Family marketing teams on DEFCON 1 as Law Commission calls for gold-plated prenups in UK law

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For marketing teams at the family bar it’s been a tough wait but at last the Law Commission has issued its long-trailed proposals on matrimonial property laws.

Private practice teams across London have been lightening quick to respond to the report, published today (27 February), which proposes new legislation to take out the uncertainty surrounding the enforcement of pre-nuptial agreements, an issue that has dogged divorce cases of wealthy couples, setting London at a disadvantage to the majority of countries in Europe.

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RBS litigation: Bird & Bird’s head of dispute resolution criticised for £500m fluctuation in value of claim

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The highly complex Royal Bank of Scotland 2008 rights issue litigation has seen Bird & Bird’s dispute resolution head Steven Baker criticised at the High Court over a £500m fluctuation in the value of the claim.

In his fifth witness statement to the court in November Baker, who represents John Greenwood and the RBoS Shareholders Action Group Limited, with around 12,000 retail and around 100 corporate, institutional and charitable members (the BB Action Group), told the court: ‘the losses suffered by the members of the BB Action Group who have actually issued proceedings so far would equate to approximately £900m…and the total acquisition value of those claimants’ shares is £1.25bn.’ Continue reading “RBS litigation: Bird & Bird’s head of dispute resolution criticised for £500m fluctuation in value of claim”

You’re gonna need a bigger boat! – big data and the modern law firm

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Big data has been hailed as the next big thing to hit legal tech and has already become a force in US litigation. Legal Business assesses the prospects for the analytics-powered law firm

In 2011, McKinsey defined big data as ‘datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage and analyse’ and hailed big data analytics – applying algorithms to crunch together numbers from disparate sources to uncover new correlations, patterns and trends – as ‘the next frontier for innovation, competition and productivity’.

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Return to form for Queen’s Counsel as 100 advocates take silk

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Latest QC promotions round the largest in three years

In stark contrast with the recent decline in the number of Queen’s Counsel (QC) appointments, the latest round announced in February saw 100 advocates awarded the elite kitemark, up by 19% on last year’s all-time-low figure of just 84.

The number of applicants rose this year to 225, in what may be interpreted as the litmus test of confidence in the wider economy, after queries were raised from within the profession over whether previous drops were a reflection of not just the £2,000 cost of applying to become a QC, but also fears that the associated higher rates would not be supported by cash-strapped clients.

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Showing its teeth: SFO charges Barclays trio over Libor as watchdog publishes new deferred prosecution code

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In a move emphasising the increasing efforts of the Serious Fraud Office to overhaul its image, the body announced on Monday (18 February) that it had launched proceedings against three former Barclays employees over allegations they ‘conspired to defraud’ over the benchmark interest rate, Libor.

Charges against Peter Johnson, Jonathan Mathew and Stylianos Contogoulas relate to the manipulation of Libor between 1 June 2005 and 31 August 2007. The criminal proceedings began yesterday and all three will be expected to attend at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on 26 February.

Continue reading “Showing its teeth: SFO charges Barclays trio over Libor as watchdog publishes new deferred prosecution code”

Return to form for Queen’s Counsel as 100 barristers take silk

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In stark contrast with the recent decline in the number of Queen’s Counsel (QC) appointments, the latest round announced today (19 February) has seen 100 barristers awarded the elite advocacy kitemark, up by 19% on last year’s all-time-low figure of just 84.

The number of applicants rose this year to 225, in what may be interpreted as the latest litmus test of confidence in the wider economy, after queries were raised from within the profession over whether previous drops were a reflection of not just the circa £2,000 cost of applying to become a QC, but also fears that the associated higher rates would not be supported by cash-strapped clients. Continue reading “Return to form for Queen’s Counsel as 100 barristers take silk”

You’re hired: Irwin Mitchell’s head of regulatory investigations joins Morgan Lewis

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Morgan Lewis has boosted its London white collar crime capability with the hire of Irwin Mitchell’s head of regulatory and criminal investigations practice Kevin Robinson, in a move said to be part of the ‘ongoing transformation’ of its London office.

Robinson, who has over 40 years of experience in advising clients on investigations by regulators into commercial activity and defending prosecutions which arise from those investigations, joins the global top 20 US firm’s London litigation department. Continue reading “You’re hired: Irwin Mitchell’s head of regulatory investigations joins Morgan Lewis”

Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank blame litigation for drop in Q4 profits

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Financial institutions report multibillion-dollar effects of post-crisis costs

Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank have become the latest major financial institutions to declare that their earnings have been hit hard by litigation costs with Morgan Stanley in January reporting a fourth quarter 78% drop in net income to $192m, compared to $890m in its third quarter, due to legal costs and weak fixed income trading.

Revenue for the period rose from $7bn to $7.8bn since last year but pre-tax legal costs of $1.2bn meant that earnings for the quarter were almost wiped out, the FT reported in January.

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Clyde & Co loses 15-strong US litigation team to LeClairRyan

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Latest exits add to departures of two partners from City headquarters

The expiry of Clyde & Co’s three-year post-merger partner lock-in appeared to pass almost unnoticed last April, but the UK top-20 firm has lost two London partners in recent months as its established US practice was hit in January with a 15-strong team walk out, which included three litigation partners.

London commercial partner Alan Meneghetti, who joined the firm five years ago as a legal director and became an aviation partner in 2010, left the firm on 31 December 2013 for Locke Lord’s corporate practice in London. Meneghetti’s experience within the aviation and aerospace sector includes handling regulatory issues surrounding procurement, data protection and privacy, intellectual property, information technology and the drafting and negotiating of commercial agreements.

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Regulatory: Embattled SFO requests £19m emergency funding for ‘blockbuster’ litigation

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The Serious Fraud Office’s (SFO’s) somewhat fraught efforts to redefine itself by focusing on higher profile, higher risk complex fraud, bribery and corruption cases yesterday (30 January) led the organisation to ask the Government for emergency funding of £19m.

The request for ‘blockbuster funding’ is to help bankroll large international investigations including Libor, Barclays Qatar and Rolls Royce and in the defence of a multi-million pound damages claim brought by the Tchenguiz brothers. Continue reading “Regulatory: Embattled SFO requests £19m emergency funding for ‘blockbuster’ litigation”