Patton Boggs and Squire Sanders are flirting, but will it end in marriage? Last week Washington-based Patton Boggs and Squire Sanders confirmed they had kicked off preliminary merger talks. Other than that brief statement neither side is saying much, although informally the firms are going to great pains to stress that just because they’ve started dating, […]
All the latest partner hires and other appointments within firms and offices in the Asia Pacific region. Australia HWL Ebsworth has added five new partners across its Brisbane, Perth and Sydney offices. Three partners have joined the firm’s insurance practice, and they are Andrew Cheetham, Scott Hay and David Andersen. Cheetham joins from Cooper Grace […]
Irwin Mitchell has acquired the former recoveries arm of defunct Manchester-based Halliwells, HL Interactive, in a deal that completed on Friday (28 February). The acquisition was made by Irwin Mitchell subsidiary Ascent, which began a TUPE transfer of all 62 HL Interactive staff into the business today (Monday 3 March). HL Interactive and Ascent staff […]
HMRC’s rules on partnership taxation have thrown many law firms into a flurry of activity. Since January, capital calls have become common and many junior partners have changed their status in order to comply with the new regulations “Disguised salary” and LLPs: postpone changes to get them right Danger, tax change ahead Tax overhaul raises […]
Last week, news that Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) abandoned its chance to renew its qualifying foreign law practice (QFLP) licence sent shock waves through the Singapore legal community. It’s the only one of six firms that will not be renewing the 2008 licence, which allows a foreign firm to practise permitted areas of Singaporean law. […]
The High Court will examine whether banking giant Barclays colluded with the now defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf to induce partners to take out individual loans to keep the firm afloat. The outing comes after Barclays failed to persuade the court to grant it summary judgment in a dispute with former Dewey partner Lester Charles Landgraf […]
Bircham Dyson Bell is to merge with four-partner private client boutique Ambrose Appelbe, adding around £2m to its top line. The Lincoln’s Inn firm will move to Bircham Dyson Bell’s Victoria offices on 1 April, when the merger takes effect. All four of Ambrose Appelbe’s partners – family specialists Lisa Bolgar Smith and Terrence Trainor, […]
Blackstone Chambers has made its third major silk hire in a year through the addition of Brick Court Chambers silk Alan Maclean QC. The move will be seen as a rare defection from a magic circle set with Maclean, who took silk in 2009, taking a broad-based practice with him to Blackstone Chambers. His expertise […]
Akin Gump has posted a 7 per cent rise in turnover for the 2013 year, with revenue growing from $775m to $828m. Net income rose by 18 per cent from $268m to $315m while average profit per equity partner grew by 19 per cent from $1.5m to $1.8m. Revenue per lawyer at the US firm […]
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has acquired Toronto-based immigration law firm Bomza Law Group. The 37-strong firm will be known as PricewaterhouseCoopers Immigration Law and run as an affiliation with PwC’s accountancy business. The firm deals with US immigration law in Canada and is led by founder and managing partner Janet Bomza, alongside two senior immigration lawyers Mark […]
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By Evan Migdail, Linda Pfatteicher and Bruce Thompson House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dave Camp (representing Michigan) this week introduced a draft of the most comprehensive reform of the Internal Revenue Code in decades. The key principles in the draft are: (1) a deep reduction in individual and corporate tax rates; (2) elimination of […]