Linklaters is being sued by a former paralegal for unfair dismissal and discrimination just weeks after top 50 law firm Travers Smith was found to have discriminated against a former trainee because she had fallen pregnant.
The case against Linklaters started today (10 June) in the London Central Employment Tribunal and the hearing is scheduled to run for six days. Continue reading “After Travers defeat, Linklaters faces discrimination claim by former paralegal”
Even I’m concerned about Chris Grayling’s proposals for criminal legal aid. When the government announced cuts to civil legal aid, I broadly backed them, in contrast to most lawyers. Now, the government’s proposing some further cuts to civil legal aid as well as major changes to the criminal legal aid system most dramatically, a move to competitive tendering of publicly-funded criminal defence work. Continue reading “Guest post: Legal aid reform – a fiscal realist’s view”
A raft of leading UK and US firms boosted their East Asian presence this past week, including K&L Gates, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy and Addleshaw Goddard, with Hong Kong, Beijing and Tokyo a continuing focus of international attention.
On 31 May, Hong Kong corporate partner Virginia Tam moved from White & Case to US rival K&L Gates’ established 19-lawyer office, set up as its first Asian post 15 years ago. Continue reading “Asia round-up: K&L Gates, Akin Gump, Addleshaws and Milbank bolster presence”
Dundas & Wilson’s beleaguered City office has deferred its 2014 trainee intake by a year and cancelled its London summer vacation scheme just weeks before students were due to arrive.
Around 24 students who were due to spend two weeks at the Scottish firm’s London office next month have been told the scheme will no longer go ahead, which it blames on the ‘firm’s strategic business objectives.’ Continue reading “Dundas cancels vacation scheme as trainee intake is deferred”
It has swiftly moved from obscure regional player into one of the most closely watched practices on the national scene and financial results announced today (6 June) confirm the extent of its dramatic ascent. DWF, which has completed five mergers in under 18 months, has unsurprisingly reported significant revenue and profit increases for the 2012/13 financial year.Turnover at the law firm is up 84% to £188m, while the firm’s net profit is up 41%, with profit per equity partner standing at £429,000, against £408,000 the previous year.
As Bristol-based TLT yesterday posted a double-digit hike in turnover and announced a dual hire to launch an office in Manchester, in contrasting fortunes Glasgow-based Maclay Murray & Spens became the latest UK firm to announce a redundancy consultation in a move that could affect up to 30 roles. Continue reading “TLT announces 10% hike in turnover as Maclay Murray kicks off redundancy round”
One man’s slashing red tape is another’s endless tinkering. Either way, the much-meddled field of legal regulation may face more intervention with news this week that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is to conduct a wholesale review of the profession’s regulatory landscape, little more than a year after the Legal Services Act (LSA) came into full force. Continue reading “We’ve implemented the Legal Services Act – how about another review of legal regulation?”
Linklaters has elected four new members to its most senior governance board responsible for strategic and other major decisions at the Magic Circle Firm.
The new members of the international board are London capital markets partner Paul Lewis in place of outgoing City partner Michael Kent, Düsseldorf corporate partner Klaus Hoenig who takes over from Frankfurt partner Eva Reudelhuber, Moscow capital markets partner Dmitry Dobatkin in place of retired former Moscow colleague John Goodwin, and Antwerp corporate partner Jean-Pierre Blumberg in place of Brussels-based litigation head Francoise Lefevre. Continue reading “Leadership: Linklaters elects four new partners to its most senior board”
Europe has been the focus of much lateral partner activity over the past week, as firms including Eversheds and Osborne Clarke make senior hires across the continent.
On 3 June, Osborne Clarke announced it is to open in Brussels with a two-partner, five-lawyer team from former Belgian ally De Wolf & Partners, led by De Wolf’s head of employment Thierry Viérin and commercial partner Stefan Deswert. Continue reading “Revolving Doors: Osborne Clarke, Eversheds and Bryan Cave among firms to make key strategic hires”
King & Spalding has continued its City recruitment drive with the hire of Steptoe & Johnson’s London dispute resolution partner and co-head of the Russia and CIS group, Egishe Dzhazoyan.
Listed by Legal 500 as a leading arbitrator with ‘excellent common sense’, Dzhazoyan is a UK and Russian-qualified lawyer who has represented clients in more than 50 arbitration and litigation proceedings across a host of international jurisdictions. He has a particular focus on the banking, telecoms and energy sectors. Continue reading “Strategic Recruitment: King & Spalding continues City drive with Steptoe hire”
The #SAVEUKJUSTICE demonstration outside the Ministry of Justice yesterday (4 June) was well attended. Coverage of the event has been extensive and well dealt with in the law blogs.
A few observations…
The unified stance taken by the Bar and Law Society has been a remarkable feature of the campaign.Leading lights from the legal profession have given time and thought to putting the message across through blogs and on twitter. Many bloggers have written on the subject. Patrick Tornsey has a comprehensive listing of blogs written by lawyers and others from the legal blogging community.
Bingham McCutchen has expanded its transatlantic offering to European fund managers with the hire of Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) rated partner Thiha Tun, only weeks after seven White & Case funds lawyers joined in Tokyo.
Tun, who works with private equity, real estate, infrastructure and hedge funds, will join Bingham’s investment management practice in September, in line with the top 30 Legal Business Global 100’s firm’s stated ambition to bolster its international funds and financial regulatory capabilities. Continue reading “Global Expansion: Bingham continues recruitment drive with hire of HSF London funds partner”
How many times do you hear lawyers roll out the line about mergers having to be two-plus-two-makes-five? True in many regards. Getting bigger doesn’t make you better or necessarily solve structural and strategic issues and mergers are hard to pull off effectively.
But when it comes down to it, this truism has become pretty misleading in Law Firm Land 2013.
Because scale does indeed matter in law, all things being equal. Bigger firms have the economies of scale – and these advantages are only getting more important given the continual shift towards smaller and more process-driven panels. Continue reading “Comment: In defence of big – the maths are favouring two + two”
Two international firms with strong European practices and a core media focus, Bird & Bird and Olswang, have posted solid revenue increases for the 2012/13 financial year.
Bird & Bird has announced revenue growth of 6%, from £235m to £249m, marking 25 years of continuous growth. Profit figures are yet to be released although a firm spokesperson said that the expectation is that net profits will have risen again in 2012/13.
The performance was described by the firm as solid and in line with budget ‘in the face of challenging economic conditions in our major markets’. Continue reading “Reports season 2013 – Bird & Bird and Olswang post healthy revenue increases”
Despite generally gloomy market conditions there were renewed signs of underlying confidence at top London firms with Clifford Chance (CC) joining its peers today (4 June) in announcing rises in associate and trainee pay and bonuses for the year ahead.
The firm is the last of the Magic Circle to announce pay changes across the board, adding an extra £2,000 to newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers’ pay packets, up to £63,500 from last year’s £61,500, a rise of 3%. Continue reading “CC bumps starting pay to £63,500 with bonuses giving junior associates chance to earn over £100,000”
It’s no mean feat to get the various branches of the profession and legal regulators singing from the same hymn sheet but controversial government proposals to slice £220m off the annual criminal legal aid budget have managed just that. As the consultation today (4 June) closes on the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) ‘Transforming Legal Aid‘ proposals, the Law Society, Bar Council and Bar Standards Board (BSB) have combined to condemn the move. Continue reading “Uniting a profession, for what that’s worth – Bar and solicitors come together to oppose controversial legal aid reforms”
Linklaters, Norton Rose and Baker & McKenzie win spots
Royal Dutch Shell concluded its extensive global panel review at the end of May with firms including Allen & Overy (A&O) and Baker & McKenzie marked out to receive work across multiple jurisdictions.
The tender, which kicked off in March, went out to 357 firms in 20 jurisdictions. According to legal director Peter Rees QC, the aim was to find between two and five suitable firms for each practice area in each jurisdiction. These firms would then be ‘pre-qualified’ for Shell legal work and would compete with each other for significant mandates.
Continue reading “Shell completes review of global legal panel”
Continuing pressure on UK legal market threatens largest redundancy levels since 2009
The level of legal redundancies this year is on course to be the largest since 2009 as the number of law firms announcing job cuts grows and senior partners predict tough months ahead.
CMS Cameron McKenna, which launched a review of its UK and Central and Eastern Europe business in January, last month took the final decision to make 37 staff redundant. The news came as 330-lawyer, top 50 UK firm Trowers & Hamlins also announced in late May that seven employees – three secretarial staff and four fee-earners – had been made redundant, with the firm blaming continuing pressures on the UK legal market.
Global giant raises capital and shakes up corporate as HSF moves through merger integration
The merger between Herbert Smith and Freehills continues to give rise to growing pains as last month saw the UK half of the firm issue a multimillion pound cash call to its equity partners in preparation for financial integration.
The cash call was issued in a memo sent earlier this year to all equity partners. It is understood that they have been asked to contribute £2,000 per equity point. Herbert Smith’s lockstep ladder runs from 43 to 100, meaning those at the top of equity, around 65 individuals, are liable to pay around £200,000 each.
Continue reading “HSF merger throws up partnership issues as Herbert Smith issues cash call”
Four of the five Magic Circle firms have now revealed their decisions on newly qualified (NQ) and trainee salaries, with decisions pending from the remainder of the top ten City firms.
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer so far tops the table for NQs, despite its decision to freeze pay for its career milestone foundation. Junior-banded associates – equivalent to NQ to one-year PQE – will earn between £65,000 and £72,500. The firm’s trainee pay has also been frozen at £39,000 for first-year trainees and £44,000 for second-year trainees.
