Overview: Facing fear

Overview: Facing fear

‘When you’ve got your mouth wrapped around the firehose, it becomes really hard to step back and design better ways of doing things,’ comments Checkout.com general counsel (GC) and chief operating officer Joshua Kaplan. ‘But there are times when you just have to force it to happen.’ A slightly mangled metaphor, but time-pressed GCs get …

The BT interview – ideas from the bath

The BT interview – ideas from the bath

Legal Business (LB): Eighteen months in the group general counsel role, what have been some of the key projects since you landed? The wider business has been through a lot of transformation, how is legal keeping up? Sabine Chalmers (SC), group GC, BT: When I joined, Gavin Patterson was my boss. He’s since left the …

Pinsents makes up non-lawyers to partner as it mulls quarterly distributions delay in wake of Covid-19

Pinsents makes up non-lawyers to partner as it mulls quarterly distributions delay in wake of Covid-19

Pinsent Masons has promoted staff outside of traditional legal services to partner for the first time in a slightly increased partner promotions round. The firm said today (30 March) it was promoting 17 to partner, effective 1 May, including Hayley Boxall from its forensic accounting services team and director of client solutions David Halliwell. Pinsents …

DWF flags Covid-19’s ‘material impact’ on profit and increased debt as Keystone declines dividend

DWF flags Covid-19’s ‘material impact’ on profit and increased debt as Keystone declines dividend

The UK’s largest listed law firm, DWF, expects the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic to have a material impact on its profit and has entered talks with its lenders to extend its £80m credit facility and relax certain covenants. DWF provided a trading update to the London Stock Exchange today (27 March), setting out the …

Listed firms suffer Covid-19 fallout as Knights staff face sweeping cuts and Ince cancels dividend

Listed firms suffer Covid-19 fallout as Knights staff face sweeping cuts and Ince cancels dividend

Knights board members and staff earning more than £30,000 face pay cuts of at least 10% and some staff will be made redundant, while Ince has followed Gateley in slashing its interim dividend due to the impact of coronavirus. The listed law firms today (26 March) provided trading updates to the London Stock Exchange, citing increased …

‘Impossible to predict’ coronavirus fallout sees Gateley cancel £3m dividend and suspend guidance

‘Impossible to predict’ coronavirus fallout sees Gateley cancel £3m dividend and suspend guidance

Listed law firm Gateley has withheld more than £3m in shareholder payouts to keep hold of cash with activity dented by the Covid-19 pandemic. The firm said today (24 March) it would cancel its interim dividend of 2.9 pence a share, which was due to be paid at the end of this month, in order …

‘Doesn’t fit a law firm’: Kennedys looks to prove smarts with IQ technology arm spin-off

‘Doesn’t fit a law firm’: Kennedys looks to prove smarts with IQ technology arm spin-off

Kennedys has become the latest firm to spin off part of its services offering and open up to external investment in a bid to rapidly scale across the globe. The firm has today (26 February) launched Kennedys IQ, a technology and software services business owned by, but separate to, the LLP partnership. This brings together a …

The Addleshaws Interview – The rebound guy

The Addleshaws Interview – The rebound guy

Legal Business (LB): Looking at the finances of the firm over the past five years, you are one of the LB100’s top performers. What’s the secret? John Joyce, managing partner, Addleshaw Goddard: We’ve always had a good business. It lost its way, undoubtedly, and all we’ve done is refocus our efforts. We reintroduced focus on …