The London office of Baker Botts is launching a new flexible resourcing initiative that will see it hire lawyers, potentially on a full-time self-employed consultancy basis, to fill a range of areas it currently sub-contracts out to UK firms. The initial focus of the new scheme, which was the brainchild of London managing partner Steve Wardlaw, […]
The Greek crisis is continuing, and while privatisation work is providing some business for lawyers, it comes at rock-bottom rates At the depth of Greece’s debt crisis – when the euro was about to be chucked into the Aegean and the central bank was poised to press the print button on resurrected drachmas – German […]
Most City litigators would have heard from third-party funders about the virtues of this market in recent years, but how many are taking them seriously? Try as they might, this is a sector that is struggling to take root. It’s a sector riddled with contradictions, as reporter Kate Beioley reveals in her investigation of the […]
Linder Myers’ demise shows how buying firms cheap can be costly Manchester’s Linder Myers has spent the past few years acquiring distressed assets, but now the firm is on the hunt for a rescue merger to pull it back from the brink. On 6 February Linder Myers filed its intention to appoint administrators at Manchester […]
Corporate team goes straight to clients in the US If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em – that seems to be the Herbert Smith Freehills’ (HSF) corporate team strategy when it comes to tackling the US market. The firm is making a concerted effort to integrate its litigation and corporate teams, but the two sides […]
Move of the week Simon Levine is to take over the reins from Sir Nigel Knowles at DLA Piper as new co-CEO. Levine, the firm’s present managing director for groups and sectors, is the former head of DLA’s IP and technology practice group. UK London Ex-Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) employment head Fraser Younson will join […]
The office environment can make or break a merger. So what is the formula for this function’s success? The office environment can cause most grief than any other issue, particularly post-merger. “Facilities management and property costs are the second highest expense for most law firms,” highlights Pinsent Masons senior facilities manager Dave Ash, who was […]
What comes to mind when you think of a lawyers’ paradise? Maybe a world where clients pay what you ask without quibbling, or where your board grants you all the resource you need to meet their needs and you have a great work-life balance? If you ask Ralf Jansen, general counsel of the European Stability […]
Insolvency set South Square has lost a senior junior barrister to Fountain Court Chambers. Commercial litigation barrister Ben Valentin is to join the set next month (3 March 2014). He arrives at chambers with a list of magic circle clients, having represented a string of high-profile financial institutions including the Bank of England, Bank of […]
What is the status of an adjudicator’s decision, in the period following the decision but before a judgment by a court or an award by an arbitrator? Just how ‘binding’ is it? What (if any) effect does a decision have upon the burden of proof in later proceedings? This was just one of the issues […]
Mark Heywood QC and Saleema Mahmood from No5 Chambers have prosecuted an Operation Ply mortgage fraud case for Central Fraud Group. Solicitor Kamran Malik, from Alum Rock, was sentenced to four years in jail for fraud offences for conning bank lenders into loaning money for over-inflated property. However, he had an extra year added to […]
No5 Chambers planning and environment group member Chris Young will be speaking at this year’s Planning and Environment Bar Association (PEBA) National Conference. Young will be taking part in the afternoon debate, called ‘Can a plan-led system deliver?’ The conference will be held this year on 16 May in London and will focus on key issues facing the planning […]