Acquisitive Birmingham firm Shakespeares has continued its explosive growth of the last few years by announcing that it is set to combine with Leicester-based stalwart Harvey Ingram on 1 August 2012. At press time both firms were expected to vote overwhelmingly in favour of a union in a partners’ ballot at each firm at the …
Continue reading “Shakespeares and Harvey Ingram announce merger”
Salans has been left with no partners in China after Shanghai office managing partner Bernd-Uwe Stucken and corporate partner Wei Liu left to join Pinsent Masons in June.
Merger fever continues to grip the Scottish legal market after veteran firm Biggart Baillie announced in June that it would be joining forces with ambitious Major UK firm DWF on 1 July. The merger between Biggart Baillie, a Scottish blueblood which can trace its origins back to 1894, and LB’s 2011 National/Regional firm of the …
Continue reading “Scottish fire sale continues as DWF snaps up Biggart Baillie”
In response to a struggling domestic market, Portugal’s leading law firms are increasingly seeking opportunities in former Portuguese colonies. LB assesses the different international strategies being employed by the country’s top legal practices Aside from a spate of short-term privatisation work (see ‘Going private’), Portugal’s transactional lawyers continue to bemoan the demise of their national M&A …
Despite its worst recession in decades, Portugal’s recent privatisation programme has sparked renewed investment interest. LB asks whether selling off the country’s prized assets can cure the woes of its legal market With Portugal’s GDP expected to fall by 4.5% in 2012 and a series of hikes on VAT, corporate and individual income tax included …
In the first of a series of looks at the UK’s top in-house lawyers, LB profiles a few GCs who are turning heads in the property market There was a time when private practice lawyers looked down their noses at their in-house counterparts. The logic went that in-housers had swapped the fat fees of …
LB meets Nigel Savage, the man responsible for turning around the fortunes of the College of Law Professor Nigel Savage, chief executive of The College of Law (CoL), is eating his second breakfast of the day, Marmite on toast. ‘I’ve got an incredible metabolism,’ he says as he takes the lift up to a …
Newly appointed NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA) chief executive Catherine Dixon’s priority will be getting value for money and using law firms to engage with NHS trusts as she prepares for a legal panel review later this year. Dixon joined the NHSLA in April from the NSPCC where she was general counsel and company secretary. She …
Continue reading “NHSLA looks to control growing legal spend in panel review”
Financial regulation partners are now in even higher demand as financial institution clients panic after the Financial Services Authority (FSA) recently fined former J.P. Morgan Cazenove banker Ian Hannam £450,000 for market abuse. The financial watchdog issued the fine against Hannam after he allegedly shared financial information ahead of a deal, violating the so-called ‘wall-crossing’ …
Continue reading “FSA scrutiny increases financial service practitioners’ workload”
TLT’s recent takeover of niche Scottish firm Anderson Fyfe is the latest chapter in a flurry of movement among mid-market firms in Scotland trying to secure their futures amid pernicious market conditions. The Bristol-based firm is set to acquire Anderson Fyfe’s Glasgow and Edinburgh operations from July, while simultaneously launching a Northern Ireland practice through …
Continue reading “Mixed fortunes for mid-market in tough Scots climate”
