DAC Beachcroft, Hill Dickinson, Weightmans, and Geldards have been appointed as partners on the North West Legal Consortium’s £10m legal panel, positioning them to work closely with local authorities associated with over 40 councils in the North West of England.
‘The ideal platform’: Stevens & Bolton shows award-winning credentials with senior CC partner hire
Legal Business‘ National/Regional Firm of the Year, Stevens & Bolton, has underlined its ability to offer City levels of expertise with the hire of David Steinberg, joint leader of Clifford Chance (CC)’s insolvency and restructuring group in London.
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DAC takes advantage of market liberalisation to enter JV in Malaysia
DAC Beachcroft is the latest firm to take advantage of market liberalisation in Asia, applying for a joint venture (JV) licence with Malaysian association firm Gan Partnership.
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Linklaters ramps up City promotions as 24 make partner
Magic Circle firm Linklaters has made up 10 partners from its Silk Street headquarters amid a 24-strong round.
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Revolving doors: Pinsent Masons makes board appointments as BLP and Mayer Brown make City hires
In a busy week for City hires, Pinsent Masons, BLP and Mayer Brown have made key appointments, as DWF, Irwin Mitchell and Burness Paull all added to their benches around the regions.
Trainee retention: Pinsent Masons posts ‘disappointing’ 50% rate as Norton Rose, Ashurst release figures
In the latest run of trainee retention rate releases, Pinsent Masons has recorded a ‘disappointing’ rate of 50% of its spring qualifiers, with just five of its 10-strong cohort accepting offers within the firm. Elsewhere, Norton Rose Fulbirght has kept on 96% of its 23-strong cohort as Ashurst retained 79%.
Guest post: A new report into HMRC’s investigation of tax fraud by the wealthy
Overnight the Public Accounts Committee published a timely report on ‘Tackling Tax Fraud’. It’s fairly short and you can read it here.
Prospectively the greatest point of interest in the report is when it addresses the ‘perception that HMRC does not tackle tax fraud by the wealthy.’
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Q&A: RBS general counsel Collins on external advisers, technology and the stress of investigations
Set to take on the top legal role at Santander UK later this year, The Royal Bank of Scotland’s outgoing general counsel (GC) John Collins (pictured) talks to Sarah Downey about his career and the growing recognition of in-house lawyers.
Moving in-house: Pinsents Issacs seconded to Barclays litigation and investigations team
Pinsent Masons head of banking and finance litigation Michael Issacs, has been seconded to Barclays’ litigation and investigations team, led by Stephanie Pagni. The move comes as the bank is undergoing a panel view.
Comment: Picking up the New Law gauntlet – CC’s City head calls for a new approach to training the lawyers of the future
New entrants to the legal profession will be competing head on against Kim, the virtual assistant from Riverview Law, and Ross, IBM Watson’s ‘super-intelligent’ attorney, in delivering services to clients. Ross, unlike most of us, has the ability to research every resource of legal knowledge in seconds, and, even more impressive to the older ones among us, remember it.
Freshfields and Gibson Dunn lead on $1.4bn Canadian miner battle with Venezuela
Ranked as seasoned players on the most lucrative cases, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher have landed key instructions on a $1.38bn bilateral treaty arbitration taken against Venezuela by Canadian miner Crystallex International at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
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City duo in four-strong group running to replace Leite at helm of global giant Baker & McKenzie
With Eduardo Leite set to step down as Baker & McKenzie‘s global chair at the end of October after six years at the helm, Latin America chair Claudia Prado, London managing partner Paul Rawlinson, EMEA chair Gary Senior and former Paris managing partner Eric Lasry have thrown their hats in the ring to take the top job at the firm.
Comment: The tiger that came to eat BLP’s culture for breakfast and other sorry tales
These are tough times for another house that Stanley Berwin built, with exhibit B being the acrimonious end of merger talks between Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Greenberg Traurig. While the practice fit between the two looked both convincing and distinctive, these were two firms with plenty of strong characters.
Panama papers latest: Mossack Fonseca’s headquarters raided
Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca has had its headquarters raided by police following a data leak of more than 11 million documents which revealed how some wealthy people avoid tax using offshore law firms.
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Macfarlanes makes up six partners in male-only round
Macfarlanes has made up six new internal partner promotions across its tax, real estate, corporate and disputes practices, with senior partner Charles Martin (pictured) expressing concern that the group is ‘disappointingly lacking in women.’
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Airbnb appoints Ebay’s Chesnut as new GC as tech firms face growing legal challenges
Online accommodation finder Airbnb has appointed eBay’s vice president and deputy general counsel (GC) Rob Chesnut as its new GC following the promotion of Belinda Johnson to chief business affairs and legal officer.
Slater and Gordon LLP accounts show profits down and liabilities up in rocky period for listed firm
Slater and Gordon (S&G) which wrote down much of its UK business in February, has posted its LLP accounts for 2015, revealing while turnover was up and liabilities increased significantly at the PI firm.
Legal training provider launches competition claim against Law Society
The Law Society, already fighting to recapture full control of education standards for lawyers from the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), is facing a claim at the Competition Appeals Tribunal (CAT) over ‘an abuse of its dominant position’ that is allegedly ‘restricting competition’ of financial crime training in the UK.
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Reed Smith enters merger discussions with Pepper Hamilton
As a sluggish US legal market drives consolidation, Reed Smith is lining up a merger with smaller American firm Pepper Hamilton.
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Ashurst corporate partner Clare quits for Stephenson Harwood
Stephenson Harwood has hired Ashurst corporate partner and board member Anthony Clare who is leaving the firm after 14 years.
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