Herbert Smith’s Dutch alliance Stibbe is relocating corporate and capital markets partner Derk Lemstra to London to head the firm’s City arm. Lemstra, who is due to move to London in the summer, will be replacing the current resident partner of Stibbe’s London office Gerhardt Vels. Lemstra’s appointment coincides with Herbert Smith’s plans to accelerate […]
J Sainsbury’s in-house legal department is playing a key role in steering the FTSE 100 retailer through the biggest product recall in UK retail history. Jillian Hardwicke, a senior product law adviser at Sainsbury’s, is handling all the legal issues arising out of the recall of products containing the colouring known as Sudan 1. Hardwicke […]
The Law Society Council yesterday (Thursday, 24 February) approved the latest version of the society’s 2005 budget, which proposes a practising certificate fee of £1,017. The budget takes into account increased costs of regulating the solicitors’ profession, caused through implementing changes required by Sir David Clementi’s recent regulatory review. This includes an anticipated increase in […]
Laura Schumacher has been promoted to the post of senior vice president, secretary and general counsel at US healthcare company Abbott Laboratories, succeeding Jose de Lasa who will retire at end-March. Schumacher will report to chairman and chief executive officer Miles White. Previously, Schumacher was vice president, secretary and deputy general counsel. Schumacher joined the […]
The Law Society Council today (Thursday 24 February) gave the go-ahead for the next stage of the controversial Training Framework Review, which has split the profession’s educational establishment. The review proposes to scrap the current system for qualifying as a solicitor, replacing the Legal Practice Course (LPC) with a series of assessments undertaken over a […]
Personal injury boutique Evill & Coleman is to merge with London solicitors Russell-Cooke. The two firms will merge on 1 March, forming a 30-strong personal injury department based in Putney, in addition to Russell-Cooke’s Bedford Row and Kingston-upon-Thames offices. Evill & Coleman’s expertise ranges from clinical negligence cases to personal injury work, including sporting injuries. […]
Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, the highly-respected retiring president of the High Court’s Family Division, is the first named member of the new selection panel for QCs. The announcement was made by the Law Society chief executive, Janet Paraskeva, in her report to the society’s council meeting today (Wednesday 23 February). Butler-Sloss was nominated to the role […]
Shearman & Sterling has mined its vast international network to promote ten lawyers to its all-equity partnership. The London office, which last year reported storming financial results, promoted one lawyer into the equity, UK-qualified capital markets expert J Warden McKimm, while its New York home saw three of its lawyers made up in asset management, […]
US firm Bryan Cave’s 2004 revenues have dropped slightly on its record 2003 but firm chairman Don Lents has claimed the year was a success as 2003’s figures included a massive contingency fee. Gross revenue for 2004 was $374m down 2.6 per cent from $384m in 2003. Profits per equity partner fell from $600,000 in […]
SJ Berwin’s Paris managing partner George Pinkham is leading a fight to clarify complicated tax laws which could lead to French members of a UK limited liability partnership (LLP) being taxed twice. Although France and the UK signed a new Double Tax Treaty in January 2004, LLPs have been left out of the agreement. According […]
Former EY Law global head Patrick Bignon is setting up his own legal management consultancy firm. Bignon is launching Law Management Consulting, which is based in Paris, in response to a need for independent legal experts in Europe. From 2002 until March 2004 Bignon was the global head of Ernst & Young’s legal network, having […]
Stephenson Harwood has hired a new head of Islamic finance. Bilal Aquil joins the firm as its head of Islamic finance, following work at Calyon (formerly Crédit Lyonnais). He will be responsible for Stephenson Harwood’s Islamic finance work across a range of areas including real estate and banking. The firm has also recruited John Roebuck […]