American insurance giant AIG has carried out a review of its UK-based legal panel and established a new 64-member roster to cover the company’s European operations across 12 countries.
Continue reading “‘Phase two’: AIG reviews UK panel and establishes 64-strong European roster”
Once a byword for bribery, the Asia region has toughened anti-corruption measures in recent years, but enforcement remains hard to predict. We team up with Simmons & Simmons to assess the client response.
Any multinational worthy of the label has to be in east and south-east Asia. The scale of the market, its manufacturing base, and its growing consumer population make it impossible to ignore.
Continue reading “Hunting Dragons – Anti-corruption in Asia”
While last week saw a switch around among the City’s competition practices with Greenberg Traurig Maher, Kirkland & Ellis and Mayer Brown all making senior hires in the field, there were several other prominent moves as CMS Hasche Sigle hired a Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer partner, Mishcon de Reya built up its employment team in London and King & Spalding continued its City push.
Continuing the trend of increased partner promotions this year, Simmons & Simmons has promoted 13 lawyers to partner in its biggest round since 2011. Meanwhile Charles Russell Speechlys made up five in its first round since its merger.
Why do ‘big ideas’ or ‘monolithic ideas’ become so accepted when under analysis and the test of time they so often prove to be wrong? It has always seemed especially strange for monolithic thinking to have caught on in the legal sector, an industry whose lifeblood is enthused with the need for careful checking of details and not taking statements at face value.
Continue reading “Guest post: Why ‘Big Ideas’ are often wrong and the fallacies of legal myths”
Allen & Overy (A&O) has launched a back-to-work initiative for women, using its contract lawyer business Peerpoint in a bid to hit its 20:20 gender diversity target.
Nearly 23% of the 44 lawyers making partner at DLA Piper in its 2015 round have been promoted in its corporate practice as the firm seeks to create a stronger M&A base and boost cross-border work.
Continue reading “Partner promotions: DLA Piper promotes 44 to partner in corporate heavy round”
Kirkland & Ellis has turned to Linklaters for the second time this year and taken another leading partner with the hire of UK competition chief Paula Riedel.
Continue reading “Kirkland returns to Linklaters to hire UK competition head Riedel”
Travers Smith’s former managing partner Andrew Lilley (pictured) has resigned from the firm after nearly 20 years, and is set to explore a career in teaching.
City firm Lewis Silkin has this morning (30 April) announced the opening of an office in Hong Kong in a bid to ‘support the rapidly expanding employment and global mobility needs’ of its clients in the Asia-Pacific region.
As LB100 firms continue to make efforts to improve the gender diversity of their partnerships, Eversheds has made up 22 lawyers across the UK, Europe, Middle East and Africa, with 45% of these women.
Continue reading “Partner promotions: Eversheds makes 22 up to partner with nine overseas”
Hogan Lovells has elected three partners to its 12-strong global board while Norton Rose Fulbright (NRF) has announced the appointment of its US non-executive chair, Ken Stewart, as global chair of the firm.
After establishing a global two-tier panel last year, Barclays has launched a procurement process to formalise its flexible resourcing usage and establish its first contract-lawyer only panel.
Continue reading “Going mainstream: Barclays breaks ground to forge first contract lawyer panel”
Mayer Brown has hired Berwin Leighton Paisner’s (BLP) head of EU and competition, David Harrison, ten years after he joined the firm from Allen & Overy (A&O) to help start the stand-alone group. Meanwhile, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer City antitrust partner Andrea Gomes da Silva is leaving the firm after 14 years to join the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).
Traditionally a bellwether of trainee and associate salaries among the Magic Circle, Slaughter and May has made significant hikes to the salaries it pays junior lawyers.
Continue reading “Slaughter and May raises associate pay with NQs getting £5,000 boost”
Pinsent Masons‘ John Cleland (pictured) takes up the reins as the firm’s new managing partner today (Friday 1 May). He talks to Legal Business about his three priorities for the business, his preparations for taking on the role and whether he will miss fee earning.
Two weeks ago, Labour pledged to tax as income the performance fees (known as the ‘carried interest’) paid to certain investment managers. This rather than the much lower capital gains tax rate enjoyed hitherto. The pledge followed Labour’s promise, earlier in the week, to remove the centuries old non-dom tax break and, last month, to restrict pension tax relief for high earners.
Shearman & Sterling’s London office has outpaced the rest of the firm, with revenue last year growing 7% in the City to hit $145m compared to the 3% rise achieved by the firm as a whole in the 12 months to 31 December 2014. Two years into a three year plan to restore the firm’s fortunes, Europe chief Nick Buckworth (pictured) talks firing up the firm’s international offering.
Taylor Wessing, Olswang and CMS Cameron McKenna are amongst a host of firms to sign up to Apperio – a platform designed to create transparency on legal fees.
Despite the spate of large scale settlements banks continue to set aside large provisions for legal spend with the latest, Barclays, setting aside £800m for investigations and litigation primarily relating to foreign exchange manipulation while Deutsche Bank put aside €1.5bn in the first quarter of 2015.
