Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has upped its newly qualified (NQ) solicitor salaries to compete with the US market. NQ salaries have increased from £125,000 to £150,000. There have also been changes to trainee compensation. First-year trainees will see an increase of £6,000 as salaries rise from £50,000 to £56,000. Second-year trainee salaries will increase from £55,000 […]
Name: Sara George Organisation: Sidley Austin Role: Partner, Head of Crisis Management for Europe Based: London Trained at: Criminal Bar – Chambers of Ann Rafferty QC 4 Brick Court Year qualified: 1999 What’s your most vivid memory from being a pupil? Representing the driver of a seafood van topped with an enormous papier mache prawn […]
It’s a 90-minute train journey to London and two hours from Bristol. At £29 per sq ft, grade A office rents are a third of the average £90 per sq ft City firms pay. And it has an abundance of lawyers. Slowly but steadily, Southampton is slipping into the mid-tier consciousness as a city in […]
Competition specialist Hausfeld has lost its co-instruction mandate on Justin Gutmann’s boundary fares class action. Since 22 February, Charles Lyndon has been the sole representation for the class representative as the boundary fares case rolls through the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT). Hausfeld had been co-instructed alongside Charles Lyndon on the Gutmann claims throughout the dispute, […]
Charles Russell Speechlys (CRS) is continuing its innovation strategy rollout with the introduction of a new programme for its trainee solicitors. Following the launch of its ‘advanced client solutions’ (ACS) team in early April, the firm has now brought in Russell Up, a scheme designed to have each trainee deliver four innovation projects throughout their two-year training […]
This week on Spotlight, we delve into the multi-jurisdictional and strategic world of enforcing arbitral awards with the London team at Gibson Dunn & Crutcher. The market: There’s been a steady increase over the last several years in companies not seeing a dime following a successful arbitration award, leading to a sharp uptick in the need for […]
It’s a 90-minute train journey to London and two hours from Bristol. At £29 per sq ft, grade A office rents are a third of the average £90 per sq ft City firms pay. And it has an abundance of lawyers. Slowly but steadily, Southampton is slipping into the mid-tier consciousness as a city in […]
Talk of associates losing faith in the partnership track is nowhere to be seen at Addleshaw Goddard, which recently unveiled its largest round to date. The partnership count is currently running at 429 – up 75 per cent from the 245 it housed back in 2019. Those promotions show a firm that is bullish about […]
1 May is a big day for many in the legal industry, not just the thousands of people at Allen & Overy and Shearman who have now combined officially. Scores of lawyers become partners today after a wave of promotions, meaning that also – in the great circle of life – plenty of veterans are […]
Newcastle firm Ward Hadaway wants to be a £100m firm in the next decade, meaning it needs to add 10 per cent to its revenue every year. Here’s how it intends to do it.
It was the turn of the general counsels last week to give their perspective on the Post Office Horizon scandal. Here’s what they had to say about Womble Bond Dickinson, Linklaters and litigation funders. For live updates, check out our live blog. Funders react to Womble Bond’s plan to “stretch out the litigation process” Earlier […]
The use of LinkedIn for self-promotion has skyrocketed in the last decade, as businesspeople use social media to attract new opportunities and position themselves with authority in their industry. But it’s important to tread with caution.
Over two decades Peter Jackson has steered his firm through mergers, spin-offs and redundancies to growth
Corporate teams at Slaughter and May and Travers Smith are relying on larger – and younger – teams of associates to power up their revenues. According to data collected by The Lawyer’s Practice Analysis service, firms housing a larger number of junior lawyers help to grow revenues quicker compared to firms with a more senior […]
The wait is finally over. In just under a week, the transformational merger between Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling will go live. But while the deal is done, the job is only just beginning. On this episode of The Lawyer Podcast, editor Catrin Griffiths and litigation editor Christian Smith look at how the […]
The Lawyer‘s Christian Smith, Catrin Griffiths, Richard Simmons, Katy Dowell and Charlotte Lear are joined by College of Legal Practice CEO Giles Proctor for this emergency episode of The Lawyer Podcast as they discuss the latest Solicitors Qualification Exam debacle: marking errors that led to 175 students being incorrectly told they had failed. What went […]
Regional offices have long been critical to some of the UK’s biggest law firms. The essential components of today’s DLA Piper came from across the country, legacy Eversheds was formed of four firms from outside London, and Pinsent Masons has Birmingham and Leeds heritage. But in recent years, some of those firms’ regional offerings have […]
The new episode of The Lawyer Podcast is out now! Grabbing the attention of aspiring solicitors and spectators alike, criticism of the Solicitors Qualifying Examination has torn through the media over the weeks following the most recent set of results. From City firms dropping training contracts from offer holders after failing on their first attempt, […]
Davis Polk & Wardwell has recruited from Paul Hastings’s finance team, expanding its partnership ranks in the City to nine. The small City outfit has hired Luke McDougall from Paul Hastings. McDougall focuses on UK and cross-border acquisition finance and restructuring, acting for senior lenders, junior lenders and borrower groups on a variety of capital […]
Costs management has been in place for nearly 11 years now. Few commercial litigators have expressed much love for it but last year’s report of the Civil Justice Council’s costs working party made clear that it is not going anywhere. Headed by Lord Justice Birss, the deputy head of civil justice, it said costs budgeting […]
Manchester United’s interim CEO and general counsel has left following another shake-up within the club’s executive ranks. Patrick Stewart served as general counsel at the club for over 18 years and stepped into the interim CEO role at the end of last year following the departure of Richard Arnold. Stewart completed his legal training at Burness and qualified in […]
Founded in 1879, Fulham is London’s oldest professional football club. In March, The Lawyer interviewed the club’s general counsel Peter Limbert from Craven Cottage, its home ground since 1896.
The ex-general counsel of Haleon has announced that he has joined energy and chemicals business Aramco, which is based in Saudi Arabia. Bjarne Tellman was hired by GSK four years ago to prepare the company for the creation of Haleon, one of the UK’s largest corporate demergers in 20 years. The purpose of the demerger […]
Since Katja Roth Pellanda joined Zurich Insurance in 2020, a lot has changed. The GC has broken down the silos in the 700-person legal function, reducing the distance between the regions and the corporate centre. Zurich Insurance is a Swiss-based insurance company that has a presence in approximately 80 countries. With such a large business, […]
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the UK’s litigation market. It is the May 1 and hundreds of lawyers are stepping into their first day as new partners. Litigation promotions were a mixed bag across US firms. Several major players, namely Quinn Emanuel and Hogan Lovells, did not […]
Luxury goods giant LVMH joins interchange fee dispute French luxury goods behemoth LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton has swung into the merchant interchange fees dispute with over 25 separate claims filed by its subsidiaries against Visa and Mastercard between 24 and 25 April. The Lawyer understands that the claims form an addition to the long-running […]
Computer giant IBM’s mainframe litigation lands in court Today (29 April) Quinn Emanuel takes on Clifford Chance in the Technology and Construction Court for a 28-day trial that will be watched closely by tech companies and regulators across the globe. This mammoth litigation is one of The Lawyer’s top 20 cases of 2024. IBM brought […]
Formula 1 team Alpine Racing has filed a claim against its official sustainability platform partner, green investment business Ecowatt. Represented by Bird & Bird, the Renault-owned team filed a part 7 “general commercial contracts and arrangements” claim in the England and Wales Commercial Court against its sustainability partner on 25 April. A part 7 claim […]
Timothy Wilkins, global partner for client sustainability at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, talks to The Lawyer about key ESG trends that will land on general counsel’s desks in the near future as well as the unique opportunities ESG present for lawyers to add value to their organisation.
Thomson Reuters’ chief product officer for legal tech Kriti Sharma talks to The Lawyer about holding technology and tech companies more accountable for user needs, what can be done to reduce tech waste and getting tech companies to work better together.
Emma Carr, partner at Gowling WLG, talks to The Lawyer about how the in-house function has changed over the past 10-15 years and shared her views on what the legal team of the future might look like.
Independents The Lawyer’s last part of the UK 200 – The Independents – which focuses on the firms in the lower half of the UK 200 is out now! The Independents account for just 6 per cent of the total UK 200 revenue and we talk about some of the pressures that The Independents are facing […]
Here’s a rundown by litigation reporters Annabel Tinson and Maria Ward-Brennan on the new weekly content on The Lawyer’s Litigation Tracker, which started in October 2022. As Litigation Tracker subscribers already know, on Monday, In court this week comes out, which details some of the most interesting cases hitting the courts that week. On Wednesday, Claim Spotter is released, which looks […]
China top 30 The China Top 30 features the ranking of the top 30 firms based on revenue, and in-depth analysis of financial performance, headcount and growth. The report highlights that despite an extraordinary 2021, the China top 30 are bracing for 2022 to be their first year of downturn after three decades of growth. […]
Entering the world of law as a junior lawyer can be a thrilling and challenging experience for us. However, it often comes with its own set of pressures and uncertainties that can trigger feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. This phenomenon is commonly known as “Impostor Syndrome,” and it affects many professionals, including those in the […]
Name: Christian Weaver Organisation: Garden Court North Role: Barrister Based: Manchester Trained at: Garden Court North Year qualified: 2012 What is your most vivid memory from being a pupil? Certainly the Covid-19 pandemic. It was a profound sad time for so many. On reflection, however, it perhaps did have some unexpected career advantages as a pupil. Firstly, Covid-19 […]
Name: Gurminder Kaur Nijjar Organisation: Irwin Mitchell Role: Group Deputy General Counsel Based: Birmingham Trained at: Harvey McKibbin Solicitors Year qualified: 2011 What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? Attending a hearing on behalf of client for their alcohol/premises licence application. The client found the whole process confusing and was completely reliant on […]
Name: Paddy Linighan Organisation: Clyde & Co Role: Chief Sustainability Officer Based: London Trained at: Robson Rhodes Chartered Accountants Year qualified: 1990, ACA, ICAEW What’s your most vivid memory from being a trainee? I pursued an accountancy training contract not because I wanted to be an accountant per se, but to see and experience how […]