Client profile: Julie Smyth, BAE Systems Air

Client profile: Julie Smyth, BAE Systems Air

‘My husband has virtually no understanding of what I do,’ admits BAE Systems Air chief counsel Julie Smyth. ‘He thinks I sit in meetings all day.’ Secrecy and security at the £18bn defence multinational is paramount. Its mammoth Warton airfield base, which dominates the village of the same name a short drive from Preston, is …

‘Natural fit’ – Slaughters confirms long-anticipated hire of ex-SFO boss Green

‘Natural fit’ – Slaughters confirms long-anticipated hire of ex-SFO boss Green

Slaughter and May’s high-profile move for former Serious Fraud Office (SFO) director David Green QC has finally been confirmed, following a drawn-out regulatory approval process. Green will join the firm as a senior consultant on 22 October, six months after leaving the SFO. The firm says Green, who led the SFO for six years, will …

DLA adds ‘practical’ regulatory expertise with hire of former high-ranking SFO lawyer

DLA adds ‘practical’ regulatory expertise with hire of former high-ranking SFO lawyer

DLA Piper has hired a former Serious Fraud Office (SFO) division head in response to multinational clients increasingly demanding ‘expertise on the ground’ with regulators. DLA announced today (28 August) it had hired corporate crime and regulatory investigations lawyer Patrick Rappo from the London arm of US firm Steptoe & Johnson, which he joined in 2013. …

‘Europe’s waking up to legal tech’: another hefty funding round as start-up Apperio raises $10m

‘Europe’s waking up to legal tech’: another hefty funding round as start-up Apperio raises $10m

Legal tech start-up Apperio is switching to growth mode after closing a $10m funding round that will enable it to double in size to 40 staff and expedite further expansion into the US market. Apperio, founded in 2013 and formerly called Legal Tender, is a platform that provides companies with real-time transparency on legal fees …

Law Society predicts no-deal Brexit could halve UK legal sector turnover growth

Law Society predicts no-deal Brexit could halve UK legal sector turnover growth

The UK legal sector could lose nearly £3bn in turnover growth and have 10,000 fewer jobs by 2025 with a no-deal Brexit, according to forecasts published by the Law Society. The society’s research unit released a report today (22 August) which predicted the legal sector would grow at an average 2.2% annually from 2019 to …

A&O Fuse start-up among first to take space at Barclays’ law tech lab

A&O Fuse start-up among first to take space at Barclays’ law tech lab

A start-up from Allen & Overy’s (A&O) Fuse innovation hub is one of the first 17 companies to join banking giant Barclays’ legal technology lab. Deal platform Legatics, which has been in Fuse for each of A&O’s first two cohorts, has taken up residence at Barclays’ 100-person LawTech Eagle Lab in London’s Notting Hill. AI …

‘Cracking place to do business’: Burness Paull leverages international growth in 7% revenue uptick

‘Cracking place to do business’: Burness Paull leverages international growth in 7% revenue uptick

It has been a choppy year for the Scottish economy but local independent Burness Paull has used a 30% increase in international mandates to drive its ninth consecutive year of revenue growth. The firm’s revenue for the year to 31 July 2018 rose 7% to £57.6m, while profit lifted 8% to £23.8m. Chairman Peter Lawson …

In-house: RBS to tackle peaks and troughs with flexible legal providers

In-house: RBS to tackle peaks and troughs with flexible legal providers

The need for a more ‘nimble and agile’ environment is driving the Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) foray into the flexible lawyers market, reducing a dependence on the need for secondees from external firms. RBS general counsel (GC) Michael Shaw (pictured) confirmed the bank has gone out to a number of flexible resourcing providers with …

In-house: big names move shop as BT’s Fitz goes into medical research and tech giants see exits

In-house: big names move shop as BT’s Fitz goes into medical research and tech giants see exits

Three of the global in-house community’s leading lights have announced moves in recent weeks, with former BT general counsel (GC) Dan Fitz’s moving to The Francis Crick Institute and resignations at both Google and Facebook. Fitz, who in December last year announced he would be stepping down after seven years, will take up his new …