The news that an investment banker is talking to some of the largest firms about an AIM listing brings what is surely an inevitability one step closer. Once the white paper proposals on law firm ownership are passed, quite possibly later this year, the barriers to firms floating will have been removed. And the kudos […]
Clifford Chance’s management is set to publish this week its long-awaited partner compensation review, which will reaffirm its commitment to lockstep – despite pressure from some US partners to retain or expand a superpoints system The review’s conclusions signal a victory for London partners, who have traditionally taken a strong pro-lockstep line, although they are
The lawsuit, filed by Mylan Pharmaceuticals on 8 August, arose as a result of an antitrust case that Clifford Chance’s US office had acted on since 1999 and which settled last year. Mylan is claiming that the firm acted wrongly on the settlement and the $19m (£11.8m) fee was too high. Mylan is claiming damages,
Allen & Overy, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Linklaters, however, have all confirmed to Lawyer 2B that they will not be following the rival magic circle firm’s lead, and that newly-qualifieds’ pay will remain static at £50,000. With SJ Berwin, Clifford Chance was the instigator of the 2000 salary war, as UK firms sought to rival
One Essex Court head Lord Grabiner QC is set to earn £3 million while his arch rival, Essex Court Chambers Gordon Pollock QC, is tied up in the ongoing BCCI trial. Pollock, who is devoted to representing BCCI’s liquidators against the Bank of England until at least 2005, has commanded a £3m brief fee, putting
TV producer David E. Kelley, an outspoken opponent of “reality” television, has bowed to the genre’s popularity by developing a drama with real lawyers, Daily Variety said in its Wednesday edition. Kelley, who will serve as a consulting producer, will create a law firm whose members will try real civil cases through binding arbitration overseen
The European Union on Friday dropped money-laundering and smuggling claims against Philip Morris International in a $1.25bn settlement it claimed could herald similar deals with other tobacco companies. The EU legal team, which is pursuing RJ Reynolds and Japan Tobacco in the US courts, believes the deal with the makers of Marlboro cigarettes is a
North Korea has taken a further tentative step on its economic reform path after it allowed the country’s first law firm to open on a Pyongyang square named after the communist state’s founder, Kim Il-sung. British lawyer-turned-consultant Michael Hay told four foreign reporters the firm he jointly owns with an outfit spun off from an
Promoters pay radio stations annual fees for advance copies of playlists and bill record companies for each new song played, running up a tab that costs the industry tens of millions of dollars annually. Financial woes and piracy have caused the labels to cut back on such payments. New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi escaped conviction in a major corruption trial on Friday after a court invoked a statute of limitations that meant time had run out to sentence him for bribery. Berlusconi welcomed the verdict, which brought down the curtain on a trial that lasted almost five years, saying he had always expected
