Both Norton Rose and Withers have made changes to their senior management, with one entering a seven-day countdown to its full merger with Fulbright & Jaworski as the other regroups after talks with Speechly Bircham fell through last week. Norton Rose Fulbright today announced its global practice heads for the firm’s three largest practice areas; …
Users of social media took careful note today as the High Court ruled that a tweet published by Sally Bercow about Tory peer Lord McAlpine was libellous. In November the former Conservative Party treasurer was wrongly linked by BBC Newsnight to a child sex abuse case at Bryn Estyn children’s home in the 1970s and …
Continue reading “Bercow guilty of libel over ‘innocent face’ tweet”
Merger talks between private client law firms Speechly Bircham and Withers have been abandoned, the firms announced today (23 May). A joint statement from the firms said: ‘Following detailed discussions between the management and partnerships of Withers and Speechly Bircham, both sides have now concluded that a merger would not be in the best interests …
Hogan Lovells’ Rome office has lost partners Gianroberto de Giovanni, Massimiliano Marinozzi and Paolo Ricci to Ernst & Young. The trio will join as partners of the Italian legal offering of the global audit firm in its Rome and Milan offices. Ricci will take over the leadership team in Italy, while de Giovanni and Marinozzi …
Entering the legal profession has become harder than ever, with the latest Law Society data revealing that the number of training contracts offered by law firms in England & Wales is at its lowest level since 1999. The Law Society’s Annual Statistical Report reveals that the number of training contracts registered to July 2012 stood …
Continue reading “Closed shop: Law Society report shows sharp fall in training contracts”
Top 50 City firm Travers Smith has suffered the rare public humiliation of losing a high profile discrimination case after a tribunal found the firm denied a former trainee a place in the firm because she had fallen pregnant. The Central London Employment Tribunal found that Travers ‘contrived to prevent Katie Tantum from being offered …
Continue reading “Travers Smith in surprise discrimination defeat”
The appetite of Texan firms for the UK energy market shows no sign of abating with news that Houston-based Andrews Kurth is to follow neighbours Bracewell & Giuliani and Locke Lord into the City. The Andrews Kurth launch is spearheaded by UK energy specialist Peter Roberts, who is leaving Ashurst two years after becoming partner.
It’s become a familiar fixture in the annual reporting season to see Mishcon de Reya announce annual growth rates that are the envy of its peers and the London law firm hasn’t disappointed. This week, Mishcons confirmed a turnover increase of 14% to £83.5m for 2012/13 – an increase of £10m on last year’s £73.1m. …
Glencore Xstrata has promoted former Glencore general counsel (GC) Richard Marshall as its overall head of legal in the wake of its $66bn merger. Marshall joined Glencore in 2005, having worked at Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft. He moved to the firm’s London office from the Sydney office of Mallesons Stephen Jacques where he had been …
Continue reading “In-house moves: Glencore and RSA announce senior appointments”
Born of an inquiry into a scandal-hit industry and mired in controversy – the cross-party deal on press regulation promises to be the biggest shake-up of the media law landscape for decades. Legal Business asks if a workable deal can emerge from the headlines.
