Olswang has hired planning law specialist and former Denton Hall managing partner Geoffrey Searle to head its planning team. Searle, who was managing partner at Denton Hall between 1988 and 1992, left the firm to persue a solo career as a sole practitioner. He said that Olswang would provide the back-up that he had lacked […]

Bacfi the Bar Association for Commerce Finance and Industry has elected Susan Ward, in-house counsel at the banking body APACS, as its chair. Ward (pictured), who takes over from Express Newspapers legal adviser Stephen Bacon, called for a lifting of all the restrictions preventing in-house lawyers from appearing in the higher courts.

Wilde Sapte is believed to be close to tying up a merger with Arthur Andersen. If the merger goes ahead it would represent the largest single leap by any firm of accountants into the legal market. Although Wilde Sapte was denying a merger when The Lawyer went to press, speculation was mounting in the City […]

The no-poaching agreement among the Magic Circle club of firms has held, despite the hiring of leading Clifford Chance insolvency partner Sandy Shandro by Freshfields. Shandro is the first partner to have been laterally hired in London from one big five City firm to another. However, Clifford Chance managing partner Tony Williams denied that Shandro’s […]