Disputes funder Burford Capital is launching a separate insurance company to cover clients’ adverse costs risk, while Fieldfisher’s consumer-led litigation spinoff Roscoe Reid is beginning a potential £100m equal pay claim against retail giant Morrisons. In other market news, the Law Society has voiced concerns over reforms proposed by the Disclosure Working Group (DWG) to …
Howard Kennedy and one of its former partners have been sanctioned for providing a client with a prohibited banking facility, with the top 100 UK law firm facing a £35,000 fine after a Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) investigation. The ruling from the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT), which was published on Thursday (1 March), saw Howard …
In an announcement that will do little to bridge the long-running divide between the firm’s transactional and contentious branches, Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) senior partner election will see incumbent corporate partner James Palmer go head to head against dispute resolution chief Mark Shillito. Nominations for the election closed today (23 February), with the vote slated …
US players Hunton & Williams and Andrews Kurth Kenyon have given the green light to a merger that will create a 1,000 lawyer firm with 15 American offices. Announced yesterday (21 Feb) the partnerships of both firms have approved the combination, with the merged entity Hunton Andrews Kurth coming into operation on 2 April.
Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) today (21 February) announced that much-touted banking litigator Damien Byrne Hill will be replacing Mark Shillito as head of disputes for the UK and US on 1 May. Unsurprisingly as one of the key names in what remains the City’s bellwether ComLit shop, Byrne Hill has acted on a string of …
Continue reading “‘There’s scope for growth’: Damien Byrne Hill on taking over HSF’s disputes team”
It has been the question raised over wine by many seasoned litigators for months now: what’s going on at Enyo Law? At the beginning of last year, the litigation boutique hit the headlines thanks to surprise merger talks with fellow disputes specialist Stewarts Law, but since the discussion was abandoned the influential outfit has gone …
Continue reading “Disputes Eye: Enyo goes to ground – what next for the pioneering disputes shop?”
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has enhanced its US antitrust bench with the hire of veteran Eric Mahr from the Department of Justice (DoJ), while White & Case has established its seventh American office in Houston. Mahr, who joins Freshfields after serving as director of the well-respected antitrust division at the DoJ, has multiple decades’ worth of …
A standout performance in Europe helped Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) boost global revenues by 11% in 2016/17, according to the firm’s latest filings with Companies House, although increased overhead saw operating profit barely move. Global revenues rose from £832.2m to £920.8m, with the firm claiming that its EMEA region ‘generated exceptional revenue growth’. The accounts …
LB: What have been the big wins for Herbert Smith Freehills [HSF] over the last two years? Mark Rigotti (MR): It has been the shift from integration. That’s by definition backwards-looking so it’s good to move on. We’ve been strengthening some of the smaller offices. We’re different from the Magic Circle that have long-established European …
Continue reading “Being great at one thing is not enough – remaking a City leader for the times”
Pride before a fall. Everything was going well when the world’s first listed law firm, Slater and Gordon, announced another blockbuster UK buyout in early 2015. ‘In getting to this point, we undertook a very extensive due diligence process,’ said the firm’s managing director, Andrew Grech. ‘The business we are buying is of high quality …
Continue reading “The Icarus syndrome – the highs and lows of Slater and Gordon”
