A&O Shearman was formed in 2024 via the merger of two historic firms, Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling. With nearly 4,000 lawyers globally, we are equally fluent in English law, U.S. law and the laws of the world’s most dynamic markets.
This combination creates a new kind of law firm, one built to achieve unparalleled outcomes for our clients on their most complex, multijurisdictional matters – everywhere in the world. A firm that advises at the forefront of the forces changing the current of global business and that is unrivalled in its global strength.
Our clients benefit from the collective experience of teams who work with many of the world’s most influential companies and institutions, and have a history of precedent-setting innovations.
Together our lawyers advise more than a third of NYSE-listed businesses, a fifth of the NASDAQ and a notable proportion of the London Stock Exchange, the Euronext, Euronext Paris and the Tokyo and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.
"Email has got to be just about the worst form of communication ever devised… If somebody picked up the telephone or, God forbid, met somebody in person, those misunderstandings would never have happened."
"Email has got to be just about the worst form of
communication ever devised... If somebody picked up the telephone
or, God forbid, met somebody in person, those misunderstandings
would never have happened."
Simon Dodds, Of-Counsel at Shearman & Sterling, talks to
Crafty Counsel's Ben White about what it takes to build the
best possible relationship between in-house counsel and law firms.
Simon shares some of the insights he has acquired from an extensive
career, including 27 years at Deutsche Bank and its predecessor,
Bankers Trust Company. Simon was most recently Co-General Counsel
at Deutsche Bank before moving to his current role at Shearman
& Sterling.
"The in-house lawyer isn't there to give advice.
He's there to make decisions, and help make decisions. Very
often, outside lawyers are worried about that... But if you
can't engage with the decision-making process, your utility is
much more limited."
"Very often, when you do have a problem around things that
have not gone so well, it tends be that the communication between
inside lawyer and outside lawyer has not been as good as it should
be.
Originally published in Craft Counsel
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