With six lawyers in London dedicated to pro bono, Hogan Lovells takes on matters ranging from coroner inquests, human trafficking compensation and war crime claims. The market: Hogan Lovells isn’t alone in putting forward teams of lawyers to take on pro bono matters. Clients are demanding to know what their external advisers are doing in […]
Welcome to The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the UK litigation market. This week, DWF’s internal chambers is on the move, and Freshfields London managing partner crosses the finish line in first – literally. But first, it’s a tough time to be a personal injury (PI) claimant lawyer. Or is it? All aboard the […]
EasyGroup v Easyfun The venture capital conglomerate EasyGroup, owners of EasyJet and the Easy family of brands, has launched a passing off and trademarks claim against musician Finn Keane, who goes by the stage name of Easyfun. EasyGroup, represented by Stephenson Harwood, has an extensive history of lodging similar IP claims against businesses using the […]
Court of Appeal tackles mandatory mediation debate The case between Churchill and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is heading to the Court of Appeal on Wednesday 8 November for two days. The original dispute involved a Japanese knotweed claim, but the fundamental importance of this litigation is that it has the potential to overturn an […]
With six lawyers in London dedicated to pro bono, Hogan Lovells takes on matters ranging from coroner inquests, human trafficking compensation and war crime claims. The market: Hogan Lovells isn’t alone in putting forward teams of lawyers to take on pro bono matters. Clients are demanding to know what their external advisers are doing in […]
Welcome to The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the UK litigation market. This week, DWF’s internal chambers is on the move, and Freshfields London managing partner crosses the finish line in first – literally. But first, it’s a tough time to be a personal injury (PI) claimant lawyer. Or is it? All aboard the […]
EasyGroup v Easyfun The venture capital conglomerate EasyGroup, owners of EasyJet and the Easy family of brands, has launched a passing off and trademarks claim against musician Finn Keane, who goes by the stage name of Easyfun. EasyGroup, represented by Stephenson Harwood, has an extensive history of lodging similar IP claims against businesses using the […]
Court of Appeal tackles mandatory mediation debate The case between Churchill and Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council is heading to the Court of Appeal on Wednesday 8 November for two days. The original dispute involved a Japanese knotweed claim, but the fundamental importance of this litigation is that it has the potential to overturn an […]
This week on The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker, we examine Fieldfisher’s young commercial crime team comprising “blood and guts” crime lawyers and civil fraud specialists as they bolster their reputation in this highly active space. The market: It’s an exciting time to be a commercial crime lawyer. The new director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) Nick Ephgrave is […]
Of the UK Top 50 firms, just 16 have no overseas offices, and of the remaining 34, more than half (19) were bigger outside the UK last year. Internationalisation is a hallmark of a Top 50 firm, but for many it is the UK that keeps the investment pipelines pumped. For firms with international offices, […]
The upcoming UK200 has welcomed its sixth employee ownership trust (EOT) member. Altrincham’s Myerson Solicitors joins Yorkshire’s Ison Harrison and the West Midlands’ Talbots Law in embracing employee ownership, having converted from a limited liability partnership (LLP) to a 100 per cent employee-owned company last week. The EOT model allows all employees to take a […]
Over the last decade, the UK’s Top 50 firms have trialled a variety of tactics to satisfy an incessant demand for revenue growth. Consolidation has been a feature of the decade, with ‘critical mass’ becoming a key term used by managing partners as they push forward their growth agendas. Internationalisation too is a hallmark of […]
A&O Shearman is looking to cut 10 per cent of its global partnership, but it’s doing so in a year in which its London recruitment team has been at its busiest. The firm has hired eight lateral partners in the City so far this year and last week’s announcement of “planned business changes” does little […]
Before financials season got fully underway, The Lawyer took a look at the firms most likely to hit the milestones of £2bn, £1bn and £500m. There were not many, highlighting the challenge for firms to grow bigger and profitably. Of the seven likelies, just two definitely managed it – Linklaters and Bird & Bird – […]
Latham & Watkins has lost another member of its Continental European transactional team, with a leveraged finance partner joining A&O Shearman in Paris. Michel Houdayer has made the move to A&O Shearman today (16 September). He was a Latham lifer, having joined the firm in 2002 and spent almost a decade in the partnership having […]
After 18 months of secrecy, speculation and extraordinary legal fees, the Premier League’s case against Manchester City over more than 100 alleged rule breaches is set to begin today. City, England’s most successful football club over the past decade, has denied any wrongdoing. There is an air of the Boris Berezovsky v Roman Abramovich trial […]
Forty-four of the UK’s top 100 law firms posted double-digit revenue growth in 2023/24, the highest number since before the great financial crisis. In 2007/08, 61 of the top 100 grew by double digits; that figure dropped to 15 the following year and nine the year after as the economy collapsed. Last year, nearly all […]
Russia’s largest transport operator, FESCO, had its chance today to block the $13.8bn dispute brought by jailed Russian businessman Ziyavudin Magomedov from going to trial in England, as the case entered its fourth day in a courtroom comprising over 50 lawyers. Magomedov, represented by litigation boutique Seladore Legal, argues that an elaborate conspiracy saw his […]
Planning permission to build a new coal mine in Cumbria has been quashed following today’s High Court ruling that the approval was unlawful. Leigh Day secured the win on behalf of Friends of the Earth and South Lakes Action on Climate Change (SLACC). The pair made the claim regarding a December 2022 decision to grant […]