CMS Derks Star Busmann Hanotiau is to lose its Belgian name partners when the firm’s Brussels-based arbitration and litigation team leaves to set up a new practice in the autumn. Highly-rated international arbitrator Bernard Hanotiau is leaving to join Freshfield Bruckhaus Deringer partner Albert Jan van den Berg, who will relocate from Amsterdam to Brussels […]
BT advised by Ashurst Morris Crisp (Ian Nisse, Simon Cookson, Anthony Burnett-Scott and David Perks). TeleReal advised by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer (Jeffrey Rubinoff, James George).
The tale of sisters Anna and Della Burnside is less one of separated at birth than inseparable since birth. The identical twins (below) have just been made partners in the same month, Anna in the private client department of Penningtons and Della, an intellectual property litigator, at Osborne Clarke.They both gained identical A-level grades in […]
Unable to adopt the simple expedient of “hanging all the lawyers”, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) report into the professions earlier this year came up with a series of recommendations, such as allowing direct access to the bar and allowing barristers to form partnerships. While these are familiar proposals, it is disappointing that they […]
In these high-tech days, where law firms are gearing up with the latest online dealrooms, desktop operating systems and the like, it seems that Berwin Leighton Paisner has stolen a march on its rivals with its latest piece of gadgetry. The firm has set up a webcam in its new trendy in-house restaurant Alibi. It […]
Birmingham’s Wragge & Co is making waves as far away as the City with the success of its sector-based strategy. Can it now do the same for its global plans? Fiona Callister reports Now here’s an exclusive for you: Wragge & Co, the Birmingham-based powerhouse, deals drugs. According to managing partner Quentin Poole himself, the […]
Comment The Court of Appeal has for the first time considered the contentious issue of summary assessment of costs and allowed an appeal against an assessment of costs of £1,750 against costs claimed of £21,388 in the case of Contactreal v Davies and Davies. The proceedings had been commenced at the start of 1998 for […]
Hammond Suddards Edge has announced its first set of post-merger profits. Annual turnover was £123m, up £10m from last year’s estimated figure. The estimated figures are a projection of what the firm’s turnover would have been if Hammond Suddards Edge had existed last year.The estimated figure is smaller than the combined total of the two […]
Shepherd & Wedderburn is opening a permanent office in London to service its technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) clients. To launch the office it is taking on Stephen Hubner from Stephen Kingsley Associates, a small telecoms firm which is shutting its doors after 13 years.Hubner was with Bird & Bird until three years ago when […]
The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) will contact UK lawyers this week and ask them to join a new panel giving pro bono advice to British prisoners overseas. The scheme has already been showcased to members of the Solicitors’ Pro Bono Group (SPBG), including all the magic circle firms.Lawyers will be asked to give the […]
UBS Warburg is hiring a European general counsel. The post has been vacant for nearly a year. Sally James is returning to the department after a spell as a bursar at the University of Cambridge, before which she was deputy head of legal for Swiss Bank Corporation, which merged with UBS in 1998.She is filling […]
The demise of the Solicitors’ Indemnity Fund not only opened the market for insurers but also the law firms that wanted a place on their panels. Jon Robins reports Scrapping SIF and moving from mutuality to market has proved a blessing for many a law firm – especially those which halved their premiums in one […]