Royal Mail’s general counsel (GC) Neil Harnby is due to leave his role by the end of this year, nearly two years after the postal services’ high profile and controversial initial public offering (IPO).
Continue reading “In-house: Royal Mail’s GC Harnby to leave role by end of the year”
A host of law firms have been awarded positions as Deutsche Bank’s go-to advisers with the lender having finalised its global legal panel after kicking the process off at the end of last year.
Continue reading “Raft of firms bag spots as Deutsche Bank finalises legal panel arrangements”
Cross-border teams from Sullivan & Cromwell and Latham & Watkins have landed the lead roles on the $40bn takeover of Allergan’s generic-making business by Teva that has seen the Israeli pharmaceutical powerhouse also abandon its bid for Mylan.
Continue reading “Teva’s $40bn generic-drug buy sees Latham & Watkins and Sullivan & Cromwell lead”
With the summer break fast approaching, there was a flurry in the lateral market among law firms last week as they looked to sign off key appointments. Pinsent Masons and Irwin Mitchell both turned to Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS) partners for strategic appointments while Gateley made two laterals.
Scottish firm Brodies has once again turned in a strong financial performance, reporting a double-digit growth in both revenue and profits per equity partner (PEP) in its audited accounts for the 2014/15 financial year.
Continue reading “Brodies’ rise continues with fifth year of revenue growth and profits up 14%”
As consolidation continued apace in the gambling sector following the merger of 888 Holdings and Bwin.party last week, Slaughter and May and Ashurst won key roles on Ladbrokes £2.3bn tie-up with bookmakers Gala Coral.
The Bar Council has published two reports into gender diversity at the Bar highlighting challenges facing female barristers and finding that on current trends gender parity in Queen’s Counsel (QCs) ranks will not be reached in ‘the foreseeable future’.
On the back of speedy internationalisation plans in recent months, private client firm Withers has posted an 8.7% increase in revenues to £134m from £123m for the 2014/15 financial year while Charles Russell Speechlys has recorded combined revenues of £135m in its first financials post-merger.
Jonathan Peddie, charged with handling Barclays’ raft of litigation and government investigations work in the aftermath of the financial crisis, has been hired by Baker & McKenzie in London as a partner.
Despite ongoing tensions from the profession over legal aid cuts and court reforms, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) continues to push its cost cutting agenda having yesterday (22 July) confirmed a fresh consultation on further court fee increases just months after raising certain civil court fees by 660%.
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have both won lead roles advising on Pearson’s £844m sale of the Financial Times.
Continue reading “Dealwatch: Skadden and Freshfields make the news on Pearson’s FT sale”
Recently in New York, Adam Smith Esq had the opportunity to invite a couple of dozen law firms to ‘An Introduction to IBM Watson’ at the brand new $1bn IBM Watson facility down on Astor Place. This is not going to be a report on that event, except insofar as it helped advance our thinking on the general concept of ‘machine learning,’ which was also the topic of a lead article in the current McKinsey Quarterly.
Continue reading “Guest post: Who’s afraid of IBM Watson? Machine learning and the future of law”
UK top-50 firm Trowers & Hamlins has recovered from the mixed set of financial results last year but is yet to match previous form as the firm posted revenues of £79.4m for the 2014/15 financial year – up on last year but still down 11% on a five year view.
Having been plagued by allegations of cover-ups in the high profile phone hacking scandal, former News International adviser Lawrence Abramson has been found in breach of the Solicitors Practice rules by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) on one out of three accounts, while all allegations against the newspaper group’s former legal director Jonathan Chapman have been dismissed.
Finance & projects head Michael Kent and global banking chief Gideon Moore have emerged as the frontrunners to succeed Simon Davies (pictured) as managing partner of Linklaters with a replacement set to be elected by November.
Continue reading “Frontrunners emerge at Linklaters in race for managing partner”
After having launched a second office in Spain last year, Allen & Overy (A&O) has continued to build its offering in the country by recruiting finance partner Juan Hormaechea from Ashurst, where he most recently led the Spanish banking and international finance department.
Continue reading “A&O boosts Spanish office ranks as it hires Ashurst’s banking head”
In a decision providing certainty to recovering litigation costs, the Supreme Court has ruled that the costs regime put in place by the Access to Justice Act 1999 (AJA) complies with European Convention on Human Rights.
Continue reading “Supreme Court finds conditional fee agreements in line with human rights treaty”
Last week the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) delivered its judgment (16 July) in Case C-170/13 Huawei Technologies v ZTE on a matter of great concern to the standard-essential patent (SEP) community.
Continue reading “Guest post: Enforcing a patent is an abuse of process, except where it isn’t”
Portuguese firm PLMJ has elected a new managing partner, Luís Pais Antunes (pictured), with a remit to focus on further international expansion and developing partnerships with other law firms over his three year term.
Continue reading “PLMJ focuses on international expansion as it elects new managing partner”
