Last week saw a trio of LB100 firms, Osborne Clarke (OC), DWF, and DLA Piper, make key national and international appointments while the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) bolstered its cartels and criminal group with the internal promotion of a director to its leadership team.
Corporate partners are forecasting a robust transactional market this year as the value of M&A deals has reached its highest level in eight years with greater use of debt finance and more benevolent market conditions, but dealmakers remain cautious about bumps in the road.
Dentons’ NextLaw Labs, having launched in May to focus on developing and investing in new technologies for the legal profession, has signed a deal with its first portfolio company, ROSS Intelligence, a start-up developing a legal adviser app powered by IBM Watson.
The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has confirmed that it is investigating Quindell’s ‘business and accounting practices’ as the company published revised annual accounts for 2014 showing a £312m swing from profit to loss in its Professional Services Division (PSD).
Simmons & Simmons is set to shut its nine-partner office in Rome following a ‘detailed review’ and focus on clients in Italy’s industrial heartland in the north of the country.
In a fillip for the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the first person to go on trial after a global investigation into interest rate manipulation scandal, Tom Hayes, has been found guilty at Southwark Crown Court and convicted on eight counts of conspiracy to defraud.
Having helped secure third-party funding, City boutique Signature Litigation has been instructed by the RBS Shareholders Action Group in its high profile £1.2bn court battle against the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), the second change for the case and a move which has replaced Fladgate.
With a mandate to generate London revenues of upwards of $40m, Cooley is making good on its City ambitions and hired a trio of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo lawyers to bulk out its London offering and launch a patent practice.
Top-50 UK law firm Burges Salmon has posted another year of solid growth as results released for the 2014/15 year show revenue up by 6% to £80.8m from £76.5m while profit per equity partner jumped 11% to £485,000.
Mr Justice Peter Smith is set to face an investigation by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) after his recent recusal from the high-profile litigation involving British Airways (BA).
