Co-operative Group Legal Services (CLS) has seen its revenue decline by almost a third to £23m in 2014 from £33m in 2013 due to a drop in ‘personal injury income following regulatory changes to referral fees’.
Continue reading “A 30% drop: Co-op Legal Services sees revenue slide by £10m”
TLT has been gifted with a key mandate to defend a group of 26 former Halliwells partners in a dispute with the firm’s liquidator, as well as the appeal of a further case involving nine other former partners, after Irwin Mitchell was dropped from both cases.
Continue reading “Winning work: TLT picks up Halliwells dispute as Irwin Mitchell loses out”
Ashurst has this morning (8 April) announced its 20-strong partner promotion round, which will take effect from 1 May 2015, with 45% of the new partners female while Macfarlanes reduced round of five comprises 40% women.
Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer have both won key roles advising on Royal Dutch Shell’s £47bn acquisition of BG Group – likely to be one of the biggest M&A deals this year.
In-house heavyweight Graham Vinter is set to retire as the general counsel (GC) of BG Group later this year, with Norwegian aluminium manufacturer Sapa’s GC, Tom Melbye Eide, lined up to take on the role from 1 September.
Continue reading “In-house: Graham Vinter set to retire as BG Group appoints a new GC”
In a move to boost diversity within judicial ranks, the judiciary has begun piloting a new initiative to allow candidates from ‘non-traditional backgrounds’ to apply for positions as deputy High Court judges without gaining judicial experience first.
After shutting down its Kiev operations last summer, Chadbourne & Parke has boosted its presence in Russia with the hire of energy partner Andrei Baev from Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) as Moscow managing partner.
Baker & McKenzie and Allen & Overy (A&O) have both won places advising on US delivery service FedEx’s €4.4bn agreement to buy Dutch rival TNT Express as the company looks to boost its European capabilities and global footprint.
Continue reading “Dealwatch: Bakers and A&O deliver as FedEx looks to buy TNT for €4.4bn”
Clifford Chance and Travers Smith have taken lead roles advising on the £3.4bn dispute between Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Autonomy founder Michael Lynch and its former chief financial officer Sushovan Hussain regarding allegations of fraudulent accounting.
Continuing the trend of bumper partner promotions by law firms this year, Trowers & Hamlins has made up more than double the number of lawyers it did in 2014 with nine joining the partnership, while Debevoise & Plimpton, which has missed London out in recent years, made up a third of its round in the City.
On 30th March, Parliament was dissolved. The coalition government remains in place pending the outcome of the General Election on 7th May and it may remain in place for some time beyond the election (see later). At present, the opinion polls suggest that no political party will gain an overall majority over all other parties in the House of Commons.
Continue reading “Guest post: Parliament dissolved – the fight for power at Westminster commences”
As the global financial crisis bit, and (in England and Wales at least) the regulatory landscape shifted for law firms, there was a sense that the coming years would see the collapse of a significant number of firms. That doesn’t seem to have happened.
Just three years after helping to launch Locke Lord in the UK, insurance litigators Damian Cleary and Gavin Coull have departed to launch US firm Foran Glennon Palandech Ponzi & Rudloff in the City.
Allen & Overy (A&O) has bolstered its project finance offering in its sub-Saharan practice with its first lateral partner hire in South Africa, turning to Linklater-ally firm Webber Wentzel. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer also turned to Linklaters in building its Hong Kong office with finance and energy partner Thomas Ng.
Gibson Dunn & Crutcher has been hit with a £880,000 charge, which it must pay jointly with the Republic of Djibouti, for the freezing order obtained on businessman Abdourahman Boreh’s assets in 2013.
Continue reading “In court: Gibson Dunn faces interim payout over Djibouti court case”
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom has increased its promotions round again with 15 new partners being made up though it sees just one being brought up through the ranks in London.
Continue reading “Partner promotions: Skadden makes up one in London from 15-strong round”
Matt Rees, an M&A partner at Simmons & Simmons focusing on private equity, has resigned from the firm to join Proskauer Rose later this month.
National law firm Shoosmiths will move to an all-equity partnership from 1 May 2015 with 76 salaried partners becoming fixed-share – and bringing the total number of equity partners to 126.
Continue reading “An opportunity to ‘get involved’: Shoosmiths to move to an all-equity partnership”
It’s been the debate the profession has avoided over the last decade, but one that finally appears to be stirring. Scrutiny of the regulation, guidance and professional support for in-house counsel will be addressed by the UK’s primary legal watchdog, it has been confirmed.
Lawyers are commonly viewed as deal breakers who protect their clients right out of deals. General counsel would be wise not to dismiss this notion – justified or not – and we can to respond to it on multiple levels.
