Royal College of Art lecturer Philip Shaw, who was cleared by an Old Bailey jury of sexual abuse. The court heard that the woman who accused Shaw was suffering from false memory syndrome after being misled by the US book The Courage to Heal, which claimed “almost all women have been sexually abused”. A psychiatrist […]
Mark Tyler believes that the new corporate killing offence has little to do with health and safety. The government has finally revealed its proposals for overhauling the intricate law of manslaughter. The result is a sub-division of different offences of killing involuntarily, with a special formulation for “corporate killing”. The proposal is based substantially on […]
The news that Cloisters’ criminal team, 14 Tooks Court and Two Garden Court are in tripartite merger negotiations is the latest in a series of major developments to shake the bar. The bar’s criminal division has long known that it was going to be the worst hit by changes to the justice system and will […]
The future of Edge Ellison’s Leicester office is hanging in the balance. The office’s 80 staff, including eight partners, are waiting for the results of a review being carried out by the firm’s Birmingham office on whether it is financially viable to have two bases in the Midlands. Edge Ellison recently carried out a profitability […]
The Spanish legal market, once brimming with family-controlled firms run by well-known legal patriarchs, is undergoing a dramatic transformation. The impetus of this change is the same one that has caused a ripple effect among legal communities in many other western European countries – globalisation of capital and trade. International law firms are waking up […]
Radcliffes is attempting to plug a gap in its tax and private client division after the lead partner and four members left to join Bircham & Co. Stephen Lewin, head of Radcliffes’ tax and private client department, and his colleagues will join the firm today (12 June). Offshore expert Helen Ratcliffe is joining Bircham & […]
The London office of US firm Cadwalader Wickersham &Taft is losing project finance partner Paul Griffin to Herbert Smith, leaving a question mark over the future of the firm’s nascent projects group. According to three sources close to Cadwalader, Griffin decided to leave after disagreements over the level of the firm’s investment in the projects […]
New York-based Thelen Reid & Priest is swallowing up Britton Silberman & Cervantez (BSC) to bolster its IT practice. BSC, which specialises in advising fledgling internet companies, is being taken over to become the emerging companies division of Thelen Reid. BSC’s team of 10 lawyers will continue to operate from its offices in San Francisco. […]
Deacon Graham & James is set to merge with Dunhill Madden Butler only weeks after its talks with accountancy giant Deloitte & Touche collapsed. It is understood that the two Australian firms have been in secret talks for several months and are set to make an announcement in early July. Both practices have had a […]
US firm Weil Gotshal & Manges is teaming up with a four-lawyer French practice in its second European move in as many months. The firm is setting up an affiliation with Paris arbitration firm Derains & Associés just six weeks after launching a German office with two top partners. The firm opened its Frankfurt office […]
Retail and foreign banking has changed radically over the past decade and with it the nature of its legal work has also changed. Consolidation has been a key to this transformation. The Royal Bank of Scotland’s merger with NatWest, HSBC Holdings’ acquisition of Midland Bank, and Lloyds Bank’s decision to join forces with TSB, are […]
The pharmaceuticals sector has experienced a period of unprecedented consolidation which has impacted on the demands it makes of its external legal advisers. In January, SmithKline Beecham and Glaxo Wellcome began to arrange a £114bn merger, just weeks before Pfizer and Warner-Lambert announced their £52.1bn merger. This consolidation has led to an increased demand for […]