| Legal Week The Global Lawyer Powered By Law.com Legal News From Around the World |
| Paul Hodkinson |  |
|  | Lisa Shuchman |
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| Welcome back to The Global Lawyer, a weekly summary of the important news and trends affecting the legal industry around the world.
This week we will be taking a look at:
• Innovation in emerging markets
• US firms winning international mandates
• Fascinating disputes in France
I’m Paul Hodkinson, Editor-In-Chief at Legal Week. I and my colleague Lisa Shuchman invite you to check out our daily international coverage here.
You can subscribe to other newsletters from Law.com or Legal Week or unsubscribe from this one on the newsletters section under MyAccount, where you will see all the newsletter options.
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| International Innovation
The largest legal markets might feel they are ahead when it comes to technology and innovation but look further afield and other regions are doing interesting things too.
In Estonia artificial intelligence is being used to make small-claims court judgments and bigger cases could be on the way too, raising questions about how far it could go. And in Germany experimentation with AI in litigation has boomed in the last year.
Meanwhile, John Kang in Hong Kong reported that Singapore has launched Asia’s first legal technology-focused startup accelerator. It is the latest in a string of initiatives by the country’s government to promote legaltech.
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| Mandates For Americans
Every large law firm wants to shout about its international capabilities but the truth to their claims often boils down to evidence of deals. And it is U.S.-based firms that have been grabbing mandates in Europe and Asia in the last week.
First Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton took a role on a Chinese drugmaker’s $1 billion initial public offering in Hong Kong. Then it emerged Sidley Austin is advising Olympic gold medallist athlete Caster Semenya on her appeal in Switzerland on a decision about testosterone levels.
And Kirkland & Ellis secured the biggest one of all. It is advising Singapore-based GLP on its $18.7 billion takeover by Blackstone Group. |
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| "His professionalism, savoir-faire and dedication will be key to enabling us to take on the significant challenges facing the firm.” - Garrigues’ executive chairman Fernando Vives commenting on the appointment of Javier Ybáñez as the Spanish firm's new senior partner. |
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| French Resistance
A couple of interesting disputes are going on in France at the moment. The first is between shipping firm Ince and its former France operation. A Paris partner in the French firm has questioned the manner in which the firm’s former affiliate manages a database that holds sensitive data pertaining to clients of both firms.
The second relates to a decision by the French government to ban the publication of all data analysis related to judges’ rulings. Our Continental European correspondent Simon Taylor reported that the move - believed to be the first such ban anywhere in the world - has got people talking as it is likely to have a huge impact on legaltech and data analytics companies, as well as possibly affecting in-house legal departments and law firms too. |
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| That’s all for this week. Thanks for reading. Remember to check out our daily international coverage here.
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