Essential Living, which develops and manages purpose built homes for rent, has revealed its first formal legal panel, which will remain in force for three years. Each firm will specialise in at least one area of law, with Taylor Wessing and King & Wood Mallesons SJ Berwin (KWMSJB) being appointed with an over-arching brief to […]
San Francisco-based Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman have called off merger talks that would have created a $1.4bn giant with two bases in London. It was not clear how advanced the discussions were when they emerged in October (28 October 2013), but a tie-up between the two would have marked one […]
The recession has forced the legal industry to rewire its clock. Even at the top, firms such as Allen & Overy (A&O) are having a rethink. Yesterday A&O launched a legal contract service aimed at topping up resource at peak periods of demand. Many others, most recently Wragge & Co and LG, are looking to […]
Clifford Chance partners Carlos Conceicao and Kelwin Nicholls have been hired by RBS to lead an investigation into claims that the bank forced small companies it owed money to into closure to make a profit. The investigation was launched yesterday (25 November) after two reports, one by Sir Andrew Large and a second for business […]
The judicial review into the final resting place of Richard III is being heard before three High Court judges today, along with an application to join Leicester City Council as a third defendant in the case. Lady Justice Hallett, Mr Justice Ouseley, and Mr Justice Haddon-Cave – who granted permission for judicial review earlier this […]
The demise of Manches has highlighted the challenges faced by auditors in assessing the financial health of law firms across the UK market. Don’t miss our analysis this week, where we ask the leading auditors about what they look for in law firm accounts. Auditors under the spotlight DWF spent £17m on mergers in 2012/13, […]
David Bickerton has been re-elected as Clifford Chance London managing partner after running unopposed. This marks Bickerton’s second term as City chief after he was formerly voted in last week by over 50 per cent of the partnership. Despite having no challengers for the title the firm’s consitution requires partners to vote electronically for the […]
Partner rates at magic circle firms have spiralled 62 per cent since 2005 with work-hungry top guns charging up to £850 per hour, according to new research. The findings by costs lawyer Jim Diamond reveal that headline hourly rates for magic circle partners have reached their highest point to date, hitting £850 despite being the […]
Clifford Chance is on the brink of crowning a new managing partner as the vote draws to a close today (26 November). The race to replace outgoing head David Childs began this month when global corporate head Matthew Layton, Paris chief Yves Wehrli and real estate finance partner Andrew Carnegie emerged as the three candidates […]
Bar leaders have been carpeted for applying unfair influence on regulators over changes to professional rules and for spying on independent private meetings. In a damning report yesterday (26 November) that will increase calls for a unified legal profession front line regulator, the Legal Standards Board (LSB) issued coruscating criticism of the Bar Council for […]
Watson Farley & Williams has posted double-digit revenue growth for the first six months of the 2013/14 financial year with half-year revenues of £52m. The figure is promising for the firm, which saw a 13 per cent fall in average profit per equity partner (PEP) at the year-end despite reporting a 2 per cent increase […]
With the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme of support for new schemes to be phased out by 31 March 2017 and the replacement Contracts for Difference scheme coming into effect next year, there will be a period of time in which developers will have a choice of which scheme to seek support under. For those that […]