Is SJB bulking up for a US partner with the KWM deal or is the pull of non-funds muscle enough? And what of the illustrious name? If it happens, it could be the boldest and most ground-breaking international merger yet by a UK law firm, at least since Norton Rose’s Canada-South Africa double in June […]
Sweeping legislative change is providing the bulk of the work for lawyers in the Czech Republic and Slovakia It has been a quiet year or so in the Czech and Slovak legal markets. Nobody has moved in, nobody has moved out and lateral hires have been few and far between. But that does not mean […]
This year’s Lawyer Awards employment entries show just how wide-ranging this sector is The entries for this year’s Employment Team of the Year at The Lawyer Awards were of incredible quality and variety, and the shortlisted firms have undertaken a wide range of cases and work. While the title bestowed on the winner recognises them […]
Transport for London legal director Andrea Clarke’s remit has extended to take in new in-house and policing tasks – all while ensuring that the city keeps on moving For most of us, the daily commute is more than enough public transport for one day. Not so for Andrea Clarke. As director of legal at Transport […]
With financial pressures across the board, in-house counsel are having to take a firm stance on costs Where are the biggest cost pressures for you as an in-house counsel? Have these increased in recent years? David Symonds, general counsel Emea, Tyco: The biggest cost pressure is the desire of the business to see spend on […]
A merged Withers and Speechly Bircham would have scaled The Lawyer’s UK 200 with a turnover of about £170m, and created one of the world’s largest specialist private client teams. So what went wrong? It emerged last week that the proposed merger between Withers and Speechly Bircham had fallen through after partners voted against the […]
As internet users become smarter proving trademark infringement in adword cases will be harder The judgment of 21 May 2013 of Mr Justice Arnold in the Interflora v M&S trademark infringement case involving Google AdWords does not, in my opinion, vastly change the existing adword jurisprudence. The starting point remains that using an adword matching […]
Will it be third time lucky at Sullivans? Chris Howard’s move to Sullivan & Cromwell is one of the most eye-catching lateral hires this year, not least because so many assumed that he had found a permanent berth on his return to Linklaters in 2010. The restructuring star left Linklaters in 2004 to join Freshfields […]
Katie Tantum’s discrimination claim against Travers Smith highlights that such cases at top City firms are rare, but it is even rarer for accused firms to fight back Discrimination claims against top City firms are rare: for one to be successful is rarer still. So when former Travers Smith trainee Katie Tantum launched a series […]
The history of SJ Berwin is studded with merger talks. In many ways, Proskauer was the obvious fit. It had a decent position in New York and there was a proper practice match between the two firms in the funds sphere, but negotiations foundered in 2010. It didn’t take long for SJB to return to […]
Equity Walsh v (1) John Shanahan(2) James Leonard; (3) SLH Properties Ltd [2013] EWCA Civ 411. Laws LJ; Hallett LJ; RimerLJ. 25 April 2013 The award of an account of profits was a matter of discretion for the courts and an admitted breach of confidence in making unauthorised use of documents did not entitle a […]
Never has the gap between rich and poor been so stark – among lawyers, that is. NQ salaries can differ by as much as 368 per cent, it seems. According to Hays Legal Salary Guide, NQs in the London office of a US firm can bring home as much as £103,000 a year, while for […]