Taylor Wessing has posted modest turnover growth after an expansive 2012, announcing its global revenue for the financial year 2012/13 has increased by 7% from £212m in 2011/12 to £228m, while UK revenue grew by 4% to £104.5m.
Tim Eyles, who was re-elected as UK managing partner of the firm in May last year, said he was ‘pleased to have achieved continued revenue growth’ despite tough market conditions.
In a dire market for new money M&A, debt restructuring continues to be a lifeline for major advisers with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Linklaters and Kirkland & Ellis securing major mandates in recent days.
The standout mandate of May was the €4.2bn debt restructuring of German real estate group IVG Immobilien, which has generated lead roles for Freshfields and Linklaters alongside US duo Kirkland and Kaye Scholer.
Ashurst has taken the unusual step of appointing two high level non-executive directors to its board as the firm beds down its merger with Australia’s Blake Dawson and seeks experienced counsel on its strategic direction and corporate governance.
Former director general of The Takeover Panel Robert Gillespie will join the board of Ashurst with immediate effect and David Turner, chairman of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), will join the board of Ashurst Australia (formerly Blake Dawson) on 1 June 2013.
‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’ – Martin Luther King – Letter from a Birmingham Jail – 16 April 1963.
Having already successfully stripped legal aid from so many areas of civil work, the government is now bearing down on criminal legal aid. ‘Price Competitive Tendering’ (or PCT) is one of the latest ‘in phrases’ but what does it amount to?
Stripped to its essentials, it means that anyone charged with an offence and who requires legal aid – (that is, most people) – will be allocated a defence lawyer working for one of a small number of large ‘defence factory’ commercial providers.
Both Norton Rose and Withers have made changes to their senior management, with one entering a seven-day countdown to its full merger with Fulbright & Jaworski as the other regroups after talks with Speechly Bircham fell through last week.
Norton Rose Fulbright today announced its global practice heads for the firm’s three largest practice areas; corporate, banking and finance.
The past week saw a clutch of firms including Kennedys, Olswang, King & Spalding and Sullivan & Cromwell make key partner hires as US firms’ assault on the City continues apace.
King & Spalding launched its London trade practice on 20 May 2013 with the hire of Bird & Bird head of international trade and customs for Brussels and London, Iain MacVay, as the firm continues to expand its global trade offering.
Users of social media took careful note today as the High Court ruled that a tweet published by Sally Bercow about Tory peer Lord McAlpine was libellous.
In November the former Conservative Party treasurer was wrongly linked by BBC Newsnight to a child sex abuse case at Bryn Estyn children’s home in the 1970s and 80s, following which the wife of Commons Speaker John Bercow wrote: ‘Why is Lord McAlpine trending? *Innocent face*’.
Singapore has been in focus over the past week after Morrison Foerster launched an anti-corruption practice and as UK and US firms vie for the next round of local law licences.
Morrison, which opened in Singapore in January, this week relocated litigation partner Daniel Levison from its Tokyo office to spearhead its Southeast Asia anti-corruption practice.
The run of gloomy news regarding job cuts continues with Clyde & Co and Eversheds this week confirming job losses as 2013 looks set to rival the deep run of cuts at major law firms seen in 2009.
Clyde confirmed that it has made eight support staff redundant after a consultation earlier in the year. The top 20 UK law firm declined to confirm reports that it had separately made two senior associates redundant in its Manchester office.
Merger talks between private client law firms Speechly Bircham and Withers have been abandoned, the firms announced today (23 May).
A joint statement from the firms said: ‘Following detailed discussions between the management and partnerships of Withers and Speechly Bircham, both sides have now concluded that a merger would not be in the best interests of both firms and have agreed not to pursue this further. The talks have enhanced the respect that both firms have for each other.’
