Once one of the most lauded transatlantic players, Mayer Brown has struggled to find its form over the last five years either globally or in the City. Legal Business asks if the firm knows what it wants to be in the Square Mile. A little over four years ago Mayer Brown went through the latest …
Continue reading “Altered Images – will the real Mayer Brown stand up?”
The 11th annual Legal Business Global London survey shows that US firms in the City are playing to win. UK rivals should watch every move. Lock up your associates. Chain down your partners. The Americans still want to take your lawyers (and lunch). This year’s Global London survey emphatically confirms that leading US law firms …
Following its acquisition of Cobbetts, DWF has laid off 38 staff from its central services support team following a consultation which ended last Friday (22 March). DWF initially placed 140 staff under redundancy risk but 83 have now been placed into roles and 21 are still in the selection process. The firm said the move …
Continue reading “DWF makes 38 redundancies post Cobbetts pre-pack”
Oxymoronic as it sounds, news that Barclays general counsel (GC) Mark Harding is to depart has been received as startling and yet not entirely a surprise. Barclays had been engulfed in a series of escalating controversies in recent years spanning mis-selling, tax advice, and – most damagingly – allegations of rigging institutional interest rates. While …
Continue reading “Rising clout means a new kind of corporate politics for GCs”
Pay for male lawyers in the UK is significantly down from 2011, while women enjoyed a small rise in salary in 2012. Despite this sliver of positive news, the gender imbalance continues with male and female lawyers still receiving dramatically different treatment. The profession still has a long way to go. Recent research from recruiter …
Dundas & Wilson is bracing itself for the departure of three more partners from the firm’s London arm. Corporate partners Julian Matthews and Simon Sale, along with banking and finance partner Michael Wrigley have decided to leave the Scots leader, which has faced a difficult few years by any yardstick. These moves compound an unsettled …
Panel reviews are a cut-throat business these days, even for firms like SNR Denton and Slaughter and May. The duo was recently evicted from the Land Securities legal panel after a year-long review by group general counsel and company secretary Adrian de Souza. It seems not even the big hitters are immune to facing the …
With troubled US firm Dewey & LeBoeuf on the brink of collapse, a number of firms have already stepped in to boost their City offerings by providing homes to small groups of partners. Twenty-four of the firm’s 33 London partners had plans to leave the firm at press time. Morgan, Lewis & Bockius has emerged …
Continue reading “Rival firms benefit from imminent Dewey collapse in City”
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan has ruffled Allen & Overy (A&O)’s feathers in London after the US litigation specialist hired the Magic Circle firm’s global arbitration chairman Stephen Jagusch and fellow partner Anthony Sinclair in May. The firms are understood to be locking horns over the departure terms, with a deal yet to be struck. …
Continue reading “Quinn Emanuel snags A&O London arbitration duo”
In early May, members of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s management team left the firm. One headed for the greener pastures of O’Melveny & Myers; one headed for a new home at Winston & Strawn; while the others went to Proskauer Rose and Arnold & Porter. Online message boards lit up like a Christmas tree, with commentators …
