Kap in Hand
Like the Lib Dems at the last election, Kaplan Law School has just suffered its meltdown moment. A tiddler compared with the University of Law and BPP, it enjoyed a few years of inflated importance as a third force on the legal education scene, courtesy of hosting Nottingham Law School’s London presence. Now that arrangement is over, pressure from the two big players means it will cut its substantial financial losses by dropping its LPC and GDL programmes from next year. What’s interesting is that it claims that it will continue to be part of the legal scene by “developing innovative new products that draw on the Training for Tomorrow framework and reflect the Competence Statement”. That might work— who knows? The “competence statement” might be a game-changer if students opt out of the traditional model.
Media mediocrities?
I was intrigued to read the analysis by communications firm Golin of how law firms are rated in the media. Most interestingly, neither Linklaters nor Freshfields, despite being members of the “magic circle”, appears in the top 10 rankings for media coverage. Both are terrific firms and highly profitable but, frankly, what do they contribute to the national debates about law? By contrast the big-hitters who make time for important national dialogues include Clifford Chance (rated 1st), Irwin Mitchell (2nd), Pinsent Masons (3rd) and Allen & Overy (6th). As Golin reports, however, the general public does not have a high regard for the legal sector. Apparently its “favourability rating” stands at minus 6 per cent on Golin’s index, compared to much more positive scores for other industries such as technology (+29.1 per cent). Some room for improvement?
Chinese whispers
Placed at number four, Norton Rose Fulbright can congratulate itself on being the “fastest rising brand” in this year’s Asia Pacific Law Firm Brand Index (published by Acritas), which rates how firms are perceived by clients. Despite the travails of recent weeks, Asia Pacific is still seen as the fastest growing region in the world and is increasingly the key battleground for world domination among law firms. As ever, top of the tree is Baker & McKenzie, which trail-blazed legal relations with the Chinese communists back in the 1980s. It deserves its reputation.
Buzz off
I couldn’t wait to use the new Buzzsaw tool, which identifies and strips out PR gobbledegook from corporate press releases. As my first victim I threw in “Morgan Lewis advises Sberbank Europe AG on €50m Croatian loan deal”. To its credit this checked out with a mere 2 per cent buzzword quotient. I look forward to naming and shaming buzzword bandits.