Organised crime is using international arbitration to launder money. Can you spot the signs? International arbitration is booming, that much we know. But how about this – the process for settling cross-border disputes is being hijacked by criminal gangs looking to launder their illicit gains. Don’t snigger at the back – we’re not making this […]
More than three years since the unthinkable happened, Joshua Freedman sifts through the wreckage to find out which firms gained the most from the wind-up of the banking giant A partner who wins a firm tens of millions of pounds in fees in one year would usually become a hero pretty swiftly, but there was […]
Phone-hacking costs must be cut or claimants will have to join forces The claimant firms acting for victims of the phone-hacking scandal have been ordered to find a more cost-efficient way of working or risk their clients being forced into a group litigation order (GLO), with a single firm advising the entire group. It is […]
New senior partner Kon commits to international growth
Justice secretary Ken Clarke suspected of caving in to US pressure on closed courts The debate on secret justice ratcheted up a notch last week as lawyers and journalists condemned Government proposals to expand closed hearings. Justice secretary Ken Clarke wants to alter the concept of open justice under perceived US pressure over our leaky […]
Speed up authorisation or risk scuppering finance deals, SRA told Pressure is mounting on the SRA to speed up the authorisation of alternative business structures (ABS) after concern that private equity deals could collapse as a result of regulatory delays. Insurance firm Parabis agreed a £50m funding deal with private equity house Duke Street in […]
Mexico, dragged down by the slump in US consumer spending, has not done as well out of the recession as many of its Latin American neighbours. However, things started to look up in 2010 when its economy grew by 5.5 per cent – its fastest annual growth rate in more than a decade. If DLA […]
News that Bond Pearce and Maclay Murray & Spens have called off merger talks after months of discussions (TheLawyer.com, 14 March) sheds new light on the rush to consolidate among mid-market firms – all the mergers that have been announced in the past few months and all the merger talks known to be going on […]
European loans maturing soon will require some novel solutions when it comes to refinancing Approaching $550bn (£350bn) of European leveraged buyout loans (LBO loans) is due to mature between 2012 and 2016, according to data produced by Dealogic for Linklaters. The annual volume requiring refinancing ranges from $69bn in 2012 to $103bn in 2016, hitting […]
UK law firms are hesitant about moving into the recently liberalised South Korean market The opening up of the legal sector in South Korea to UK and US firms follows the ratification of the Korea-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA), known as Keufta, which came into effect on 1 July 2011, and the Korea-US FTA (Korus), […]
Lord Justice Jackson’s reforms need special measures applied when it comes to insolvency cases The Jackson reforms are designed to tackle problems in relation to civil litigation costs. One of their focal points is in relation to conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) and after-the- event (ATE) insurance. They propose that CFA ’success fees’ and ATE premiums […]
Hearing and seeing evidence of abuse can affect professionals, who need training to cope The evidence of the torture and murder of 15-year-old Kirsty Bamu in the recent witchcraft trial at the Old Bailey dramatically highlights the issue of secondary traumatic stress. This is a condition that affects professionals exposed either to clients who suffer […]