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  • 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

  • February 5, 2014 |

    LLP round-up: Pinsents spent £20m on merger, while other firms show net debt hikes

    Pinsent Masons' latest limited liability partnership (LLP) filing shows the firm spent £20.6m on its merger with Scottish firm McGrigors in 2012. The transaction incurred costs of £2.5m related "reorganising, restructuring and integrating the acquisition", according to the accounts filed with Companies House.

    1 minute read

  • January 30, 2014 |

    The compass points south – how do in-house legal teams in Africa rate their external advisers?

    Ian Isdale, group company secretary and general counsel of leading African food and consumer goods company Tiger Brands and immediate past president of the Corporate Lawyers Association of South Africa, is putting it mildly when he says: "There has been a heightened interest in Africa and in the next five years I don't see that interest waning." Recent years have seen a host of UK and US law firms – ranging from Norton Rose Fulbright and Linklaters to Hogan Lovells and even Slaughter and May – attempting to come up with ways to penetrate a market where activity levels have remained buoyant, despite economic challenges elsewhere in the world. So with law firms and corporates increasingly turning their attention south, Legal Week Intelligence has, for the first time, extended its flagship Client Satisfaction Report to Africa, to uncover the key trends affecting in-house legal teams in the continent and their satisfaction with external legal advisers

    1 minute read

  • January 30, 2014 |

    Diane Abbott: US firms "more sensitive to issues of diversity" than UK counterparts

    Diane Abbott MP has said US law firms are ahead of their UK peers when it comes to workplace diversity and promoting opportunities for black and ethnic minority groups. Speaking today (30 January) at an event hosted by Pinsent Masons' London office, Abbott also put forward a "practical and business case" for diversity in the UK legal services industry.

    1 minute read

  • January 30, 2014 |

    National Grid to review firms ahead of panel overhaul

    National Grid is to conduct back-to-back reviews of its external legal advisers, after the term for its current line-up ends on 31 March. The first 'closed' review - which will begin in the next few weeks - will evaluate cost structures and the performance of the existing 16-firm line-up, and extend the terms of the current panel for a year.

    1 minute read

  • January 23, 2014 |

    Steadying the ship – what has driven the rise in demand for interim GCs?

    One of the less appreciated effects of the growth of in-house legal teams in recent years has been the evolution of the interim general counsel. While fans of Premier League football will be all-too familiar with the concept of an interim boss, the phenomenon is one that is relatively new to the legal world. But a slew of temporary appointments to high-profile in-house teams at banks, retailers and other major corporates suggests it is no longer possible to leave the top legal job vacant for extended periods of time. So what has driven the push for interims, and what status do those who take these impermanent roles really have?

    1 minute read

  • January 15, 2014 |

    Magic circle breaks into Stonewall list as Freshfields makes top 100

    Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has become the first magic circle firm to break into the top 100 UK employers for LGB staff, according to the charity Stonewall's annual index.

    1 minute read