Outgoing Slaughter and May senior partner Saul to launch mediation boutique

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Slaughter and May’s longstanding leader, Chris Saul, will launch a mediation boutique once he retires from his role as senior partner on 30 April.

Saul, who is retiring from the UK’s most profitable law firm after eight years at the helm, is planning to launch a mediation firm later this year. In what is an unusual move for a corporate lawyer, Saul will set up a mediation consultancy called Christopher Saul Associates this autumn to provide dispute resolution advice to corporates. Saul registered the new firm with Companies House at the start of March.

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Over the Atlantic: London outperforms stateside practices in top US firms

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White & Case edges ahead of Latham in the City with £185m turnover

A series of US firms have seen London office revenues grow faster than other parts of their business as the European markets prove buoyant for players such as Latham & Watkins, White & Case and Debevoise & Plimpton.

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Picón prepares to push DLA Piper upmarket as Sir Nigel Knowles makes that last goodbye

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Tom Moore looks to the future of DLA as he meets the firm’s latest leader

Juan Picón’s face now adorns the WhatsApp group ‘Executive Rules’, used by DLA Piper’s leadership to share videos of karaoke nights, office yoga sessions and champagne moments, while running the world’s second largest law firm by revenue.

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Leadership, strategy and culture: behind the failed merger discussions between BLP and Greenberg

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Following the fallout of failed merger talks between Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) and Greenberg Traurig, it has emerged the UK firm’s leadership was an issue for the Miami giant.

The merger had promised to create a property and disputes giant across the Atlantic and one of the most distinctive law firms in the global market but was called off in March.

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Fit for purpose? Critics round on SFO as forex charges are dropped

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The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has been criticised for shutting down its investigation into alleged rigging in the foreign exchange (forex) market after it could not find sufficient evidence to prosecute.

Despite some of the world’s largest banks being fined billions for forex rate manipulation, the UK’s fraud watchdog dropped the probe in March without bringing any charges.

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KWM to cut 15% of legacy SJ Berwin partnership following major shake-up

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Following a major overhaul of its practice structure, King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) said in March it would axe 15% of its Europe and Middle East partnership, and make 45 business services employees redundant in London.

The move means 24 partners will leave the firm and is the second shake-up of the legacy SJ Berwin partnership in 12 months, when another 10% of the partnership across the region were asked to leave following a performance review.

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The finance view: Scaling up – GCs and finance partners get ready for the grind of ring-fencing reforms

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Victoria Young assesses the approach to implementation of ring-fencing rules

Though the deadline for full implementation is over two years off, the looming threat of so-called ring-fencing reforms is already having a major impact on UK banking groups and their legal teams.

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Freshfields and Linklaters advise as competition issues threaten stock exchange merger

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Börse/LSE tie-up raises regulatory concerns

As Europe’s two largest financial market operators, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Deutsche Börse, begin their third attempt at a tie-up, concerns have been raised over antitrust issues.

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Magic Circle trio land £2bn London City Airport sale

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Three Magic Circle firms have closed the £2bn sale of London City Airport to a Canadian-led consortium of investors.

Linklaters, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Slaughter and May acted on the sale of the airport, located six miles from London’s financial district, which was completed late March after the Canadian consortium competed with two Chinese bidders.

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