Lawyers from diverse backgrounds are an untapped resource but more needs to be done to achieve equal footing. Last week Lawyer 2B reported that Macfarlanes had joined Clifford Chance and Mayer Brown in introducing a CV-blind policy to recruit trainee solicitors (16 July 2014). This is welcome news and a step that needs to be […]
Clifford Chance has overhauled its constitution in order to scrap leadership elections and replace them with appointment by managing partner Matthew Layton. The firm voted yesterday to radically re-write its constitution and potentially oust several of its regional managing partners early in a mass restructure of the firm’s leadership. Germany managing partner Andreas Dietzel, Americas […]
Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co has won a David and Goliath legal battle for comedy club operators Comic Enterprises against Twentieth Century Fox. The company could be forced to rebrand its television series Glee after the High Court found that the brand infringed the IP rights of Comic Enterprises’ brand The Glee Club. Deputy […]
Cheshire-based industrial disease specialists Roberts Jackson has received a £15m cash injection from private equity firm NorthEdge Capital. On 30 May the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) granted Roberts Jackson an alternative business structure (ABS) licence. The ABS came into effect on 17 July enabling the private firm not only to invest in the business but […]
Collyer Bristow has recorded turnover of £14.9m for 2013/14, an increase of 2.5 per cent. Although its billing figures were down slightly, from £15.1m to £14.85m last year, turnover has risen from £14.53m in 2012/13. Senior partner John Saner said that Collyer Bristow would maintain a broad practice of private client, commercial and dispute resolution […]
Barrister Charles Crow from No5 Chambers has won an unfair and wrongful dismissal claim for a top surgeon who was dismissed for alleged sexual harassment of two female trainee doctors. The surgeon was dismissed by NHS Oxford University Trust after he allegedly made sexual advances towards two female trainee doctors who were supervised by him. […]
There was concern across the profession last year after two Stewarts Law lawyers were struck off following a private prosecution. It was a legal first. Now the case against Stewarts Law – the one that kick started the Tribunal proceedings – has settled and the claimant, businessman Geoffrey Logue, is no longer pursuing his claims […]
Last year Cypriot investors were horrified to learn that their government had agreed to a “haircut” on bank savings in order to bail the country out of the economic crisis it found itself in. Although the proposals were eventually watered down, many Cypriots and others with money in the Cypriot banking system lost money. Now […]
Clifford Chance has cut its practice group representation on its management committee from six to three in a comprehensive overhaul. The firm voted yesterday to replace its six practice area representatives with three new global business units (GBU). The management committee has been renamed the Executive Leadership Group and will be headed up by new […]
DWF has reported a 23 per cent increase in net profit from £20.8m in 2012/13 to £25.5m in its first full-year financial results following four mergers. The firm also increased revenue by 2 per cent from £188.2m to £191m last year, still falling short of its longstanding £200m target. At the end of 2012/13 DWF […]
They are two of the biggest beasts in the legal jungle, and historically a story about Maurice Allen and Mike Goetz – the dynamic duo with the elephantine reputation who quit Freshfields a year after quitting White & Case to launch Ropes & Gray’s London office – has meant a major move and a new […]
Mayer Brown has poached a five-person team from Bryan Cave in Singapore to set up an Asia-focused consulting arm in the city-state. Headed by CEO Cecil Leong, who held the same role at Bryan Cave International Consulting, Mayer Brown Consulting (Singapore) will advise on issues such as international trade policies, customs, export controls and anti-dumping […]