The Lawyer
Corinne McPartland Editorial
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BHP Law
11 October 2010
North East firm BHP Law prides itself on its ability to provide a wide range of services for its predominantly regionally based clients.
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Clifford Chance unveils new Brussels head
7-Oct-2010
Clifford Chance competition lawyer Tony Reeves has been elected as the firm’s new Brussels managing partner.
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Higgs & Sons
4 October 2010
West Midlands firm Higgs & Sons prides itself on being able to retain its staff, something senior partner Ian Shovlin has personal experience of.
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CC’s fast-track LPC adds to two-tier fears
20 September 2010
Clifford Chance has become the latest firm to launch a fast-track LPC in a move that has heightened student fears of creating a two-tier training system for aspiring lawyers.
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Burges Salmon trainees raise money for war heroes on planes, trains, automobiles…
2 August 2010
Imagine travelling home from work and telling the stressed-out inspector who is demanding to see your ticket that you are without one -and any money to pay for it.
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IoP backs Law Soc's bid to create paralegal qualification
29-Jul-2010
The Institute of Paralegals (IoP) has pledged its support for a new study commissioned by The Law Society into the provision of a qualification for paralegals.
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BPP becomes UK's first private university college in three decades
26-Jul-2010
BPP College of Professional Studies has been named as the UK’s first new private sector university college for more than 30 years.
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Top sets post 100 per cent retention as work mounts
26 July 2010
Several leading barristers’ chambers have reported 100 per cent retention rates for their newly qualified barristers as work levels for junior tenants soars.
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Halliwells: future Manchester and London trainees left jobless
22-Jul-2010
No room for future trainees at HBJ Gateley Wareing or BLG; Hill Dickinson offers lifeline
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Improved retention rates give law graduates a fillip
12 July 2010
Law students are cautiously optimistic about landing a job upon qualification, despite the graduate recruitment market remaining fragile.
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Editor's Weekly: Money's too tight to mention
24-Jun-2010
George Osborne’s emergency budget will inevitably touch all corners of the community. In addition to increasing VAT and Capital Gains Tax the Chancellor also announced a three-year pay freeze for public sector workers.
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Herbies ups trainee and NQ pay, reinstates junior lockstep
1-Jun-2010
Herbert Smith has increased pay bands for newly qualified (NQ) solicitors and trainees while keeping most associate pay bands at last year’s levels.
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Olympic hopefuls adopt ‘no train, no gain’ approach to games success
31 May 2010
Can you imagine getting up every morning four hours before you are due at the office to take part in a gruelling training regime, only to spend another three hours in the gym as soon as you finish work?
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Eversheds to pay staff for top BD ideas
26-May-2010
Staff at Eversheds are being given the chance to win a £20,000 cash prize for coming up with a pioneering business idea.
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Links names new grad recruitment partner as incumbent heads to Moscow
24-May-2010
Linklaters has named capital markets lawyer Mark Middleton as its joint graduate recruitment partner.
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Applications for vac schemes skyrocket
10 May 2010
Graduate recruitment partners have reported a marked increase in applications for vacation scheme placements this year as competition for training contracts soars.
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English briefs join jet set as chambers go global
10 May 2010
“Having a permanent base abroad with a permanent barrister situated there is really the key to success internationally. If you don’t have that then you don’t have any credibility,” states Nicholas Luckman, senior practice manager at XXIV Old Buildings.
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Legal political aspirants fall by wayside in election
10 May 2010
The potential parliamentary candidates (PPCs) highlighted in The Lawyer (19 April) may be going back to their day jobs after all six failed to win seats.
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Taking an Afghani stand
10 May 2010
“I had already designed my future and Afghanistan was in it as part of my list of things to do before I turn 25,” says 22-year-old Natasha Latiff.
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Eversheds’ whistleblower
3 May 2010
MAYHEM on the field, chanting in the stands, provocative gestures, trouble in the tunnel, accusations and denials… all in a day’s work for Eversheds associate Gareth Planck, who is a qualified football referee.
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Focus: The General Election, Commons goal
19 April 2010
With less than three weeks to go until the general election, The Lawyer catches up with some of the legal practitioners hoping to become the political stars of the future
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The oldest proofreader in town
5 April 2010
Reg Frary is 90 years old. He has survived the Second World War, seen man land on the moon and watched the first-ever television broadcast.
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Focus: Diversity, Power to the pupils
22 March 2010
Law firms are missing a trick by focusing their diversity schemes mainly on university students rather than A-level pupils. Lawyer 2B’s careers day helps out
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CoL to introduce New York Bar programme
15-Mar-2010
The College of Law (CoL) has announced plans to offer the New York Bar Exam to UK students, allowing them to qualify as American lawyers without having to complete a training contract.
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Shoosmiths starts hiring trainees again
15 March 2010
Shoosmiths has reopened its trainee recruitment programme after last year emerging as the only major firm to withdraw training contract offers from future joiners.
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Bar Standards Board raps BPP Law School for taking on too many students
8 March 2010
BPP Law School has been put under scrutiny after the Bar Standards Board (BSB) published a report on its ’triggered visit’ to the institution, which was prompted by the fact BPP’s BVC was oversubscribed.
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Record player: Chris Ancliff, Warner Music Group
1 March 2010
As international GC for one of the world’s largest record companies, Chris Ancliff has his hands full fighting to protect the music industry.
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Sandhurst course shows BLP trainees the ups and downs of a life in law
1 March 2010
It’s early morning at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS) and a platoon of officer cadets in full uniform charges past a group of nervous-looking Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) trainees.
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Calling the shots: David Frolio, GSM Association
22 February 2010
As counsel for the GSMA, handling the legal side of the mobile telecoms industry has kept David Frolio at the forefront of the technology, says Corinne McPartland
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Focus: Travel, Journeys into the unknown
22 February 2010
The opportunity to travel may be one of your reasons for pursuing a legal career, but it’s not all business class and fancy restaurants, warns Corinne McPartland
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Magic circle firms’ prestige under threat as salaries at US rivals reach record levels
22 February 2010
The magic circle may no longer be the obvious choice for the UK’s top students after a survey highlighted the massive earning potential for junior lawyers at US firms.
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Bingham shocks market with NQ salary of £100K
15 February 2010
Bingham has emerged as one of the most generous US firms in London, paying its newly qualified (NQ) lawyers a salary of £100,000.
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Linklaters launches fast-track LPC
12-Feb-2010
The College of Law (CoL) has teamed up with Linklaters to introduce a fast-track Legal Practice Course(LPC) for the magic circle firm’s future trainee solicitors.
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Norton Rose wins The Lawyer's top HR accolade for work on Flex
10-Feb-2010
Norton Rose carried off the top prize in The Lawyer HR Awards last night for its groundbreaking work on the Flex scheme, which allowed the firm to be one of the tiny number not to make redundancies last year.
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Hammonds’ clients to grill wannabe lawyers
25 January 2010
Hammonds is adding a client panel interview to its summer vacation scheme this year as it seeks ways to toughen up its recruitment process.
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Keir Starmer: a radical lawyer gets tough
25 January 2010
When human rights barrister Keir Starmer QC became director of public prosecutions (DPP) in 2008, he came up against a barrage of criticism that suggested he would not be able to step up to the plate as head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
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Lovells launches diversity scheme in response to Milburn report
20-Jan-2010
Lovells has launched an initiative for youngsters aimed at demystifying the legal industry and increasing access to the law.
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NQ retention rates for spring 2010 hold up well
18 January 2010
Early indications are that retention rates for spring 2010 qualifiers are down only marginally on last year’s, with the small clutch of firms that have released figures reporting rates in the region of 80 per cent.
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BPP steals a march on rivals with launch of January GDL
11 January 2010
BPP Law School is shoring up its place in an increasingly competitive legal education market by introducing the first GDL that can be studied from January.
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Clifford Chance honours CR champions in inaugural awards
17-Dec-2009
Clifford Chance hosted its first-ever awards ceremony last week aimed at showcasing staff who make exceptional contributions to corporate responsibility (CR).
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Firms braced for flood of applicants in 2010
14 December 2009
Selection criteria ramped up to cope with expected graduate backlog. Firms are toughening already tight graduate recruitment criteria in a bid to stem the expected flood of candidates returning from gap years following the legal market’s biggest-ever trainee deferral programme.
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Rival law schools twist the knife over BPP parent’s SEC probe
30 November 2009
Amid the news that BPP Law School’s US parent Apollo Group is being investigated by the SEC in connection to accounting irregularities (The Lawyer, 23 November), the educator’s business model has been put under scrutiny.
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LG welcomes one man in 12-strong trainee intake
19-Nov-2009
LG’s male-to-female trainee ratio has been skewed by its new intake as 11 of the 12-strong cohort are female.
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Lack of contracts fails to halt increase in law students
09 November 2009
University admissions statistics have revealed that more students than ever before have been accepted onto law courses.
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Linklaters mulls ditching recruitment brochures
09 November 2009
Linklaters is planning to scrap its graduate recruitment brochures in a bid to become more environmentally friendly.
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Linklaters plans to go green by ditching printed recruitment material
3-Nov-2009
Linklaters is planning to scrap its graduate recruitment brochures in a bid to become more environmentally friendly.
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Nalp and IoP squabble over paralegal training claims
02 November 2009
A spat has broken out between the Institute of Paralegals (IoP) and the National Association of Licensed Paralegals (Nalp) over who has launched the country’s first national training framework.
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Firms’ recovery optimism tempered as training contract criteria is made ‘stricter’
19 October 2009
Graduate recruiters are resolutely positive about the forthcoming milk round season, despite law fair marketing budgets being squeezed in light of the recession.
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Kaplan first to introduce BVC admissions exam
19 October 2009
Students wanting to study the BVC at Kaplan Law School will be made to sit an admissions test in what will be the first of its kind in the country.
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Kurt Geiger fills GC gap with Burberry lawyer
19 October 2009
Kurt Geiger has appointed Iolanda Tursi to head its legal department after the luxury shoe retailer’s former general counsel left to join the pharmaceuticals sector.
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Ali Malek QC appointed head of 3VB as set raises pupillage award to £60,000
15-Oct-2009
Gray’s Inn set 3 Verulam Buildings (3VB) has appointed Ali Malek QC as its new head of chambers.
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Howrey drafts in top-notch antitrust team from CC to boost Paris offering
12 October 2009
With the hire of a competition team from Clifford Chance last month, US IP and antitrust firm Howrey has moved to bring its Paris office more in line with the rest of its global offering.
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Links ditches freebies to raise literacy in Hackney
12 October 2009
Linklaters has turned its back on the usual law fair giveaway hysteria this year by ditching freebies in favour of donating money to charity.
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CPS cancels graduate recruitment programme
1-Oct-2009
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has been forced to pull the plug on its recruitment programme this year because of a crack down on public spending.
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CoL: modified LPC should replace training contract
28 September 2009
The College of Law’s (CoL) Legal Services Policy Institute (LSPI) is calling for the training contract for solicitors to be abolished in a bid to “widen access to the profession”.
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Herbert Smith trains staff to spot stress
28 September 2009
Herbert Smith has launched a training scheme to help its staff recognise the symptoms of stress and deal with mental illness.
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Nipping yarns: Janet Hood, BII Scotland
28 September 2009
Janet Hood, as head of legal for BII Scotland, is helping pubs and clubs catch up with the country’s new licensing laws. By Corinne McPartland
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Supreme renovations
16-Sep-2009
“Here Justice sits and lifts her steady scale within the Abbey’s sight and Parliament’s but independent of them both.” The words of former poet laureate Andrew Motion are engraved on the stone benches that grace the entrance to the Supreme Court in Parliament Square, and they are fittingly grand.
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Insurer hires ex-Eversheds veteran as chief counsel
14 September 2009
Insurance company Liberty International Underwriters Europe (LIU Europe) has appointed Nigel Davenport to the newly created position of chief counsel.
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Camerons wins place on revamped Nestle panel
10-Sep-2009
CMS Cameron McKenna has been appointed by confectionary giant Nestle as advisors on its panel this year.
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LIU Europe creates chief counsel role
7-Sep-2009
Insurance company Liberty International Underwriters Europe (LIU Europe) has appointed Nigel Davenport to the newly created position of chief counsel.
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Down but not out
UK200 2009
While the Bristol heavyweights battled for supremacy, the smaller Southern firms held their own. By Corinne McPartland
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Rising dampener
UK200 2009
It may have been tough at the top in the last financial year, but as the statistics for the full UK 200 show, it was even tougher at the bottom.
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Smoking brum
UK200 2009
With the Midlands fast becoming a magnet for the UK’s legal industry, Corinne McPartland queries whether the region can sustain so many law firms
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Couchman scores sports duo from Addleshaws
7 September
Commercial boutique Couchman Harrington Associates has hired two lawyers from Addleshaw Goddard’s sports practice.
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Freshfields, Lovells, Slaughters cut BPP grants
7 September
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Lovells and Slaughter and May have all reduced the maintenance grants for students on the fast-track City LPC Consortium, to be run by BPP Law School.
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Intelligent design: Giles Millerchip, McArthurGlen Group
7 September
Giles Millerchip is yet to qualify as a fully fledged lawyer, but that has not prevented him from taking the top legal spot at designer outlet village group McArthurGlen. By Corinne McPartland
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Students face heavy competition for vacation places as firms slash schemes
7 September
Despite many law firms becoming more optimistic about the end of the recession, would-be lawyers looking to secure a vacation scheme in 2010 will be facing a tougher battle as firms reduce their placement numbers.
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Women solicitors urged to apply to the bench
7 September
The Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) has launched a campaign to encourage more women to apply for judicial appointments.
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Skadden cuts 2010 associate intake by half
26-Aug-2009
Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom is to halve the size of its summer associate intake for 2010 after pushing back the start dates of its 2009 cohort.
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Burges Salmon steals Osborne Clarke's PEP crown in southern battlefield
17-Aug-2009
The battle for supremacy in the South of England legal market saw Bristol heavyweight Burges Salmon overtake arch rival Osborne Clake in average profit per equity (PEP) stakes during the last financial year.
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TLT eschews conduct code to bag trainees ahead of September deadline
13-Aug-2009
Bristol-based TLT Solicitors has defended its controversial decision to offer training contracts to applicants ahead of the usual 1 September deadline.
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BLG, Blackstone, Bindmans break out the bubbly as curtain falls on Lords
10 August 2009
The House of Lords marked its last day of existence two weeks ago by handing out judgments on seven final cases.
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Chambers overtake law firms in pay battle for junior talent
10 August 2009
Barristers’ chambers hike pupil pay by a third, but newly qualified solicitor salary cuts spread across the UK
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Lovells retains just 69 per cent of autumn qualifiers
5-Aug-2009
Lovells’ retention rate for trainee solicitors due qualify in the autumn has dropped to 69 per cent.
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Simpson Thacher prepares KKR for IPO spree
3-Aug-2009
Simpson Thacher & Bartlett is understood to be advising long-standing client Kohlberg Kravis & Roberts (KKR) on the flotation of portfolio company Avago Technologies on the New York Stock Exchange.
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Noteworthy: Lesley Cameron, The Law Society
3 August 2009
As the lawyers’ lawyer, Law Society senior legal adviser Lesley Cameron helps law practices do just that - practise law. By Corinne McPartland
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Power struggle: Roger Clayson, Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA)
27 July 2009
Between winding down Sellafield and overseeing a £70bn nuclear waste clean-up, the interim legal head of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Roger Clayson has his hands full. Corinne McPartland reports
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The Milburn report: are law firms addressing social mobility?
27 July 2009
A report, chaired by social mobility czar Alan Milburn, has called on the legal industry to remove the barriers preventing those from poorer backgrounds joining the profession.
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Legal exec aims for top job after making partner at Glaisyers
20-Jul-2009
Manchester-based Glaisyers Solicitors has become the latest law firm to promote a legal executive to its partnership.
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Cash cow: Florian Mattinson, Müller Dairy (UK)
20 July 2009
Florian Mattinson is more than just a lawyer - he helped make German dairy company Müller a household name in the UK. Corinne McPartland reports
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MoJ launches schools legal education project
20 July 2009
School pupils are to be taught how the justice system works as part of a national curriculum change unveiled by justice minister Bridget Prentice and Attorney General Baroness Scotland QC.
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BPP students made to wait for exam results
17-Jul-2009
BPP Law school has denied claims that an outbreak of swine flu caused it to delay releasing exam results to its Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) students for two days earlier this week.
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Mayer Brown ramps up finance practice with hires from Clifford Chance, Linklaters
13-Jul-2009
Mayer Brown has hired three leveraged finance partners for its London office after pledging to significantly bulk up its finance capabilities in the City.
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BPP in redundancy talks with LPC staff
13 July 2009
BPP Law School has launched redundancy talks with LPC staff at its Manchester branch.
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College of Law vs Kaplan vs BPP: law schools vie for top spot
13 July 2009
Legal education providers across the country have started to jostle for supremacy in response to the recent relaxation of LPC rules by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA).
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Newly-qualifieds remain at top of pay scale despite wage freezes
13 July 2009
Junior lawyers are still some of the highest paid graduates, despite the recent pay freezes and cuts announced by top commercial law firms.
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Shoosmiths' partner profits halved
6-Jul-2009
Shoosmiths has recorded a 54 per cent drop in average profit per equity partner (PEP) for the 2008-09 financial year.
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Charles Russell blames move for PEP drop
6 July 2009
Charles Russell has recorded a 39.7 per cent drop in average profit per equity partner (PEP) for the 2008-09 financial year.
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The view from campus: law students contemplate a bleak future as jobs dry up
6 July 2009
Law students are remaining positive about the prospect of securing training contracts with City firms despite vacancies in the legal sector dropping by 7.5 per cent.
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NQs face dole queue as retention rates drop
29 June 2009
Newly qualified (NQ) retention rates for September 2009 qualifiers at a number of leading law firms have plummeted as worsening economic conditions hit the employment market.
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Courier girl: Rachael Hambrook, DHL Express
15 June 2009
As head of legal for DHL Express, Rachael Hambrook is making sure her legal team is part and parcel of the success of the business.
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Kurt Geiger counsel steps back into pharma
15 June 2009
Kurt Geiger general counsel Suzanne Smith is to leave the company to return to the pharmaceuticals sector, joining global biotechnology corporation Genzyme.
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BPE ditches flexi-working for full-time hours
11-Jun-2009
Gloucester-based BPE Solicitors has moved the 13 members of staff who were put on a four-day week in January back up to full-time working.
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Coutts in-houser joins Lloyds private equity arm
10-Jun-2009
Lloyds TSB Development Capital (LDC), the private arm of the Lloyds Banking Group, has hired a former legal counsel from Coutts & Co, the Queen’s bank.
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Bird & Bird trainee qualifies aged 50
8 June 2009
One of London’s oldest trainees has qualified six months ahead of schedule at Bird & Bird, after the City firm announced a 100 per cent retention rate.
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Fridge magnate: Alessia Oddone, Indesit
8 June 2009
Indesit in-houser Alessia Oddone may have joined the company just nine months ago in the depths of the cycle, but she’s not in a spin. By Corinne McPartland
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Jones Day lands brief on Birthdays wind-up
8 June 2009
Jones Day has won a lead mandate on the administration of the recession’s latest high-street casualty, greetings card chain Birthdays.
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Schillings Academy to deliver direct route to partnership
8 June 2009
Media boutique Schillings is looking to expand the professional development of its junior lawyers with the launch of the Schillings Academy.
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Shearman London to retain just 64 per cent of September qualifiers
2-Jun-2009
US firm Shearman & Sterling is to retain just 64 per cent of its London trainees who are due to qualify in September.
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Shoosmiths: brand on the run as Stothard makes hasty exit
1 June 2009
The news that Shoosmiths chief executive Paul Stothard is stepping down one year into his third three-year term sparked a flurry of debate on TheLawyer.com, with the majority of posters seeing a direct link between the firm’s handling of trainee deferrals and his departure.
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Ward of court: Kate Moore, Monitor
1 June 2009
Kate Moore, head of the in-house legal team at NHS watchdog Monitor, speaks to Corinne McPartland about being a guardian of patient care at a time when it has never been more under the microscope
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Thirteen opt to defer Dentons training contracts
27-May-2009
Thirteen future Denton Wilde Sapte trainees have taken up the firm’s offer of a payment of up to £10,000 to defer for 12 months.
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Beleaguered law students face paralegal KO
25 May 2009
PARALEGALS are in danger of being edged out of a shrinking jobs market as recruiters offer positions to those who have had their training contracts deferred.
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Freshfields to give non-retained qualifiers a golden goodbye
22-May-2009
Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer is to give a goodwill cash payment to trainees who are not retained after qualifying in September.
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Shoosmiths chief exec steps down in wake of trainee deferral row
22-May-2009
Shoosmiths chief executive Paul Stothard has stepped down from the role after a seven-year reign and is set to leave the firm.
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Devereux Chambers fills chief exec role with Bakers hire
21-May-2009
Devereux Chambers is to install a chief executive after hiring Baker & McKenzie director of marketing and business development Beverly Landais.
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Fresh blow for trainees as A&O shuts up shop early
18 May 2009
Prospects for aspiring trainees have taken a turn for the worse with Allen & Overy (A&O) becoming the latest firm to close its applications before the traditional July deadline.
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Training vacancies plummet as deferrals rise
18 May 2009
Vacancies for training contracts for 2011-12 are set for a dramatic fall as the number of law firms deferring trainee start dates continues to rise.
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Wilsons promotes two to partnership following London launch
13-May-2009
Wilsons has made up two new partners in its annual promotion round, less than a month after unveiling a new London office.
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SRA offers paltry trainee pay rise
11 May 2009
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has announced a modest increase in the minimum salary for trainee solicitors.
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Shoosmiths’ trainees-in-waiting leap to defend firm’s tactics
4 May 2009
Future Shoosmiths trainees have launched an attack against those who have criticised their firm for not compensating future joiners who have been forced to defer their start dates.
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Muckle hangs on to qualifiers despite trainee deferrals
27 April 2009
Newcastle firm Muckle has announced it will retain 100 per cent of trainees due to qualify this year, despite the growing number of redundancies in the legal sector.
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Focus: Career changes, Pastures new
20 April 2009
With all the recent layoffs, maybe it’s time to change tack altogether. The Lawyer meets a restauranteur, an author and a handbag designer, who all said farewell to the law to follow their dreams
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Lovells promotes 19 to partnership
9-Apr-2009
Lovells has promoted 19 to its partnership, pushing the firm’s total tally of partners up to 365 across its international network.
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Training contract deferrals force Generation Y to learn patience
6 April 2009
During the 2007-08 hiring round, law firm graduate recruitment teams’ focus centred on accommodating the demands of Generation Y. Fast forward one year and the mood on campus could not be any more different.
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City firms prepare staff for G20 riots
27-Mar-2009
Law firms across the City have been beefing up security and asking staff to leave their suits at home ahead of expected violent demonstrations during the G20 summit next week.
