Blake Lapthorn has abandoned its lockstep after its average profit per equity partner (PEP) figure fell by 68 per cent last year, dropping to £65,000 from last year’s £204,000. Walter Cha In a major overhaul of its partnership structure the south coast firm has shed around a quarter of its equity partners and discarded its lockstep […]
Who would you least like to be stuck in a lift with and why?Anyone who can’t fix it. Robin Jackson What was your first-ever job?Officer cadet at Sandhurst, one of the lowest forms of employed life. What was your worst experience as a trainee?Being simultaneously informed by two regimental sergeant majors of what they’d […]
Professional indemnity insurance in the coming year will likely be more of a headache for the smaller firms, but the bigger players should have an easier time of it, says Sandra Neilson-Moore From 2000 through to 2002 the market for solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance had the following characteristics: intense insurer competition and lower insurance premiums […]
Renewables is keeping things ticking over for the energy practices at Northern Ireland firms. Matt Byrne reports Litigation and employment lawyers aside, there are not too many practice areas at firms around the UK that could make the following claim: “Our work levels have increased threefold within the past 24 months.” The lawyer making this […]
With PEP plummeting by 70 per cent, Blake Lapthorn is going to have to stop the rot. Is Walter Cha the man for the job? Walter Cha This time last year Blake Lapthorn partners were toasting the success of the firm’s ambitious five-year expansion plan. Since merging with City firm Tarlo Lyons in 2006, turnover had risen by more […]
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld has become the latest US firm to bulk up its London presence after launching a City disputes practice under former Linklaters energy and infrastructure disputes head Justin Williams. Justin Williams Williams, who was a counsel at Linklaters, has joined the US firm as a partner. Akin Gump’s inter-national managing partner Rick Burdick says […]
Cooley is the latest West Coast firm to fall prey to the New York invasion. Rivalry between firms on the US East and West coasts has been a feature of the US legal community for years. Since Los Angeles-headquartered Latham & Watkins conquered the New York legal market in the 1990s, establishing a pre-eminent high-yield team, other […]
Canadian firm Blake Cassels & Graydon has established two offices in the Middle East. The firm has agreed a formal alliance with local Saudi Arabian firm Saudi Al-Amari in Al-Khobar as well as launching in Bahrain. Both offices will open their doors in autumn this year. Dan Fournier, a partner in the firm’s energy and […]
Norton Rose has boosted its Singapore practice by relocating two partners to the country. Jill Gauntlett London corporate partner Jill Gauntlett has already moved to the office, while Hong Kong-based finance partner Yu-En Ong is to relocate shortly. Ong is both Hong Kong and Singapore-qualified. Norton Rose was one of six international firms handed licences in December to […]
With two mergers in 14 months, Ellisons Solicitors has been staking its claim on the Essex legal market. Focusing on the Tendring Peninsula, an agricultural region that spreads from Colchester in the east and Clacton-on-Sea in the south to the port of Harwich on the west coast, Ellisons’ expansion plans saw it merge with PTL […]
Edinburgh-based firm Lindsays has disposed of its investment management arm to focus purely on providing legal advice. The firm has sold its investment management division, which is run by non-lawyers with a focus on giving clients wealth management advice, to private bank Brown Shipley. Investment managers Paul Embleton and Gail Craig will transfer to Brown […]
Withers’ net profit margin fell to 15 per cent in the past financial year, a drop of six percentage points on the previous financial year’s figure, while average profit per equity partner (PEP) dropped by 24 per cent. PEP at the firm stood at £273,000 at the end of 2008-09, down from £357,000 the previous year. Plateau partners received […]