Allen & Overy (A&O), Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Withers have advised as a tribunal convened under the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) threw out two parallel investment treaty claims worth about $575m against Pakistan made by Progas Energy.
Continue reading “A&O defeats Quinn as $575m Progas energy claim against Pakistan thrown out”
Following a wave of expansion in Latin America, insurance specialist Kennedys is to more than double its office space in Dublin in a decision the firm says was made before the UK’s vote to leave the EU.
Continue reading “Doubling in Dublin: Expansive Kennedys moves Irish outpost to accommodate growth”
The headline isn’t great, but it’s not bad either. Judging our annual Legal Business 100 (LB100) results, the industry has done better than expected overall, at least compared to 2015, when the group barely achieved growth despite a relative rebound in the UK and global economy.
Continue reading “Comment: LB100 firms forced to make own luck as tough times continue”
He has been one of the longest-serving and most outspoken law firm leaders in the conservative US legal market but Peter Kalis, the veteran head of K&L Gates, has confirmed that he is to finally step down after two decades running the US law firm.
The drawn-out legal battle between property billionaires, Vincent and Robert Tchenguiz, and those they hold responsible for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO)’s botched investigation into their business dealings has proved a costly affair. It has emerged they have already paid out a collective £5.1m legal bill to date in their £3bn litigation against Grant Thornton and others, surpassing the SFO’s £4.5m settlement to the pair two years ago.
Continue reading “Tchenguiz brothers’ legal bill hits £5.1m in court battle against Grant Thornton”
US-bred law firms have kicked off the key post-summer season with a rash of hires, with Morgan Lewis & Bockius hiring a team from Dentons to launch in a key Chinese market as Latham & Watkins recruits yet another Magic Circle partner in Europe.
Taylor Wessing has moved to bolster its City buyout practice with the hire of a partner from Olswang in the latest in a string of departures from the City media and entertainment specialist.
Continue reading “Taylor Wessing hires buyout partner in latest London exit for Olswang”
After a bruising 18 months for King & Wood Mallesons‘ European and Middle East business, regional senior partner Stephen Kon has informed the partnership he will step down as senior partner halfway into his three-year term.
The big four Magic Circle firms have posted their strongest performance in this year’s Legal Business 100 (LB100) since the recession, despite a subdued market overall.
Leading commercial set Brick Court Chambers has made another key junior hire with 20 Essex Street rising star Edward Ho. Ho appeared as sole counsel in the Court of Appeal, High Court and in arbitration.
Continue reading “Brick Court continues hiring spree with 20 Essex Street junior star”
The summer lull is over with a spate of new laterals for firms including multiple hires at DLA Piper, Simmons & Simmons and Fieldfisher, while US firm Winston & Strawn recruited in the City and Bristows and Weightmans both added to their benches.
After a series of ventures Allen & Overy has become the bellwether among the legal elite for innovation. But do the new business lines live up to the marketing?
‘We’re going to close the doors soon,’ says David Wakeling, the Allen & Overy (A&O) partner leading the City giant’s new tech-based service, MarginMatrix. It’s not often you hear a law firm talk of turning away potential clients, particularly not when they are some of the world’s largest banks.
Continue reading “If it ain’t broke… Do A&O’s New Law business lines live up to the hype?”
A buyers’ market for professional indemnity cannot hide law firms’ exposure to growing risks
For a profession often accused of being overly obsessed with risk when advising clients, it is ironic that law firms are taking on uncharted levels of risk themselves.
Continue reading “Taken to the limit – growing risks for law firms”
With regulatory focus on financial services business unrelenting, effective risk management strategies are vital. We teamed up with Cornerstone Research to assess the challenges
Nine years ago, the financial services world began undergoing seismic changes with the onset of the credit crunch that have left the industry where it is today. The aftermath led to repeated overhauls of regulation, to the extent that none are certain what the endgame might be, particularly with significant new regulation such as Basel IV being widely spoken of.
It’s been a long career. I’m amazed at being here 27 years. People think that must be dull but I’ve had time abroad as a trainee in New York, in management in the Middle East, on secondment at the Takeover Panel. I don’t regret any of it.
Continue reading “Life during law: Guy Norman, Clifford Chance”
You cannot change the past. Move forward. Be constructive. Focus on making things better. Pick your cliché. And, like most clichés, they are built on the basis of common sense… and can still sometimes be beside the point.
Take Ashurst, which, having delivered a very poor 2015/16 trading period, is arguing once again that things will come good tomorrow. What else can leadership say? With Ashurst having been probably the worst-performing major City player since the banking crisis, such appeals are the only option.
Theresa May’s claim from the distant history of July that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ has already become famous for answering nothing about the uncertainties facing the UK other than the government proposes to ultimately leave the EU.
Welcome to the uncharted waters of modern British politics – a claim often made but usually untrue. I don’t even follow the logic of those claiming Brexit is inevitable – you can as easily imagine an EU departure abandoned entirely as ending up with a hardline exit. There is nothing binding about the mandate – the public has had their say, but probably not their final say. No commitments – including indications from Downing Street that article 50 will not be triggered until well into 2017 – clear up the point.
Continue reading “Brexit: a pragmatic position for the worried managing partner”
With human rights issues entering the mainstream of business practice, we teamed up with Herbert Smith Freehills to assess how new standards are changing the way in-house counsel operate
It turns out that the next risk front facing business and promising to reshape the role of general counsel (GCs) is a piece of legislation notorious among lawyers for having no teeth and little direct liability for companies.
LB100 LAW FIRMS
The firms that appear in the Legal Business 100 (LB100) are the top 100 law firms in the UK, ranked by gross fee income generated over the financial year 2015/16 – usually 1 May 2015 to 30 April 2016. We call these the 2016 results. Where firms have identical fee incomes, the firms are ranked according to highest profit per equity partner (PEP).
The headline isn’t great, but it’s not bad either. Judging our annual Legal Business 100 (LB100) results, the industry has done better than expected overall, at least compared to 2015, when the group barely achieved growth despite a relative rebound in the UK and global economy.
This year, revenues across the LB100 dipped 2% to £20.2bn, heavily influenced by the removal of Dentons and Squire Patton Boggs from our tables. Back-of-the-envelope calculations show the group managed to hike income by roughly 3% on a like-for-like basis. Given the slowing of deal activity since the start of 2015 and some easing of investment ahead of the EU referendum, it could have been worse.
Continue reading “LB100 firms forced to make own luck as tough times continue”
