Trainees take on business

Thinking - Blog

The cost of power in the US election

Published on 02 November 2016. By Charlotte Thompson, Associate

Electioneering in the US is big business.

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Thinking - Blog

A Presidential Personality

02 November 2016

As much on this side of the pond as on the other, success on the political stage today seems to be determined by candidates’ personalities over their policies.

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Thinking - Blog

Chinese 'netizens' and the US Presidential Election

02 November 2016

What do grassroots Chinese people think about the US election? Weibo and WeChat, the two dominant online social platforms in China, have provided a mixed answer.

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Thinking - Blog

Clinton v Trump: Battle of Policies

01 November 2016

Summer 2012: the build up to the election was one of disillusionment, widespread poverty, pervasive economic trouble, and exacerbated inequality. The battle was Obama v Romney. Fast forward four years and here we go again… This time, the battle is Clinton v Trump. The main differential in any political election comes down to policies. So how do the candidates differ?

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Thinking - Blog

The keys to the White House in six easy steps

Published on 31 October 2016. By Chloe Johnston, Senior Associate

Many of us will find the choice between this year's clashing candidates simple, but the system that put these two hopefuls in the frame is slightly less straightforward.

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Thinking - Blog

How can lawyers intelligently use AI?

20 October 2016

In recent weeks, the legal press has been inundated with reports of different Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools being utilised by law firms. In case you are wondering what’s what, this post will clarify what a handful of the different systems can do, which firms are using them and the impact on legal services.

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Thinking - Publication

Revisiting the Referendum

Published on 22 September 2016. By Sophie Tuson, Senior Associate, Environment and Climate Change Practice Lead

Never afraid to shy away from the most challenging of topics, in May of this year – with the EU Referendum vote looming – the blog’s Editorial Team decided to tackle Brexit head on.

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Thinking - Blog

What Feng Shui says about your office space

26 August 2016

Feng Shui holds significant influence over many business people in China. So what's it all about?

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Thinking - Blog

Political adverts – freedom to misinform?

15 August 2016

Promises of an additional £350m per week to be given to the NHS, posters featuring "white thugs" shouting at vulnerable old ladies, and billboards plastered with images of a flood of new refugees. These are just a few of the wildly misleading, harmful and offensive adverts that featured in the build-up to the EU referendum on 23 June.

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Thinking - Blog

Art works: businesses and the value of art

04 August 2016

You're heading to a company's offices for a meeting. Does this company's involvement with art affect its success as a business, and if so, how?

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Thinking - Blog

Making a racket about the tennis pay gap

Published on 29 July 2016. By Charlotte Thompson, Associate

In 2015 Novak Djokovic, men’s world number one, received $21.65m in prize money whereas Serena Williams, women’s world number one, won less than half of that amount

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect the NHS?

Published on 21 June 2016. By Genevieve Isherwood, Senior Associate

The potential effect of a Brexit on the NHS has become a key political battleground with wildly divergent statistics being quoted and outlandish claims being made by both campaigns. Should the UK vote to leave the EU on 23 June there are a number of potential impacts on the NHS, outlined below.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect employment in the UK?

20 June 2016

Whilst the papers tell us to panic and the politicians speak of a potential apocalypse, the general view is that there will likely be very little immediate change to employment law should we vote to leave the EU on 23 June 2016.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect Intellectual Property laws in the UK?

17 June 2016

The future of IP law in the UK might not be at the top of your list of considerations when thinking about which way to vote on the 23 June. However, this area of law is heavily harmonised across the EU meaning that a vote to leave could have serious ramifications for businesses relying on IP rights.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect the banking and finance sector in the UK?

16 June 2016

Financial services represent around £26bn or 57.5% of the City of London's total income and accounts for 7.5% of the total national income of Great Britain; 18% of cross-border lending is arranged in the UK and over 250 foreign banks are in London. A Brexit could threaten the City of London's well established reputation as detailed below.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect the property market in the UK?

15 June 2016

Industry participants have forecast a slowdown in residential and commercial property markets in the lead up to polling day on 23 June.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect the cost of living in the UK?

14 June 2016

The Brexit campaign is littered with statistics about the impact of a Brexit on the UK's economy. But how does this translate to its potential impact on the cost of living?

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect law firms in the UK?

13 June 2016

As with many sectors, the implications of a Brexit for law firms in the UK are largely unknown and heavily dependent on the UK's relationship with the EU. Law firms will need to be alive to the impact across different practice areas as well as on the business as a whole.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect environmental protection in the UK?

10 June 2016

In 2013, the EU introduced an interim ban on a class of pesticides called neonicotinoids.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect the insurance industry in the UK?

09 June 2016

The insurance industry plays an essential part of the UK economy and manages investments equivalent to 25% of the UK’s total net worth.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect online shopping from the EU?

Published on 08 June 2016.

In or out? No matter which side you’re on, there’s one thing we can all agree on: we buy a lot from Europe.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect our trade relationship with Europe?

07 June 2016

There are a number of variables which would materially shape our trade relationship with Europe in a post-Brexit world.

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Thinking - Blog

How would a Brexit affect financial services regulation in the UK?

06 June 2016

Financial services is one of the UK's most important sectors, contributing over £126bn to the UK economy and representing 10% of GDP. The key post-Brexit issues for the sector are summarised below.

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Thinking - Blog

How effective is China's corruption crackdown?

04 May 2016

At the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China on 8 November 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to hunt down 'tiger and flies'; in other words, crack down on the endemic corruption between high-level officials and lower-level civil servants.

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Thinking - Blog

A Mayor Fayre

28 April 2016

Thursday May 5 2016 will (hopefully) see Londoners flocking to their local polling stations to vote for the next London Mayor.

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Thinking - Blog

How to lose $1,000,000,000,000 in 30 minutes: HFT, Liquidity and Volatility in 2016

22 April 2016

The Wall Street we all knew is dead. It has been replaced by high frequency trading (HFT).

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Thinking - Blog

Will staying in Europe mean greater access to Netflix?

Published on 14 April 2016. By Joshua Charalambous, Partner

Given the recent press attention given to David Cameron’s tax affairs it is doubtful that much could chill his concerns at the moment – even watching Netflix.

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Thinking - Blog

Banker bashing: the end of an era?

18 March 2016

Ever since George Osborne's Mansion House speech in June 2015, commentators have been queuing up to argue that "banker bashing" is coming to an end.

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Thinking - Blog

The UK housing crisis: a problem for businesses?

16 March 2016

The UK is in the midst of a housing crisis. But should businesses care? And what, if anything, can they do about it?

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Thinking - Blog

At last – the long-awaited price drop in Hong Kong's residential properties?

17 February 2016

As with many of the developed cities in the world, Hong Kong faces the phenomenon of a soaring residential property market.

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Thinking - Blog

Automation isn't the end

09 February 2016

There is something almost apocalyptic about the idea that technology will spell “the end of lawyers”, so it is comforting that research suggests that the near future will be more about the automation of activities than the replacement of entire professions.

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Thinking - Blog

NFL to touchdown in London

04 February 2016

The NFL season is reaching its climax with the Denver Broncos preparing to take on the Carolina Panthers on 7 February in the Super Bowl.

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Thinking - Blog

Borrow My Brand

Published on 01 February 2016.

Businesses, do you want to boost your brand? The answer is simple - borrow someone else's. Perhaps most prominent in the fashion world, 'brand borrowing' is the concept of one brand procuring the use of another brand’s name or logo for their products.

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Thinking - Blog

The Fed awakens: the US central bank raises the federal funds rate for the first time in nearly a decade

13 January 2016

Simply put, the federal funds rate is the interest rate at which commercial banks in the US lend money to each other, usually overnight.

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Thinking - Blog

EU in or EU out?

18 December 2015

The UK will soon be faced with a question that may well have a profound impact on its future and materially shape its place in the world, namely: should the UK remain in or out of the European Union.

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Thinking - Blog

China's Two Child Policy: Too Little Too Late?

08 December 2015

Announced in a very 21st century way, China's official news agency recently tweeted that China will be implementing a policy allowing couples to have two children.

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Thinking - Blog

Employees on Social Media - Managing the Risk

Published on 02 December 2015. By Joshua Charalambous, Partner

Employees who actively use social media can be a fantastic 24/7 dynamic marketing tool for companies.

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Thinking - Blog

Cheating or competing: the blurred lines of business

Published on 11 November 2015. By Joseph Byrne, Senior Associate

Volkswagen, Forex, LIBOR and Enron. All names that resonate with anyone involved in modern business.

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Thinking - Blog

IndiGo continues to soar over rivals in the Indian airline industry

22 October 2015

On Monday 26 October, InterGlobe Aviation (the operator of IndiGo Airlines) is due to launch its initial public offering (IPO).

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Thinking - Blog

LinkedIn 101

15 October 2015

Use social networks wisely and the rewards are great. Get it wrong and at best, you end up looking like a stalker having viewed your colleague's profile one too many times.

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Thinking - Blog

Sending out an SOS

08 October 2015

Britain's second-biggest steelmaker Sahaviriya Steel Industries UK (SSI UK) announced late last month that its Redcar plant is to be mothballed or closed, with the loss of at least 1,700 jobs.

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Thinking - Blog

Live to Work or Work to Live

11 August 2015

“But what are the hours really like?” is a question that all trainees have been asked at some point, either by fresh faced law graduates sizing up the right firm for them, or by colleagues in other seats assessing their next move.

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Thinking - Blog

Getting Over Time

30 July 2015

The five day working week is the norm in the professional services sector, but is it the most effective basis for structuring our time? After all, professional services do not roll off the end of a production line.

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Thinking - Blog

The Internet of Things

25 June 2015

If you believe the hype, the “Internet of Things” (IoT) is about to take over the world.

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Thinking - Blog

Out with the new, in with the old?

16 June 2015

'The best moments in reading are when you come across something – a thought, a feeling, a way of looking at things – that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, a person you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's as if a hand has come out, and taken yours.' Alan Bennett, The History Boys

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Thinking - Blog

Letting Go Of The Wheel

Published on 28 May 2015. By Emma Kislingbury, Senior Associate

If you are someone who finds yourself regularly gripping the car steering wheel in frustration or mouthing obscenities at your fellow road users in a frenzied rage, then you may have welcomed the recent launch of the UK trials for driverless cars.

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Thinking - Blog

Scraping the bottom of the barrel? The uncertain future of the UK energy industry after the 2015 election

20 May 2015

Before the Scottish independence referendum, Alex Salmond argued that an independent Scotland would benefit from a stronger economy off the back of its oil and gas resources.

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Thinking - Blog

Russell Brand v Katie Hopkins

Published on 07 May 2015. By Genevieve Isherwood, Senior Associate

Whether we like it or not, celebrities can wield a great deal of power and influence; on the clothes we wear, the films we see or the products we buy.

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Thinking - Blog

Carry On Constitution…

06 May 2015

Vote on Election Day, then wake up to a new Government and new Prime Minister. That's what people in this country have been used to for the best part of 150 years.

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Thinking - Blog

The National Health Service: Protecting Britain’s most precious asset

06 May 2015

With the general election now imminent, the hot topic of the NHS is being discussed more than ever before. Which party will protect it the best? Does it need to change? Read on to see!

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