The McCartney Divorce Made Fiona's Name. Fiona?

The McCartney Divorce Made Fiona's Name. Fiona?

LawFuel.co.nz - The Law Jobs and Legal NewsWire

Divorce lawyer Fiona Shackleton has stolen the title of highest-profile lawyer from her Mishcon de Reya rival Anthony Julius., according a British legal survey of top-media-mentioned lawyers and reported in LawFuel.co.nz.

Over the past 12 months Shackleton, a partner at Payne Hicks Beach in London, had the most press mentions - 274 - of all UK lawyers after representing Sir Paul McCartney in his divorce from Heather Mills, according to a study by legal publisher Sweet & Maxwell.

Julius, who came up against Shackleton when he represented Diana, Princess of Wales, in her divorce from Prince Charles, has fallen from first to fourth place, with 69 press cutting to his name compared with 195 last year. The bulk of the coverage related to his acting for Mills in the early stages of her divorce proceedings.

The second most cited solicitor between July 2007 and June 2008 was Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom partner Bruce Buck, with 234 mentions - though these mainly related to his chairmanship of Chelsea FC.

The report's author Alina Lourie, director of enterprise-wide solutions at Sweet & Maxwell, said the amount of press coverage lawyers receive provides a useful measure of the issues that have captivated the public over the last year.

"While cases associated with high-profile public figures naturally receive a large slice of press coverage, the overall levels of press coverage devoted to lawyers represents the important role they play in shaping current affairs," she said.

Public inquiries continued to dominate legal media coverage with the inquest into the deaths of Princess Diana and Dodi Al Fayed leading to Michael Mansfield QC of Tooks Chambers - who represented Mohamed Al Fayed - becoming the barrister with the highest profile. Mansfield appeared in 542 articles over the course of the year.

See the full article in www.lawfuel.co.nz, the online legal jobs and news board.

ENDS

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