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Person first, lawyer second

26 March 2021 / Declan Vaughan
Issue: 7926 / Categories: Features , Profession
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Good lawyers are ten a penny, but clients expect & deserve more. Declan Vaughan outlines the values underpinning his firm’s ‘National Powerhouse’ strategy

If all you want from your lawyer is technical excellence, then you are spoilt for choice. However, clients want and expect more than that. Today, a ‘good’ lawyer is defined by their broader business knowledge and empathy for their client, resulting in pragmatic advice and counsel grounded in commercial reality. And more. As the growing movement around the O shaped lawyer testifies, businesses want an attitudinal shift in how we as advisers approach our relationships. As the programme says, it is the person they want to see first and the lawyer second.

That is why in Browne Jacobson one of the leading pillars of our new ‘National Powerhouse’ strategy is to demonstrate our personality to the world and to build into all that we do our espoused values of inclusion, ambition, collaboration, pragmatism, fairness and a down to earth approach to all our relationships.

But nice words alone will not

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MOVERS & SHAKERS

Gilson Gray—Linda Pope

Gilson Gray—Linda Pope

Partner joins family law team inLondon

Jackson Lees Group—five promotions

Jackson Lees Group—five promotions

Private client division announces five new partners

Taylor Wessing—Max Millington

Taylor Wessing—Max Millington

Banking and finance team welcomes partner in London

NEWS
The landmark Supreme Court’s decision in Johnson v FirstRand Bank Ltd—along with Rukhadze v Recovery Partners—redefine fiduciary duties in commercial fraud. Writing in NLJ this week, Mary Young of Kingsley Napley analyses the implications of the rulings
Barristers Ben Keith of 5 St Andrew’s Hill and Rhys Davies of Temple Garden Chambers use the arrest of Simon Leviev—the so-called Tinder Swindler—to explore the realities of Interpol red notices, in this week's NLJ
Mazur v Charles Russell Speechlys [2025] has upended assumptions about who may conduct litigation, warn Kevin Latham and Fraser Barnstaple of Kings Chambers in this week's NLJ. But is it as catastrophic as first feared?
In this week's NLJ, Bhavini Patel of Howard Kennedy LLP reports on Almacantar v De Valk [2025], a landmark Upper Tribunal ruling extending protection for leaseholders under the Building Safety Act 2022
Writing in NLJ this week, Hanna Basha and Jamie Hurworth of Payne Hicks Beach dissect TV chef John Torode’s startling decision to identify himself in a racism investigation he denied. In an age of ‘cancel culture’, they argue, self-disclosure can both protect and imperil reputations
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