Partner promotions at the UK’s leading firms have largely been down so far down this year, as firms including Trowers & Hamlins, Nabarro and Berwin Leighton Paisner all promote fewer senior associates than last year, with Addleshaw Goddard maintaining a promotion level of eight associates.
Legal Business talks to lawyers on the frontline of the controversial and risky oil and gas business to explore the industry trends and challenges in-house legal teams face 2010 was arguably a turning point in the $5trn global energy market. That was the year that Brazilian oil giant Petrobras undertook a record-shattering $70bn equity offering …
Continue reading “Power struggles – the challenges facing counsel in the $5trn oil and gas industry”
The UK arm of global cider and beer producer Heineken is actively considering going down the one-stop-shop route for the bulk of its legal work, appointing a sole legal adviser in a bid to cut down its external legal spend. Heineken’s company secretary and UK head of legal Graeme Colquhoun anticipates that one of the …
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Our 12th annual Legal Business Global London survey reveals the pressure a mounting US offensive is putting on City stalwarts. Can the UK firms resist the advance? Maurice Allen, co-managing partner of Ropes & Gray’s London office, knows all about the major players in the City, having taken in Clifford Chance (CC), White & Case …
The UK’s elite law firms often point to their rigorous partnership promotion process as a natural selector of the best talent but at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy (A&O) the promotion of just 15 and 16 partners respectively in recent weeks is insufficient even to maintain the partnerships at their current levels. For …
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Justin D’Agostino has taken over as global head of dispute resolution at commercial litigation heavyweight Herbert Smith Freehills. Here the Asia-based lawyer talks to Legal Business about joining the dots of an expanding practice. What effect will a Hong Kong-based disputes head have on the global practice? Being based in Asia gives me a good …
Continue reading “Q&A with HSF’s new global head of disputes Justin D’Agostino”
The firms that appear in Global London are the 50 largest non-UK originated firms in London, ranked by headcount. Partner and lawyer numbers were all requested as full-time equivalents as of 1 January 2014. All partner hires were up to and including February 2014. Total lawyer numbers include partners, associates, assistants and trainees but not …
Having for years eschewed the City disputes market to invest in corporate and banking work, US firms have been piling into litigation of late In retrospect, it seems strange that it wasn’t part of the game plan from the very start. US law firms – so long geared as much towards disputes as transactional work …
Energy giant BP, which has paid around $1bn in external legal fees in relation to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010, has announced a review of its UK law firm adviser line-up. Firms have been asked to tender for a place on the FTSE 100 company’s new roster, pending the expiry in May …
