Sonia Hickey

Sonia Hickey is a freelance writer, magazine journalist, and owner of 'Woman with Words'. She has a strong interest in social justice and is a member of the Sydney Criminal Lawyers® content team. Sonia is the winner of the Mondaq Thought Leadership Awards, Spring 2022.

Jude Law, Aaron Judge, and the Legal AI Arms Race: Why Legora Is Betting Big on Star Power

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Legal AI Just Went All Hollywood The legal technology sector has seen plenty of bold claims. But very few startups have had the audacity — or the funding — to enlist a People magazine Sexiest Man Alive to sell AI software to managing partners. Swedish legal AI company Legora is doing exactly that. “We felt

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BigLaw’s Latest Escape Artist Heads for Consulting Land

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Former Berwin Leighton Paisner boss Neville Eisenberg has done what an increasing number of senior law firm leaders seem unable to resist: he’s launched a consultancy.

After nearly two decades at the top of BLP and a stint running alternative services at Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, Eisenberg has unveiled ClarityX Advisory, a strategy outfit aimed squarely at law firms trying to survive what everyone politely calls “market disruption.”

The latest move indicates that AI, private equity money, and client pressure show that the old model is wobbling.

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The Lawyer Awards 2026 Shortlist Drops And Slaughter and May Hoards the Silverware While New Law Gatecrashers Crash the Party

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The Lawyer Awards 2026 shortlist has landed like a surprise costs order on a Friday afternoon, and if you were banking on seismic upheaval in the legal pecking order… well, take a nap and wait for another year.

Slaughter and May has basically turned The Lawyer Awards shortlist into its own personal trophy room, racking up nods in Team of the Year for Energy Transition, Finance, Private Capital, Corporate, Litigation, plus Talent Management and Client Service.

That’s not a shortlist appearance; that’s a hostile takeover with better stationery. Freshfields, Linklaters, Clifford Chance and Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer (post-merger glow-up fully activated) are also doing their usual Magic Circle victory lap across the heavy-hitting categories too.

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No Timesheets, Pure Trial Focus – How This Litigation Boutique Rewrote the BigLaw Rulebook in Just 10 Years

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What happens when elite trial lawyers walk away from BigLaw’s billable-hour machine and build a firm laser-focused on taking cases all the way to verdict?

You get Wilkinson Stekloff—a lean, highly effective trial boutique that has quietly become one of the most respected names in high-stakes litigation, without ever sending a single traditional timesheet to a client.
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Tiger Woods Arrested for DUI Again — What Florida Law Really Means for Him Now, and the Elite Lawyers Who Fight These Cases

Tiger woods crash booking photo 032726

Three days after he stepped back onto a competitive golf course for the first time in nearly two years, Tiger Woods was in handcuffs. On Friday afternoon, just before 2 p.m., the most recognisable golfer on the planet climbed out of the passenger window of his overturned Range Rover on South Beach Road in Jupiter

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Top 8 Legal Answering Services for Law Firms in 2026

Phone answering service

Missing a client call can mean missing a case. Potential clients often contact multiple firms and hire the first one that responds with confidence and speed. But attorneys are in court, in meetings, or focused on active matters, so the phone keeps ringing. Legal answering services give law firms reliable coverage without the cost of

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Big Law’s Hiring Boom – Am Law 200 Firms Snapped Up 20% More Lateral Partners in 2025

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The lateral partner market didn’t just heat up in 2025 but it ran hot. New data from Law.com Compass shows that Am Law 200 firms hired 4,152 lateral partners in the 12 months ending September 30, 2025, up from 3,473 the prior year.

That’s a nearly 20% jump — a sharp contrast to the modest 3.7% increase recorded the year before in the lateral hiring report.

The numbers tell a story of a legal industry that has found its footing again, and firms that are spending aggressively to prove it.

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Legal Market Analysis – BigLaw’s Lateral Frenzy Is Reshaping the Market

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The Perkins Coie exodus in Seattle signals a permanent shift in the lateral hiring labor market that is changing the way top law firms operate. Lateral hiring is no longer just a tactic but an entire business model.

When Perkins Coie lost lawyers to the announcement new offices for Morrison Foerster and McGuireWoods. It was in fact a signal of something structural.

The departures came as Perkins Coie prepares for its merger with Ashurst, a combination that will create a global platform of roughly 3,000 lawyers. The timing reveals a pattern that now defines elite legal practice: mergers create opportunity, but they also create instability. And instability is oxygen for competitors.

What we are witnessing is not a phase. It is the emergence of lateral acquisition as BigLaw’s dominant growth strategy.

The New Economics: Why Firms Are Buying Revenue

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Clooneys Team Up with Legal Heavyweight Quinn Emanuel To Don the Cape for Global Justice

Amal Clooney - Image: CNN

In a world where celebrity philanthropy often feels like a scripted sequel, the Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ) – that noble venture launched in 2016 by Amal Clooney, the hard-wired international barrister from Doughty Street Chambers, and her silver-screen spouse George – has rolled out its Justice Champion Program with all the flair of a premiere.

Snagging litigation titan Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan as the inaugural partner, this initiative promises a pro bono powerhouse to shield at-risk women from discrimination and violence, while springing journalists from unjust detention for daring to ink the truth.

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BigLaw vs In-House Counsel Salaries 2026: The $75K Gap Driving Legal Talent Crisis

inhouse recruitment 2026 - lawfuel

Let’s cut the corporate speak: your legal department is bleeding talent, and pretending it’s just about billable hours versus work-life balance isn’t going to stop the hemorrhage.

Here’s what’s really happening in Q1 2026; and if you’re a General Counsel, CLO, or corporate counsel, you need to pay attention because the landscape just shifted beneath your Italian loafers.

LawFuel took a look at recruitment strategies for in-house counsel and what recruiters and corporates can do to attract in-house legal talent in the face of BigLaw’s big money advantage.

What Is the Current Salary Gap Between BigLaw and In-House Counsel?

First-year BigLaw associates are now pulling in $240,000. Read that again. First. Year. Meanwhile, your mid-level in-house counsel with five years of actual business experience, the one who just negotiated that complex vendor agreement and actually understands your company’s risk tolerance, is making $175,000. Maybe $185,000 if they negotiated hard.
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