LSB recommends patent and trademark firm regulator become ABS licensing authority

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Increasing numbers of patent and trademark firms can be expected to join the swathes of legal entities becoming alternative business structures (ABS) after their regulatory body won the support of the Legal Services Board (LSB) to become an ABS licensing authority. In one of three significant recommendations made this week by the LSB to the …

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Team hire: Pinsents boosts Paris practice with TMT hires from local boutique

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Pinsent Masons has launched a Paris TMT practice with a six-strong team from Paris-based boutique technology firm Ichay & Mullenex Avocats (IMA). Led by partners Diane Mullenex and Frédéric Ichay, along with Annabelle Richards who joins as a legal director, the team will bolster Pinsents’ around 25-strong French base, which opened in September 2012 and …

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In-house: Transocean finds replacement general counsel after year-long search

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Swiss-based offshore drilling contractor Transocean has appointed a new general counsel (GC) and senior vice president over a year after former legal chief Nick Deeming left the role. Former GC, vice president legal affairs and secretary of Swedish-American automotive safety systems manufacturer Autoliv, Lars Sjöbring, will join Transocean next year when his current notice period …

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If the shoe just about fits – Wragges in merger talks with Lawrence Graham

Posted on | News review |

Proposed merger promises Birmingham firm significant City presence. The announcement last month that Wragge & Co and Lawrence Graham (LG) are in merger talks makes a lot of sense on many levels, although competitors have inevitably been quick to point out obvious pitfalls. Both firms have been hunting for suitors for a long time and …

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Half-year financial results point to relative revival at leading UK firms

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Cyclical departments increasing contribution to bottom line As an analytical tool half-year figures may be superficial but as a litmus test of performance they show, on the basis of the figures released by LB100 firms so far, that 2013/14 will be a much improved and more benign year. Firms including Allen & Overy (A&O), Clyde …

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Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi launches first EMEA panel

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Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU) has announced its first-ever panel for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), with eight leading City firms appointed after a process described as ‘extremely competitive’. Allen & Overy (A&O), Linklaters and Ashurst won places, alongside Berwin Leighton Paisner, Hogan Lovells, Norton Rose Fulbright, Slaughter and May, and White & …

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Supply and demands – will the cheap talent run out for GCs in 2014?

Posted on | In-House |

With rising demand for in-house counsel, bluechip legal teams are hunting for talented lawyers. Legal Business surveys the recruitment outlook. ‘I do get asked “Why are you outsourcing work when you’ve got such a large team?”,’ says David Symonds, general counsel (GC) for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Tyco International.‘Of course, the reality …

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BG Group slims down legal roster to three

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For a FTSE 100 company operating in 20 countries, BG Group’s panel of four law firms was already slim, but it just got slimmer, with news last month that Allen & Overy (A&O) and Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) have been dropped in favour of Clifford Chance (CC), which wins a place alongside incumbents CMS Cameron …

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Legal fees: QualitySolicitors to abandon hourly rates in favour of fixed fees

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QualitySolicitors (QS) has unveiled plans to abandon the hourly rate across its network of firms, offering fixed fees for all legal services including litigation. The group, which has around 120 members across 200 locations, is to roll out the next phase of a pilot scheme which will see 15 of its firms stop charging by …

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Latin America: DAC merges with Colombian alliance partner De la Torre & Monroy

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DAC Beachcroft has expanded its Latin American presence via a merger with Colombian alliance partner De la Torre & Monroy Abogados Asociados, which began trading as DAC Beachcroft Colombia yesterday (1 December). The 1000-lawyer top 25 UK firm, which formally allied with the six-lawyer Bogata insurance firm in March this year ahead of the liberalisation of …

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