they are finally fighting back against the growth of US competitors.

So why are so many upending their partnership models?

In part one of our two part podcast series celebrating the 20th edition of The Lawyer's UK200, editors Catrin Griffiths, Christian Smith, Matt Byrne, Katy Dowell and Richard Simmons sit down to discuss what this year's UK200 report tells us about the health of UK law firms and how a partnership evolution is changing the way law firms operate.

Come back in a fortnight for part two, when we reveal our picks for the five law firms to watch - for good or for ill.

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Last week, A&O Shearman set out post-merger plans to close its legacy Allen & Overy base in Johannesburg, reduce its partnership by 10 per cent by the end of the financial year, and sell its consultancy business Consulting by A&O Shearman.

So is this a sign of things already going wrong, or is this all par for the course for big mergers?

In this new episode of The Lawyer Podcast, hosts Catrin Griffiths and Christian Smith are joined by deputy editor (City) Rachel Moloney and Horizon editor Katy Dowell to discuss the aftermath of mega mergers.

Drawing on the notable transatlantic mergers of Hogan Lovells, BCLP and Eversheds, the team discuss partner losses and the importance of the first six months of a newly consolidated operation. What mergers should A&O Shearman model? And is this culling a sign of weakness or strength?

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Football law has typically been the domain of sports specialists. However, in recent years, there has been a growing number of large, elite firms and chambers entering the football market.

Clifford Chance and Freshfields act for Manchester City, and Slaughter and May and Linklaters represent the Premier League. Latham and Watkins worked on the Chelsea sale, sports boutiques like Northridge and Onside Law are going gangbusters, and Silver Circle firms Ashurst and Macfarlanes are also getting in on the action. Over at the Bar, Fountain Court has started its own sports law team.

With the hearing of the Premier League’s 115 charges against Manchester City expected this month, The Lawyer Podcast takes a look at why football law has gone mainstream, who the new entrants doing the best work are, and what the future might hold for lawyers and football.

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The associate recruitment market has tightened up over the past year or two. For trainees looking to qualify, that means finding a home in their preferred practice area is more difficult too.

But qualification and, specifically, which team you qualify into, can be one of the most crucial moments in a solicitor’s career. 

So on the final episode of The Lawyer Podcast before the summer and with editor Catrin Griffiths away, litigation editor Christian Smith is joined by deputy editor (UK) Richard Simmons, senior reporter Lucie Cruz and reporter Charlotte Lear to debate how much a practice area actually matters, and what to do if you don’t get what you want.

Like many of you, The Lawyer Podcast will be taking a summer break for the month of August. Regular service will resume on 5th September.