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  • March 13, 2014 |

    HSF sets 30% target for female partners by 2019

    Herbert Smith Freehills has become the latest firm to push gender diversity up the agenda, setting a 30% target for female partners, by 2019. The gender target is set in two stages: by May 2017 at least 25% of the partnership will be women and by May 2019 at least 30% of the partnership will be women.

    1 minute read

  • March 10, 2014 |

    Making sense of the next move in banking reform

    In-house counsel sitting in financial institutions across the City could not be blamed for thinking that trying to make sense of the banking reform agenda at the moment is like trying to solve the Rubik's Cube in the dark. With competing priorities at local, national and supranational levels, it could scarcely be harder for those at the vanguard of delivering transformational change to get to grips with a raft of new regulation. And yet, get to grips with it they must. In January the European Commission proposed a set of banking regulations that will be of global systemic importance. The proposals would mean that national regulators could force the EU's largest and most complex banks to separate certain 'risky' trading activities from their core deposit-taking functions in the event of a threat to financial stability.

    1 minute read

  • March 3, 2014 |

    Pinsent Masons to address gender imbalance with 30% female partner target

    Pinsent Masons has launched a suite of initiatives aimed at increasing its number of female partners to 30%, with an initial target of 25% set for May 2018. 'Project Sky', which is being led by employment partner Linda Jones, seeks to remove any barriers to the progression of women to partnership and senior leadership.

    1 minute read

  • February 27, 2014 |

    Links, CC and Norton Rose named on nine-strong Green Investment Bank panel

    Clifford Chance (CC), Linklaters and Norton Rose Fulbright are among nine firms to have won spots on the UK Government-backed Green Investment Bank's (GIB) first formal panel. Legal Week understands that Slaughter and May, Allen & Overy (A&O), Pinsent Masons, Burges Salmon and KWM SJ Berwin were all also successful in their pitches for the roster.

    1 minute read

  • February 26, 2014 | International Edition

    Pure and simple – the most popular Legal Week Law briefings from Q4 2013

    The practice of law is often maligned – and sometimes fairly so – as overly complex and inaccessible, with its use of arcane language, dense documents and labyrinthine legislation. But the issues that engage lawyers on a day-to-day basis are often the most simplistic, and, as the most popular briefings on Legal Week Law demonstrate, subjects as straightforward as clear communication, signatures and getting names right remain just as much of interest as ever. The doctrine of misnomer was thrown into the spotlight last year by the case of Liberty Mercian v Cuddy Civil Engineering, which was covered by Macfarlanes in its briefing 'Mistaken identity – the importance of getting names right in contracts', which proved to be one of the top 10 most popular downloads during the last three months of 2013.

    1 minute read

  • February 26, 2014 |

    Pure and simple – the most popular Legal Week Law briefings from Q4 2013

    The practice of law is often maligned – and sometimes fairly so – as overly complex and inaccessible, with its use of arcane language, dense documents and labyrinthine legislation. But the issues that engage lawyers on a day-to-day basis are often the most simplistic, and, as the most popular briefings on Legal Week Law demonstrate, subjects as straightforward as clear communication, signatures and getting names right remain just as much of interest as ever. The doctrine of misnomer was thrown into the spotlight last year by the case of Liberty Mercian v Cuddy Civil Engineering, which was covered by Macfarlanes in its briefing 'Mistaken identity – the importance of getting names right in contracts', which proved to be one of the top 10 most popular downloads during the last three months of 2013.

    1 minute read

  • February 25, 2014 |

    Sidley Austin mulls Germany exit following Frankfurt partner losses

    Sidley Austin has placed the future of its Frankfurt office under review, following a number of recent partner departures. Among the options being considered by management is the closure of the office and the transfer of clients and referral relationships to a German firm, Legal Week understands.

    1 minute read

  • February 20, 2014 |

    Irwin Mitchell eyes bright corporate future as firm aims to put Google hiccup behind it

    "So I imagine you'll want to talk about Google, the Manchester team that left for TLT and the firm's corporate profile," suggests the head of Irwin Mitchell's business legal services (BLS) division, Niall Baker, on sitting down with Legal Week recently. "One of the first skills good lawyers learn is how to read upside down," he adds after a brief pause, nodding at the top three lines of my notepad. There's a smile creeping across his face, which is wrapped in a month-old beard, grown – so Baker says – to annoy his boss, the firm's group chief executive, John Pickering. It's a decent ice-breaker but an acknowledgement of a rather sensitive issue for Irwin Mitchell. A week before our conversation last month, the firm was identified as having been de-listed by Google, apparently for falling foul of search engine optimisation rules in its links to personal injury-related stories.

    1 minute read

  • February 17, 2014 |

    Links, 2Birds and DLA strike it lucky as William Hill expands legal panel

    Linklaters, Bird & Bird and DLA Piper have all won spots on William Hill's expanded legal panel, Legal Week can reveal. The trio join Ashurst, Pinsent Masons and Addleshaw Goddard, all of which have been re-appointed to the FTSE 100 company's roster of preferred legal counsel.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2014 |

    DfT invites firms to bid for advisory role on £200m Eurostar sale

    The Department for Transport (DfT) has invited firms to pitch for an advisory role on the sale of the UK's stake in Eurostar. In recent weeks, the government body has begun a tender process for the headline legal role, a DfT spokesman confirmed to Legal Week. A number of banks have also been approached to provide financial advice.

    1 minute read