Results for 2003/04 see top London firms suffer from a 7.6% drop in average profits per partner The Citys top 10 firms have suffered sharp falls in average partner profits, posting their worst results since the transactional downturn started in 2001. All of the top City firms have posted a fall in partner profits, with […]
A looming talent war and increased offshore demand for Australian lawyers in the UK and Asia could lead to a brain drain in the local market, the Australian Financial Review reported yesterday citing a salary survey. China beckons: large UK and US firms are setting up satellite offices in Shanghai and Beijing that are being
A committee of MP reported the legal aid cost blow-out yesterday when they warned ministers that unless the Government took action against these high-cost cases, the legal aid budget, now standing at £1bn, would spiral out of control. No cases were identified by the Commons Constitutional Affairs Committee but they are believed to involve complex
You may not hear much about anti-Semitism but it is alive and well. That’s the message from a leading discrimination lawyer who has helped bring several dramatic but unreported legal claims alleging anti-Jewish prejudice at some of the Square Mile’s leading banks and brokerages. One case handled by Makbool Javaid that did hit the headlines
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
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is seeking to overturn 10 patents they claim are too sweeping, the New York Times reported on Monday. The foundation, which includes lawyers, researchers and software experts, takes aim at the patents of several little-known companies, but names two media and entertainment leaders: Clear Channel Communications Inc., the No. 1 U.S.
The high times in America are slowed for the World’s largest law firm. Clifford Chance has closed three of its four California offices and has now paid $3.75 million to settle claims related to the collapse of Brobeck Phleger & Harrison. Brobeck’s bankruptcy trustee has filed a complaint against some of the former Brobeck partners
The founding partner of Baker Johnson Lawyers, one of Brisbane’s biggest law firms, has stood down from his position amid claims he allegedly overcharged clients and called them crude names. Michael Vincent Baker, who faces being struck from the Roll of Solicitors, retired as a partner on Thursday, but will stay on as a consultant.
At Westminster,among Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs, the name Elizabeth Wilmshurst has become something of a byword for principle and pluck. Ms Wilmshurst was the lawyer who defied her political masters at the Foreign Office and told them they would violate international law if they joined the American invasion of Iraq. Her political masters ignored
Sullivan & Cromwell has stayed in pole position at the top of the US M&A tables for the first half of 2004, with corporate stalwarts Wachtell Lipton Rosen & Katz and Cravath Swaine & Moore both surging up the table. Sullivan kept the top place, which it secured in the first quarter, by advising on
