Legal Week's change at the top

Legal Week has a new editor. Long-time deputy editor Alex Novarese stepped up to the role yesterday. Alex joined the magazine shortly after its launch in 1999 and has played a key role in its development ever since, as well as becoming an astute commentator on the legal market.

As for me, I hand over the reins after seven years as editor, although I remain in the Legal Week stable. It has been a fascinating period for the UK legal profession, which began with Clifford Chance’s ambitious tripartite merger and encompassed the painful fall-out from Enron and 9/11.

Optimism among business lawyers is probably as high now as it was before the dotcom crash, but there is reason to believe most law firms are more robust entities now than they were then.

Naturally, there are still some tough challenges, not least of which is the impact the relentless drive for ever-higher profits is having on law firms and, just as importantly, the people who work there.

Lawyers often ask me whether I actually like dealing them day in, day out, as if I must be rather strange. Are they just fishing for compliments? Perhaps. Yet the truth is that attempting to keep pace with the twists and turns of such a successful and competitive industry remains both challenging - and fun.

john.malpas@legalweek.com