India calling: Freshfields and Linklaters make key India hires as Amarchand opens up its partnership

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Strategic recruitment Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & CoFreshfields Bruckhaus DeringerLinklaters

The periodic excitement over the liberalisation of the Indian legal market may currently be reduced to background chatter but the past fews days have been a reminder that the top UK firms continue to position themselves for India work while leading local firms are themselves bulking up and adopting far more expansive strategies.

Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has appointed Linklaters’ Arun Balasubramanian to co-head the firm’s India group out of Singapore, working alongside Pratap Amin, chairman of Freshfields’ India group.

Simmons sees marginal drop in turnover and PEP

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Financial results 2013 Simmons & Simmons

Simmons & Simmons has released its financial results for 2012-13, posting a slight dip in revenues from £251.7m to £250.3m while profit per equity partner (PEP) is down from £529,000 to £525,000 – a drop of about 0.6% – following a year of international expansion.

The financial results, which remain unaudited since their appearance in the Global 100 last week in which Simmons ranks in 93rd place, show that the firm’s net income has remained largely static, up from £66.2m in 2011-12 to £66.3m in 2012-13.

UK financial roll call: Wragge & Co, Hill Dicks, Watson Farley and Trowers reveal 2012/13 numbers

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Financial results 2012/13 Gowling WLGHill DickinsonWatson Farley and Williams

The UK top 100 financial roll call has seen Wragge & Co, Watson, Farley & Williams, Trowers & Hamlins and Hill Dickinson unveil their financial results for 2012/13, with a number suffering a significant dent in their profit figures.

Watson Farley broke through the £100m revenue barrier, reporting a firm-wide increase of 2% to £102.1m, up on last year’s £99.8m. However, PEP has dropped by 13% to £388,000 from £446,000 in 2012.

Pioneering Lawyers On Demand business secures high profile ex FT general counsel to plot growth

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In-house Lawyers On Demand

Former Financial Times general counsel Tim Bratton is set to join the Berwin Leighton Paisner-backed Lawyers on Demand (LOD) in September as practice development director. Jonathan Brenner (pictured), co-founder of LOD, told Legal Business he was ‘delighted’ to get the high profile Bratton on board.

Bratton joins in a newly-created role to help drive the growth of the legal service provider with in-house teams and law firms.

Asia Round-up: Field Fisher launches in Shanghai while Global 100 leaders position themselves in Hong Kong and Dubai

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Asia DentonsDLA PiperFieldfisherMorgan, Lewis & Bockius

Field Fisher Waterhouse has joined forces with Ryser & Associates in Shanghai while a show of strength among the Global 100 leaders in Hong Kong over the past week has seen Jones Day, Dentons and DLA Piper bolster their finance and capital markets capability.

Field Fisher announced yesterday (8 July) that it has launched in Shanghai under the brand Field Fisher Ryser. Ryser & Associates was formed in 2004 with a focus on intellectual property and corporate.

Guest post: Abu Qatada – a victory for pragmatism and the rule of law

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Guest blogs

Only a matter of weeks ago, politicians were seriously discussing the possibility that the UK might need to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights in order to be rid of Abu Qatada. Yet this weekend we saw him board a plane to Jordan – and no human rights treaties were harmed. It’s a triumph for Theresa May, who deserves credit for a significant achievement.

Guest post: You could up-skill them, instead you simply canned them – the secretarial canary in the law firm coal mine

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Job cuts Weil, Gotshal & Manges

‘A really far-sighted law firm would give its secretaries the chance to ‘skill up’ and take on more responsibility, accomplishing more advanced tasks. … Change ‘secretary’ to ‘workflow manager’ or ‘logistics director,’ and you’ve accomplished three great things at once: increased the role of software in handling clerical and financial duties, reassigned your valuable secretarial help up the productivity chain, and attended to an area in which you can find real efficiencies and carve out a true competitive advantage over other firms.’

Clifford Chance underperforms Magic Circle with 9% drop in PEP

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Financial results 2013 Clifford ChanceFreshfields Bruckhaus Deringer

Clifford Chance (CC) has underperformed its Magic Circle rivals in its 2012/13 results as the firm today announced a 2.5% decline in revenue to £1,271m and a 9% drop in profit per equity partner (PEP) to £1m.

The firm, which has expanded the number of equity partners year-on-year from 379 in 2010-11 to 411 in the past financial year, pointed to factors including the predicted Eurozone crisis together with a slowdown in the Asia-Pacific market and a change of political leadership in China as having a negative impact on its bottom line.

Comment: SJ Berwin’s choice – to soar or crash with an Asian giant

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Legal mergers King & Wood Mallesons

If you are going to finally do a global merger, it would be fitting for one of the most distinctive City practices to hook up with the great outlier of the Global 100. That is what is on the agenda for SJ Berwin as it this summer mulls an outline deal to combine with King & Wood Mallesons (KWM), the ground-breaking union between the top commercial law firms in China and Australia.

Revolving Doors: HSF and SJ Berwin hire finance management team as Covington and Cleary bring in litigation partners

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Strategic recruitment Herbert Smith Freehills

Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) has filled its two most senior finance slots with the hire of Kirkland and Ellis finance chief Nick Willmott as its new chief financial officer (CFO) and Paul Roberts from BDO as its finance director.

Wilmott, who will join HSF in September, will be responsible for overseeing integration at the recently merged firm from the perspective of the global business finance function. He has been at Chicago-based Kirkland since 2004, before which he held senior finance positions at Pepsi and real estate services firm Jones Lang LaSalle, where much of his work was focused on merger integration.