Linklaters is retaining 46 of its 59 qualifying trainees for this autumn round, posting a retention rate of 78 per cent. No qualifiers will be kept on fixed-term contracts (FTC) unlike the previous round this year where one was offered an FTC. Eleven of the qualifiers were also part of the cohort transferred over from […]
Hogan Lovells and Pinsent Masons have scored roles on a deal that will see NatWest purchase nearly £2.5bn worth of Metro Bank’s residential mortgage portfolio. The two firms are the latest to get involved in recent transactional efforts made by Metro Bank to bolster its finances and manage potential risks to its clients and shareholders. […]
Listed firm Knights has acquired the West Midlands firm Thursfields in a deal worth £12.5m as it aims to enter another period of rapid growth. Knights has been a prolific acquirer of mid-market law firms over the past decade, with Langleys (£17.7m), Shulmans (£17.6m), Keebles (£12.6m), ASB (£12.5m) and Coffin Mew (£11.3m) among its most […]
Millions of people around the world will tune in to the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Paris this evening. With both the Olympics and Paralympics set to dominate headlines over the coming weeks, we climb to the top of the 10-meter platform for a deep dive into one of the firms that specialises […]
BDB Pitmans is throwing its entire weight into finding mid-market US firms to join its soon-to-be-launched international network, Broadfield. The Lawyer understands there is space in the proposed network for multiple US firms with BDB Pitmans managing partner John Hutchinson describing the UK and US as “starting points” for its grand plan. The firm announced […]
British healthcare company PZ Cussons has lost its general counsel to tobacco business Imperial Brands. Kevin Massie is making the move to the owner of the Lambert & Butler, Rizla and Golden Virginia brands after four years of leading the legal, governance and compliance function. In a LinkedIn post, he wrote: “I will soon be […]
One year after GenAI tools have revolutionised the way we think about AI and how the legal sector operates, we delve into how legal AI tools are addressing client challenges and explore the industry’s response to AI-related concerns. Join this webinar to hear the panel discuss: • What impact has GenAI had on the legal […]
TLT’s transition into national firm territory has been solidified after the firm posted a 12 per cent revenue rise from £157m to £174m. It has been a year of expansion for TLT, with the firm moving into Birmingham for the first time after taking a team of 10 from Shoosmiths. That group hire has helped […]
Slaughter and May’s head of legal operations is set to depart the firm after 19 years. Jane Stewart has been with Slaughters her entire career, spanning numerous roles. She joined the firm in 2005 as a trainee solicitor, qualifying into the corporate finance team as an associate in 2007. After spending nearly 10 years as […]
Dentons has elected a successor to global boss Elliott Portnoy, hiring its next leader from Big Four giant EY. A former global vice chair of EY, Kate Barton joins Dentons as its next global CEO. She will replace Portnoy, who stands down in November after 11 years. Dentons kickstarted the CEO search last December, stressing […]
Clifford Chance’s revenue hit £2.3bn in 2023/24, up 9 per cent from the previous year when it broke through the £2bn revenue barrier for the first time. Net profit was up 10 per cent last year from £781m to £856m, an improvement from the previous year when the firm’s net profit remained flat. Profit per […]
Simmons & Simmons’ revenue has hit £574m in 2023/24, up 10 per cent from the previous year when it cleared the £500m revenue barrier. Net profit was up 8 per cent last year from £189m to £204m, while profit per equity partner saw a 7 per cent rise, from £1.001m to £1.076m. Simmons’ managing partner […]
In 2016 Global 200 billings totalled $128.4bn – a 3 per cent increase on 2015’s $124.4bn. A large part of that growth is thanks to six ambitious firms.
If settlements are conducted behind closed doors then they seldom achieve the attention and excitement of the cases that make it to trial, for the fact there is no binary winner or loser. That may have to change, because so far, three of The Lawyer’s Top 20 cases for this year have settled.
We recall the story of an ambitious firm caught out by the recession, as it emerges that eight former Cobbetts lawyers have been referred to the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal
Clifford Chance partners have voted to extend the firm’s lockstep ladder once again this week. But who is going to benefit from this change?
As far as litigation is concerned, settlements are supposed to be the gentle way out. But in the case between the Libyan Investment Authority and Societe Generale, it has come to signify the end of one headache and the beginning of another.
Last year Ashurst’s mounting partner exits signalled serious trouble within its ranks. But as firms prepare to release their year-end financials, the consensus is that the storm at Ashurst has calmed. Will it last?
Few UK start-up firms have experienced the same meteoric rise as Knights. Its position as a mid-tier disruptor and consolidator has been largely unchallenged, helping it to lift revenue by a market-topping 185 per cent over the last five years. With so many sub £50m firms contending with the twin issues of a cashflow crunch […]
Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling officially tie the knot today after a year of client discussions, integration planning and team introductions. The firm brings together nearly 4,000 lawyers, including 800 partners, with combined revenues of approximately $3.5bn. It had long been the plan of A&O’s outgoing senior partner Wim Dejonghe to develop a […]
If there’s any confirmation needed that A&O is in the driving seat of the Shearman merger, it’s this: the new senior and managing partner positions at the merged firm will be voted on only by A&O partners. But long term, Philip Bowden and Angela Clist (those are our picks; other candidates are available) will have […]
CMS is set to add two Swedish offices to its network after joining forces with a local firm. The merger with Stockholm-headquartered Wistrand will give the firm offices in both Sweden’s capital and its second city of Gothenburg. The announcement comes nearly two years after CMS announced its tie-up with Norwegian firm Kluge. Wistrand was […]
The following is a list of mergers and acquisitions made by law firms since 2009. It is impossible to make such a list completely exhaustive but it contains the majority of mergers involving UK200 firms, as well as the major tie-ups between large firms in the United States of America. The UK200 rank and revenue […]
Merger negotiations between two firms of different sizes can be a tricky process. Here, a number of mid-tier managing partners give their view on how to win the hearts of potential smaller matches when on the acquisition trail.
In what is the most significant merger deal to be achieved by a magic circle firm, Allen & Overy is to combine with Shearman & Sterling after a successful partnership vote. The voting started on 28 September with the polls having closed today. The firms said more than 99 per cent of the votes cast […]
Today’s the day: will Allen & Overy (A&O) and Shearman & Sterling vote to merge, or have efforts by both firms’ management failed to convince the naysayers? Unlike the excitement of a day’s General Election, both sides are being very lawyerly about it and can ponder for two whole weeks. The vote closes on 13 […]
Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling will have two weeks to cast their vote on a crucial tie-up deal for both firms. Voting starts on 28 September and the polls will close on 13 October. Both firms need approvals of 75 per cent in favour of the merger to proceed. There was another vote […]
Irwin Mitchell has secured a tie-up with one of Scotland’s independent firms, in a week that has also seen the long-discussed merger of domestic players Morton Fraser and MacRoberts. Following on from Morton Fraser and MacRoberts’ merger deal, Irwin Mitchell has snapped up Wright Johnston & Mackenzie, causing further disruption to the nation’s legal market. […]
Scottish firms Morton Fraser and MacRoberts are going ahead with one of the longest-discussed mergers in the history of the Scottish legal market, The Lawyer can exclusively reveal. The deal is broadly seen as a merger of equals, at least in terms of revenue size. In last year’s The Independents UK 200 report, Morton Fraser […]
DAC Beachcroft has formed an association with an independent Singapore firm that had previously worked in tandem with Ince’s international network. DACB has teamed up with Incisive Law, a local firm that was known up until earlier this year as Ince Singapore. Incisive Law had been allied with Ince since 2011, but it cut ties […]
Taylor Wessing’s revenue reached £480.7m (€562m) in the last financial year, as it aims for €1bn globally by 2028. The rise of nearly 10 per cent in sterling is a significant increase on its 2022/23 results in which global turnover crept up by 4 per cent to £439m. Its UK offices contributed over half of […]
Macfarlanes’ financials have shot right back up after taking a tumble in the previous financial year, with its average profit per equity partner hitting £2.6m. The firm’s last three financial results have been very up and down, with 2021/22 marking a record-breaking year of double-digit growth, leading to a decline in 2022/23. The 2023/24 signals […]
Bird & Bird CEO Christian Bartsch has said that he “would not say no” to the idea of a US merger after revealing that the firm broke through the £500m mark for the first time in its history. Bartsch was speaking as the firm published its financial results for the 2023/24 year. Though a US […]
Mills & Reeve’s turnover rose by double digits in 2023/24 to a new record high that has resulted in the firm’s highest-ever all-staff bonus pool of £3m. The firm’s turnover rose by 14.1 per cent to £168m, beating its 2025 strategic target of £150m a year ahead of schedule. The firm has not yet revealed […]
Herbert Smith Freehills’s revenue hit £1.3bn over 2023/24, while profits soared by 14 per cent after a small uptick was recorded in the previous year’s results. The firm’s revenue was up 10 per cent from its last financial results of £1.186bn. Profits saw a double digit burst for the financial year, with HSF reporting a […]
Kingsley Napley will give bonuses to staff three months early after a highly profitable year, which saw the firm’s net profit increase by 120 per cent. Managing partner Linda Woolley told The Lawyer that the results were a sign that the firm’s investments in the prior years had come through, following the firm’s challenging year […]
Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison has recruited its first restructuring partner in London, hiring from Akin’s City office. Liz Osborne joins Paul Weiss’ burgeoning ranks as a partner and head of the European restructuring group. She has been at Akin since 2014 when she moved over as part of the Bingham McCutchen team. Prior […]
Akin Gump has recruited three of Cooley’s London partners, including its City managing partner Justin Stock. Stock moves to Akin along with Stephen Rosen and David Bresnick. The three focus on transactions with a life sciences and technology element. At Akin, Stock will become the firm’s international head of technology. Both Stock and Bresnick joined […]
Kirkland & Ellis is hiring a new partner from Clifford Chance, in a move that will grow its outsourcing and technology expertise in London. André Duminy joins Kirkland after nearly 25 years at Clifford Chance, where he is head of its London tech and digital group and co-head of the strategic sourcing and complex contracting […]
White & Case has continued its expansion of its investment funds practice in the UK, with another hire from Ropes & Gray. Alexandra Chauvin joins White & Case as a partner in its investment funds practice and global private equity industry group from Ropes where she spent just over two years. Chauvin specialises in secondaries […]
Following the departure of a partner to Sidley Austin, Travers Smith is adding a new member to its infrastructure finance team. Ryan Ayrton joins from Watson Farley & Williams, where he has been a partner since 2022. Prior to this, Ayrton had spent his whole legal career at Linklaters. His arrival follows the exit of […]
Mayer Brown has followed hotly on Paul Hastings’ heels to strengthen significantly in Paris, hiring 30 lawyers from a local firm. The Lawyer understands that Mayer Brown is hiring two-thirds of the total lawyer headcount at French firm Ayache to bolster its transactional team in the French capital. Altogether, The Lawyer understands that seven Ayache corporate/M&A […]
Global business is increasingly familiar with the prospect of short-notice public investigatory attention, whether from regulators, law enforcement, political forces or as a consequence of sanctions, and this can – in in some cases – devastate individual and corporate reputation.
Despite the fact that the threat of an investigation alone can be enough to paralyse a business, early warning signs are often missed and businesses can mistake an investigation risk for a reputation risk. Those who handle serious issues well are able to triage the issue at an early stage and identify its potential impact, […]
Analysis of recent fines suggests that environmental prosecutions are resulting in more substantial fines, especially for ‘very large organisations’.
On September 22, 2021, the Quebec government adopted Bill 64, An Act to modernize legislative provisions as regards the protection of personal information, enacting significant changes to the requirements governing the use and protection of personal information under various statutes, including notably the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector and the Act respecting Access to documents held by public bodies and the Protection of personal information.
The Data Protection Authority in Hungary (Nemzeti Adatvédelmi és Információszabadság Hatóság), recently published its annual report which included details of a fine of €670,000 (HUF 250,000,000) being imposed on a bank. To date, this fine is the highest imposed by the Hungarian Authority.
Environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) alongside sustainability are hot topics in business right now. Employees are increasingly scrutinising what employers are doing to promote sustainability, not least in the benefits they offer.
In this podcast, Gowling joins leading global infrastructure and renewables market analysts Inspiratia to discuss innovation in the UK power purchase agreement (PPA) market, and whether the prices we see today are transitionary and if so, how PPAs can make such prices sustainable and meet the ever-changing needs of both offtakers and sellers.
Angolan Central Bank (Banco Nacional de Angola) Notice no. 9/22 of 6 April was recently published to establish special schemes for mortgage credit and construction credit.
After a challenging year, UK cities are gaining foreign investment and developing their presence on the global stage. How has the pandemic, COP-26 and officially leaving the EU impacted the value of investment in the UK from a global standpoint?
On April 7, 2022, Ontario released its first-ever Hydrogen Strategy (the Ontario Strategy), making it the latest province to address Canadian hydrogen sector growth through policy.
Ferry company P&O hit the headlines last month when it made 800 workers redundant via an online video call and with almost no notice.
Build to rent is a rapidly growing sector – and one with a lot of potential for developers and investors.