After boosting its Asia Pacific turnover by more than 10% last year, Allen & Overy (A&O) has become the latest City giant to receive approval to practise law in China’s Free Trade Zone (FTZ). The arrangement comes by way of a joint operation with local firm Shanghai Lang Yue Law Firm – called Allen & …
Continue reading “A&O gains Shanghai approval on the back of double-digit Asia-Pac growth”
Operating profit at Clifford Chance (CC) UK LLP fell 5% to £260m in the year to 30 April 2019 amid rising pension costs while management at City rival Allen & Overy (A&O) saw a 8% pay rise to £16m, the two firms’ recently published accounts have revealed. The fall in profits at CC’s LLP – …
Continue reading “LLP accounts: Pension costs hurt CC profits as A&O leadership sees pay increases”
In a fresh reverse for Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer amid the string of disclosures of harassment impacting the profession, a partner at the City giant has exited following an internal investigation. Nicholas Williams, a partner since 2017 in the Magic Circle firm’s London disputes practice, left the firm on 11 December after the firm launched an …
Continue reading “Freshfields partner exits following internal conduct probe”
As voters head to the polls on UK general election day, Allen & Overy (A&O) has confirmed the names of six partners who will vie for leadership in its own election in February. Senior partner Wim Dejonghe (pictured) is standing for a second term and will be up against Philip Bowden, the City giant’s well-regarded …
Continue reading “Dejonghe to stand again as A&O senior partner as six leadership hopefuls revealed”
The partnership of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has voted in sweeping reforms to its handling of misbehaviour, including financial penalties, as the #MeToo fallout continues to plague the profession. The move to establish a conduct committee followed a consultation and implements new enforcement protocols that mean partners who receive a final warning about their behaviour could face …
Writing at the end of November, with this issue hitting desks only a day or two before the candidates for Allen & Overy (A&O)’s leadership elections are announced – this column is truly hostage to fortune. Who will emerge to lead what has for many been the Magic Circle’s most effectively-led player will have significance …
Continue reading “Comment: If A&O’s new leadership team can’t get a mandate, who can?”
‘If you’re a partner and in control of someone’s career, that is an unequal relationship. Repeated drunken flings are not the work of a balanced, responsible partner. Could she have realistically said no? He was in control of her. He was her boss.’ So says one City employment veteran of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) …
Continue reading “Full disclosure – How to resolve the profession’s #MeToo problem”
Writing at the end of November, with this issue hitting desks only a day or two before the candidates for Allen & Overy (A&O)’s leadership elections are announced – this column is truly hostage to fortune. Who will emerge to lead what has for many been the Magic Circle’s most effectively-led player will have significance …
Continue reading “If A&O’s new team can’t get a mandate, who can?”
The take-private market has cooled after a prolonged spree of deals across Europe but US investors have continued to pile cash into non-domestic assets, with Kirkland & Ellis, Latham & Watkins, Baker McKenzie and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett all commanding lead roles on multi-billion-dollar transactions with a tech flavour in recent weeks. Blackstone’s proposed $3bn …
‘Supercharging it’ and ‘pretty wild’ are not superlatives usually cropping up on your average conference call with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer. If the conversation with Ethan Klingsberg (pictured), the Wall Street M&A star that led a four-partner team exit from Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, was not very Freshfields, Edward Braham’s unrestrained enthusiasm for the hires …
