Obelisk provides clients with individuals or teams to deal with particular matters on a one-off or on-going basis and allows them to scale their teams up or down as needed. Linklaters will use Obelisk when, for example, an experienced consultant is needed for a discrete piece of work on an ad hoc basis, or to cover a leave of absence such as maternity leave and sabbaticals.

Largest pool

Obelisk boasts the largest pool of flexible lawyers in the country having recently reached the 1,000-lawyer mark. The majority have worked in magic circle and other leading City law firms and also in senior in-house positions. Between them, they cover almost all areas of commercial law. Whilst primarily London based, Obelisk also has lawyers within its network across Europe including France, Germany, Luxembourg as well as parts of Asia, Africa and Central and North America.

Linklaters pedigree

Obelisk was founded by Linklaters alumna Dana Denis-Smith and includes other former Linklaters lawyers in its talent pool. Linklaters will be offering its alumni the opportunity to sign up if they are interested in adopting a more flexible approach to their careers. To date, Obelisk has been more focused on supporting general counsel counting the likes of Barclays, BT, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, ING, Intel and Vodafone among its clients – but the model was always designed to work for law firms as well.

Makes sense

Dana Denis-Smith said: ‘Obelisk’s offer makes sense for our lawyers and our clients alike, putting the former in control of their working lives, and allowing the latter to rethink their staffing requirements…I am particularly pleased to have my old firm as a client – what I learnt there helped set the standards I expect from an Obelisk consultant and ensures that we can offer the quality that a firm like Linklaters demands.’