Irwin Mitchell has opened an office in Brighton in order to extend its footprint in the south and to attract more high-net-worth clients. The firm is taking office space at Mocatta House, Trafalgar Place, and it will be set up to allow for client meetings and collaborative working. Irwin Mitchell already has four other offices […]
Welcome to this week’s edition of The Hearing, your weekly insider’s guide to the UK litigation market. The new Serious Fraud Office (SFO) chief gave his first speech since taking office, giving the broadsheets a raft of headlines about paying whistle-blowers. Corporate and white collar crime investigations lawyers have been short of work in recent […]
Clifford Chance has hired a partner from Paul Hastings to bolster its private capital offering in London. Blake Jones, who makes the move having spent the last five years at the US firm, will join Clifford Chance’s global financial markets team as the firm expands its European collateralised loan obligations (CLO) practice. Jones has also […]
US firm Jones Day has been appointed as the lead law firm acting on the administration of The Body Shop. It is understood that the collapse of the London-headquartered retailer expects to put over 2,200 jobs at risk, just three months after the brand was sold to German asset manager Aurelius Group by its previous […]
Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe has been hit by a second mass defection in Italy this week, seeing a 15-lawyer team leave to join BonelliErede just days after another group moved to Hogan Lovells. The BonelliErede joiners will strengthen the firm’s risk, compliance and investigations (RCI) group, as well as its IP, privacy and IT team […]
Pharma wars: Hampshire firm takes on Aspirin producer An IP battle has begun between Hampshire-headquartered Aspire Pharma and German behemouth Bayer after the former filed a part 7 ‘patents and registered designs’ claim on Wednesday 7 February. Bayer is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, responsible for products including Aspirin, Claritin and Rennie, […]
Longtime in-houser Mel Rowlands had a knock-out year in 2023, making a juxtaposing career change last July. The former group general counsel of Smiths Group, a 170-year-old diversified industrial conglomerate with 20,000 employees, made the move to 15-years young Sonnedix, a renewable energy producer. Rowlands couldn’t have joined the sustainable power sector at a better […]
Chambers are assessing whether to increase their pupillage salaries ahead of the next application window, after a year of hikes across the largest sets.
British utility company National Grid has kicked off a major tender for legal services as it looks to create a dedicated net zero panel worth £250m. Law firms appointed to the roster will support National Grid with its business ambitions and net zero projects for the next eight years. The panel spots have been separated […]
Kirkland & Ellis is expanding its funds team in London, by hiring a former partner of Macfarlanes. Alex Amos joins Kirkland, having resigned from Macfarlanes’ partnership at the start of 2023. Since then he has acted as a senior adviser at the firm. He was promoted to partnership in 2012. Kirkland chairman Jon Ballis said: […]
From employment wannabe to head of energy and utilities at Burges Salmon, Phillips explains how the firm is building a national energy practice that’s fit for the transition.
Three partners from Goodwin’s private equity group are joining Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson. Christian Iwasko, Michelle Tong and Priya Rupal are making the move over four years after joining Goodwin. They moved to Goodwin as part of a larger transactional team that had initially swapped Kirkland & Ellis for Sidley Austin in 2016. […]