Many top Chinese firms are confronting their first succession issues as their founders prepare to step down. Can they build the right frameworks to ensure a strong generational transition? Over the past two years many Chinese law firms have celebrated their 20th anniversaries. King & Wood Mallesons’ (KWM) China arm and Zhong Lun, two of the […]
Trowers & Hamlins is planning to issue a cash call to participating partners in response to new HM Revenue & Customs changes to the partnership tax regime. The firm plans to ask its fixed-share partners to contribute 30 per cent of the fixed element of their salary on top of the £20,000 they have already […]
After a decade of phenomenal growth, Chinese law firms are now having to confront the issue of succession. It’s a touchy subject but some of the top firms have been quietly grappling with it, as our Asia editor Yun Kriegler reveals in our cover story this week. Jun He, best known in the West for […]
Ben Larkin, the head of the restructuring practice at Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP), has become the latest high-profile partner to quit the firm. Larkin, who joined BLP in 2002 from Dechert where he was a partner (5 August 2002), is joining Jones Day as de facto head of the London restructuring practice. He specialises in […]
Gateley has revealed an £8m jump in profit after fully integrating the Manchester office of failed firm Halliwells in May 2012. The firm’s accounts, filed with Companies House last week, reveal for the first time how the firm put the 40-strong team into a separate legal entity due to the desperation to push the deal […]
German firm Heuking Kühn Lüer Wojtek has reported a 9.3 per cent rise in turnover for the 2013 year, with revenues hitting €107.6m (£89m) – up from €98.4m in 2012. The results mark continued growth for the independent firm, which also reported turnover rises in 2012 (13 February 2013), 2011 (21 February 2012) and 2010 […]
Lawyers used up their minutes on the latest instalment of the Vodafone/Liberty telecoms struggle in January, while football deals also featured strongly It may be chilly outside, but things certainly hotted up in January between old telecoms rivals Liberty Global and Vodafone. The pair, which have been gradually buying their way across the European telecoms […]
It’s time to finally start showing some financial growth The buzzword was resilience when Hogan Lovells co-CEO David Harris was last asked about the firm’s lack of growth three years into the Lovells and Hogan & Hartson merger. It was no terrible thing, he argued, to have static results in a tough market. But something […]
Meet Simon Levine – the ‘switched-on guy’ destined to take the co-CEO role Who is Simon Levine? The man taking over from Sir Nigel Knowles as DLA Piper co-CEO may not have the same level of entrepreneurial bombast as his predecessor, at least according to some sources, but word is he is the right man […]
Move of the week Channel 4 has promoted its head of legal and compliance Prash Naik to the new position of general counsel. Naik, who celebrates his 20th year at the broadcaster this year, has taken on the general counsel position following a number of internal changes. He will now report to Channel 4’s head […]
The regions might stand shoulder-to-shoulder with London on criminal justice issues but there is everything to fight for when it comes to commercial work The regional bar’s most pressing preoccupation at the moment is the fate of the criminal justice system. The combination of already low pay for criminal advocates, further cuts to legal aid […]
Legislation intended to loosen the stranglehold of a few conglomerates on the economy is set to trigger a surge in sell-offs and overseas interest Israel’s economy has often been described as monopolistic but until now nothing has been done to tackle the problem. In December 2013 the Knesset (Israeli parliament) passed a law intended to […]