Filter This View

  • February 28, 2013 |

    Dundas overhauls partner capital contribution system

    Dundas & Wilson has overhauled the way partners pay capital into the firm, bringing in a new two-tier system that sees all partners put in total capital contributions of either £230,000 or £130,000. The new structure, which the firm began implementing last year, sees new partners pay in the lower level of capital in one payment while the bulk of partners contribute the larger amount.

    1 minute read

  • February 28, 2013 |

    Retention rates at top 20 decline as economic climate pushes firms to cut back

    Trainee retention rates across the bulk of the UK's largest law firms have fallen this year, with research by Legal Week finding the average rate has dropped by almost 10% on last spring's qualifying intake. At the top 20 UK firms with a spring intake, an average of 76.5% of newly qualified (NQ) lawyers have been kept on this year, 9% down on the equivalent intake last year and 3% lower than last autumn's qualifying round. Of 441 trainees at the firms to have released details to date, 343 have been kept on – down on the total of 358 of 422 NQs kept on across the same group in spring 2012.

    1 minute read

  • February 27, 2013 |

    Dundas sees two partners quit for Pinsents and Osborne Clarke

    Dundas & Wilson is to see the departure of two more partners, with restructuring head Claire Massie and real estate partner Shane Toal handing in their notice to join Pinsent Masons and Osborne Clarke respectively. Glasgow-based Massie, who is top ranked by Chambers, leaves Dundas after nearly 20 years with the firm. She was promoted to partner in 2007 and went on the head the firm's debt, recoveries and restructuring practice. She will move to Pinsents in the coming months where she will split her time between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

    1 minute read

  • February 21, 2013 |

    The gender agenda: what firms are doing to tackle female under-representation

    What are law firms doing to ensure more women rise to their senior ranks? Helen Mooney talks to several firms that have signed up to a new programme designed to tackle female under-representation...

    1 minute read

  • February 21, 2013 |

    Bond Pearce adds partner duo with DAC Beachcroft and Kennedys hires

    Bond Pearce has continued its recruitment drive ahead of its merger with Dickinson Dees, taking on planning partner Kevin Gibbs and insurance partner Jane Williams from DAC Beachcroft and Kennedys respectively. Gibbs, who is top ranked by Chambers and Partners for planning work, recently advised the Co-operative Group on planning aspects of an £800m regeneration scheme in Manchester. He is leaving DAC Beachcroft after less than two years at the firm following his arrival from Osborne Clarke in May 2011.

    1 minute read

  • February 18, 2013 |

    Pinsents takes on four-partner life sciences team in Fasken hire

    Pinsent Masons has secured the services of a quartet of life sciences partners from Fasken Martineau including practice head Paul Ranson. Partners Allistair Booth, Stuart Richards and Charles Waddle make up the remainder of the team, which will be joining Pinsents' City office in the coming months.

    1 minute read

  • February 14, 2013 |

    Cobbetts debt recovery arm sold as last part of failed firm finds new home

    Midlands debt recovery firm HL Legal Solicitors has sealed a deal to take on Cobbetts' debt collection arm Incasso after reaching an agreement with the firm's administrators KPMG. The Leeds-based Incasso business, which has 52 staff and operates as a separate limited liability partnership to Cobbetts, went into administration along with Cobbetts at the end of January.

    1 minute read

  • February 14, 2013 |

    Pinsents continues international expansion with move into Turkey

    Pinsent Masons has become the latest firm to target the fast-growing Turkish market, with the firm set to launch a new infrastructure-focused base in the region. The new Istanbul office will be headed up by Noyan Goksu, the former head of arbitration at Turkish firm Herguner Bilgen Ozeke.

    1 minute read

  • February 8, 2013 |

    Rules of the game - the lawyers making their mark in the sports sector

    For decades, sport has continued to confound the laws of economic gravity that seem to so often drag other industries back down to earth. Year after year, broadcasting rights escalate – as do sponsorship deals – and ticket prices jauntily rise upwards while the financial fortunes of the millions of fans and spectators that turn out in sunshine and rain have generally stagnated or slumped during the recession. In short, sport is big business, and lawyers agree that it is a profitable segment of the legal services market to be involved in.

    1 minute read

  • February 7, 2013 |

    Walker Morris takes Cobbetts team as details of DWF pre-pack deal emerge

    Walker Morris has taken a 27-strong finance litigation team from Cobbetts, as full details of DWF's pre-pack acquisition of the financially stricken firm emerge. DWF has completed its acquisition of the bulk of Cobbetts' business following yesterday's appointment of KPMG as administrators.

    1 minute read