Ashurst is nearing the end of its London redundancy round as the firm confirms 120 of its support staff will be leaving its City base after 45 days of ongoing consultations.
The 120 employees – selected out of a possible 350 staff earmarked for redundancy – have been given the option to transfer to the firm’s new lower cost Glasgow site or take redundancy, while some effort has been made to find replacement positions in London.
A law firm pumps out marketing bumpf about how awesome it is and it is received – with ample justification – as self-serving twaddle. An alternative legal services provider pumps out marketing bumpf about how awesome it is and it is met with a round of applause, rather than as the self-serving twaddle wrapped in utopian geek speak it usually is.
The point? These days there are a lot of people talking down law firms. True, plenty of criticism regarding conservatism, high costs and lack of genuine client focus is still justified. But to judge by some claims, law firms aren’t just greedy unresponsive bastards, they are greedy unresponsive bastards standing on a burning deck.
Vodafone UK’s corporate and external affairs director Justine Campbell has switched from telecoms to energy, taking on the general counsel (GC) role at British Gas after a revamp of its senior legal team. She will join the company in December after having handed her notice in last month.
The GC title was phased out at British Gas following Melanie Rowland’s departure for Edwards Group last year, since when legal director Jane Forster has headed the legal and compliance function.
Reed Smith and Cavendish Legal Group have been facing each other in the Central London Employment Tribunal this past week as eccentric race pundit John McCririck (pictured) sues his former employers Channel 4 and IMG Media for age discrimination.
Seventy-three year-old McCririck was axed from Channel 4’s coverage last year, when Clare Balding and a new-look team took over.
The in-house legal profession grew by 137% between 2001 and 2011 and with that growth has come new issues of succession and sustainability for legal teams; issues that are already being addressed at 02.
While law firms undoubtedly rely too much on the pyramid model, in-house teams have traditionally been too flat, reliant on recruiting costly experienced lawyers and often able to offer them little in the way of career progression.
It is still reasonably uncommon to see private practice partners step straight into a general counsel (GC) role but Reed Smith’s global managing partner (MP) Greg Jordan is to join one of the firm’s clients, Pittsburgh’s largest bank, the PNC Financial Services Group, taking over from Bob Hoyt as he prepares to join Barclays. Alexander Thomas, Reed Smith’s global chair of litigation, will take over the global MP role from Jordan.
Jordan, who was only re-elected for another three year term last year, is set to become executive vice president GC and head of regulatory and government affairs. He will report directly to PNC’s CEO William Demchak.
Law firms are facing a shake-up of their banking and taxation arrangements as both lenders and HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) move to minimise their losses under the current system.
Following HMRC’s consultation on limited liability partnerships, draft legislation will be unveiled in its autumn statement, which is expected to substantially tighten the criteria for favourable tax treatment under partnership.
The legislation, which according to Norton Rose Fulbright partner Dominic Stuttaford may be tweaked but is unlikely to change tack, is expected to say that a partner is someone with a share of the equity – and of the risk – leaving the status of salaried partners in limbo.
Set against the wider backdrop of its global managing partner contest, Magic Circle firm Clifford Chance has re-elected Jeremy Sandelson as global head of the firm’s litigation and dispute resolution practice in an uncontested election.
Having been in the role since 2009, Sandelson will serve a second four-year term. His pedigree in management with the firm is long-established, as the disputes chief previously acted as managing partner of the London litigation practice in 2003, and regional managing partner for the UK and the Middle East from 2005.
The single-supplier legal advisory model appears to be gaining traction as Pinsent Masons has won its second exclusive fixed-fee contract this year, with energy giant E.ON appointing the firm as sole legal advisor for general matters, a first in the energy sector.
The terms of the arrangement mean E.ON’s UK legal function will reduce its roster of legal advisers to just one. The five-year deal will ‘encompass work across a full range of specialist legal services,’ a statement said today (3 Oct).
The lateral hiring spike of September is running into October, as Mayer Brown and US rival Greenberg Traurig Maher bulk up in London, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and K&L Gates recruit into their Australian practices, and Pinsent Masons boosts its Middle Eastern energy projects team.
Mayer Brown has hired Patricia Jones, a real estate partner from SJ Berwin, to join its team in London, following the hire last week of corporate partner Greg Stonefield from White & Case. Jones has been at SJ Berwin for 10 years and most recently acted for British Land on the redevelopment of the Shoreditch Estate.
