Global 100 firm Baker & McKenzie has secured a heavyweight real estate mandate advising on the receivership of London’s iconic building, the Gherkin, valued at around £650m and which has been put up for sale after collapsing into receivership earlier this year.
Continue reading “Baker & McKenzie takes lead role on £650m Gherkin receivership”
A caricature may reveal a truth…
‘Why, if there is all the talk of change, is change so slow?’
One might be forgiven for thinking that there is rather too much talk of change in the legal profession and perhaps rather less evidence of it happening. It is not easy to see the wood from the trees sometimes, but I would like to offer a perspective on why this may seem to be the case from both a law firm and a client point of view. Continue reading “Guest post: ‘Stockholm syndrome’ in legal services – GCs are captured by their advisers”
US firm Edwards Wildman has seen the last of its quintet of disgruntled corporate partners resign as it has emerged that Niall McAlister has departed for Olswang. Continue reading “Edwards Wildman sees final corporate partner exit for Olswang as Arnold & Porter emerges as ‘in talks’ with disputes team”
Russia has been ordered to pay $50.08bn to the majority shareholders in Yukos Oil Company, once Russia’s largest oil producer, by an arbitral tribunal sitting in The Hague under the auspices of the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
Top 20 UK firm Simmons & Simmons is set to expand in Saudi Arabia through the opening of a new office in the country’s capital, Riyadh, by alliance firm Hammad & Al-Mehdar.
Continue reading “Simmons & Simmons expands in Saudi Arabia”
The high profile Tchenguiz brothers’ lawsuit against the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) for around £300m has finally settled after the SFO agreed to pay Vincent Tchenguiz £3m.
City firm RPC is the latest to reveal its trainee retention rates this summer, and has announced it will keep all 15 trainee solicitors who applied to qualify this year, constituting the second time the firm has achieved a 100% rate since 2010. Meanwhile, CMS Cameron McKenna posted more modest results and confirmed a retention rate of 67.2%, with the firm’s London office keeping the lion’s share of trainees.
A direct consequence of the government’s decision in May not to make any major changes to the regulatory framework for legal services is that it simultaneously fired the starting gun for the race to introduce major changes to the regulatory framework for legal services.
As part of the first major changes to its corporate governance structure in 14 years Clifford Chance yesterday (24 July) voted to dispense with regional and practice head elections in favour of appointment by managing partner Matthew Layton.
BP has selected nine firms to provide niche legal services as part of its wider panel. Firms appointed are Baker & McKenzie, Fieldfisher, Hill Dickinson, Holman Fenwick Willan, Reed Smith, Stevens & Bolton, Sullivan & Cromwell, Watson Farley & Williams and arbitration boutique Three Crowns.
Continue reading “BP announces specialist panel with Fieldfisher returning to the fold”
Mayer Brown will be cutting its September 2016 trainee intake by half, taking in just ten applicants compared to their usual intake of 20.
Construction group Carillion has instructed Slaughter and May’s corporate heavy hitter William Underhill and fellow corporate partner Kathy Hughes to advise on a proposed £3bn merger with UK rival Balfour Beatty, which has turned to Linklaters’ M&A veteran and longstanding adviser Iain Fenn.
The Bar Standards Board has selected Sir Andrew Burns as its next chair with Baroness Ruth Deech QC due to reach her term limit at the end of 2014. Continue reading “The Bar: BSB picks Sir Andrew Burns as new lay chair”
We’re just back from a week in London – coincidentally smack in the middle of the UK firms’ earnings-release season – and for reasons far more profound than that annual roll call of bragging rights, the level of preoccupation with the future in the great City has never to us seemed higher to us. A telling, and extremely representative, moment came when one managing partner we were meeting with started to enumerate the threats facing his (very solidly performing) firm as, ‘One,…., and two…., and – oh hell, there are threats everywhere!’
Linklaters has kept on 93% of qualifying trainees in its latest cohort, up on the 86% spring 2014 retention rate.
Continue reading “Trainee retention rate at Linklaters up to 93%”
London stalwart Bristows has revealed disappointing results for the 2013/14 financial year, as revenue has decreased nearly 4% to £34.1m while profit per equity partner (PEP) suffered a steep 17% drop to £364,000. Private client-focused Withers, meanwhile, saw revenue grow 4.7% to £123.3m from £117.8m as well as a 3.6% PEP boost to £376,000.
In its first full financial results following a period of rapid growth through four successive mergers and the acquisition of Cobbetts, DWF has seen its revenue grow by 2% from £188m to £191m.
Continue reading “Financial results 2013/14: DWF sees revenue up 2% but PEP down 4%”
Clifford Chance (CC) has today (24 July) announced a raft of changes to its governance structure, including the establishment of a new 12-strong executive leadership group and the creation of three global business units to cover financial markets; M&A and corporate transactions; and risk management and disputes. Continue reading “Clifford Chance overhauls its management structure with introduction of new executive leadership group”
Five years on from the launch of its London office, co-managing partners Mike Goetz and Maurice Allen will split from their dual role with Allen appointed to the newly created role of senior partner. Goetz continues as London head and co-head of the firm’s finance practice alongside Jay Kim in New York and Byung Choi in Boston.
Recently formed national player Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co has unveiled the combined results of its legacy firms for the last financial year, having created a firm with £172m in revenues and £58.7m in profit, operating at a margin of 34%.
