You haven't missed much. Well, actually...

The holiday’s over, you’re back at your desk and - guess what? - there’s been loads going on while you’ve been away.

As summer merges into autumn, law firms merge into each other (see what we did there?). SNR Denton and Salans are gearing up to vote on their transatlantic combination, the West End’s Howard Kennedy and Finers have announced their tie-up and US firm K&L Gates has confirmed merger talks with Australia’s Middletons. Meanwhile, London’s Barnet and Harrow councils have finally sealed a merger of their legal teams after a delay, and DLA Piper is discussing a deal with a Paris boutique.

It’s not just mergers that you might have missed over the summer break. Insurance firm Parabis and Irwin Mitchell are among the new ABSs to gain regulatory approval, Allen & Overy chief David Morley has been appointed chair of the board of diversity initiative Prime, Maclay Murray & Spens’ employment arm has been bought out by its management, Burges Salmon partners have been picking up windfalls and defunct Dewey & LeBoeuf’s settlement deal has finally received the go-ahead from partners after weeks of wrangling.

There’s been tasty work for Slaughters on Standard Chartered’s sanctions set-to with New York regulators, Burges Salmon, Herbies and others on Virgin’s West Coast train defeat and, of course, Harbottle & Lewis on Prince Harry’s nudity saga.

Meanwhile, there have also been key City hires for Milbank, Cadwalader, and new legal heads for Travelers and Capco. Plus we’ve had a heated landlord dispute, a firm sending secret spies to clients and a case of a staff member embezzling over £5,000 from a firm.

That’s just the start of it: next Monday we bring you a roundup of all the best M&A work lawyers have snatched advisory roles on during a surprisingly busy summer, but for now, this should be plenty of reading material for you to get through after weeks of airport novels.

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