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  • March 4, 2009 |

    Addleshaws selects new MP in management re-jig

    Addleshaw Goddard has overhauled its management, selecting a new managing partner and creating a new firm-wide chairman position. Corporate head Paul Devitt is set to replace Mark Jones as managing partner on 1 May after an uncontested election. Jones, who has been at the firm's helm for 17 years, will take up a new role as chairman, which will see him help develop the contentious practice and lead selected projects for the firm.

    1 minute read

  • February 25, 2009 |

    Cobbetts pursues £4.5m after negligence payout

    Cobbetts is seeking to recoup more than £4.5m from property surveyor Dunlop Haywards after the national firm settled a negligence claim brought against it by Cheshire Building Society. In a ruling last week (18 February), Mr Justice Clarke found Cobbetts paid out too much earlier this year in its £5.6m settlement with Cheshire Building Society, regarding a negligence claim against the firm for advice on allegedly fraudulent property deals. Following the ruling, the firm will now seek to recoup £4.6m - 80% of its original settlement - from Dunlop Haywards' indemnity insurers, after the property surveyor went into liquidation last year.

    1 minute read

  • February 19, 2009 |

    Eversheds, Cobbetts settle negligence claims

    Eversheds and Cobbetts have settled negligence claims brought against the firms by building societies for advice on allegedly fraudulent property deals. Eversheds and Cobbetts both settled the claims, brought by Nationwide and Cheshire Building Society respectively, last month, with details of both settlements confidential.The claims related to allegedly fraudulent property deals and the overvaluation of properties, committed by an employee of Dunlop Haywards - the surveying unit of property company Erinaceous.

    1 minute read

  • February 19, 2009 |

    Addleshaws faces fees hit in Hammonds dispute ruling

    Addleshaw Goddard could face a hit on fees, with the firm using a conditional fee arrangement (CFA) for its representation of former partners in the ongoing profits dispute with Hammonds. Addleshaws, which uses CFAs on a majority of its litigation work, has been working under the arrangement for part of the Hammonds dispute. Mr Justice Warren's decision last week (13 February) that the former partners are bound by the partnership deed, means it is now unclear whether Addleshaws will be paid for all of its work on the issue if the ruling is upheld.

    1 minute read

  • February 13, 2009 |

    Hammonds scores victory in partnership dispute

    The long-awaited decision in Hammonds' profits dispute has ruled that a group of ex-partners are bound by the partnership deed, a decision which could see them forced to return over-drawings that were paid out to them.The judgment, by Mr Justice Warren, which was released today (13 February), revealed that the ex-partners, who have so far refused to pay back anticipated profits over a two-year period to April 2005, are bound by the partnership deed.

    1 minute read

  • February 11, 2009 |

    The art of flexibility

    After years of law firms bragging about career breaks and flexible working opportunities, you would be forgiven for thinking that juggling a career in law with having children must be the easiest thing in the world.But even in this age of the BlackBerry and the trusty laptop, many women in the profession maintain that having children presents a choice: focus on being a mother or on being a career woman because you cannot do both.For those who go down the route of motherhood, two things can make all the difference: flexible childcare and a flexible partner. Slaughter and May's head of corporate, Frances Murphy, is no exception - she has a live-in nanny and a flexible husband. And she is far from alone in asserting that without these, working life would be extraordinarily difficult to manage. Even with nursery care, the idea of being able to leave the office at 5.30pm - even if the firm allows it - is simply not a realistic option for most senior lawyers.

    1 minute read

  • January 29, 2009 |

    City lawyers braced for widespread partner cuts

    City partners are preparing for a gruesome year, with half of all partners believing that firms are carrying too much deadwood at senior level and 97% expecting to see partnerships downsized. In the wake of Addleshaw Goddard announcing that it is to cut around 10% of its partnership (see page 13), the latest Legal Week Big Question survey found that almost three out of five partners (58%) believe most major law firms are carrying too many underperforming partners.With partnership cutbacks also last week emerging at both Ashurst and Linklaters, most of the 166 respondents expect to see similar restructurings at other leading firms. Only 3% believed the Addleshaws cuts were a one-off, with the remaining 97% all predicting similar moves to follow.

    1 minute read

  • January 28, 2009 |

    Adverse conditions

    Notwithstanding the relatively short history of conditional fee arrangements (CFAs) and 'after-the-event' insurance (ATE) in commercial litigation, the low take-up of the CFA and ATE combination in commercial litigation looks a little strange. Just 7% of commercial cases are conducted using a CFA, according to the 139 commercial litigators who responded to Legal Week Intelligence's Benchmarker survey, conducted in association with FirstAssist Legal Protection.

    1 minute read

  • January 28, 2009 |

    Commentary: Addleshaws says it ain't broke, let's fix it anyway

    Given that it was regarded as one of the most upwardly mobile mid-market practices in the UK top 50, the question begged by Addleshaw Goddard's decision to remove 19 partners from its ranks is whether it has been mobile enough. Yet Addleshaws, with a practice built on top-tier regional strongholds in Manchester and Leeds and a well-regarded City practice, maintains that the move does not signal weaknesses in its underlying business.The firm talks a decent game, pointing to a solid run of successes in recent months. Among the highlights are debut corporate instructions for six FTSE 100 companies, including Rolls-Royce and Wolseley, as well as new panel appointments to ITV and William Hill. In deals, the firm is understandably proud of its work for the Co-operative Group on its £1.57bn acquisition of Somerfield, a transformational deal for the client. Underlining the firm's strength in the mutual sector is Adam Bennett, who acted on 15 of the last building society mergers. And Legal Week's data provider Mergermarket ranked the firm 10th for volume of UK deals in 2008 - a key benchmark of mid-market strength.

    1 minute read

  • January 23, 2009 |

    Addleshaws in talks with partners beyond 19 exits

    Addleshaw Goddard is in discussions with a number of additional partners about their future roles with the firm, it has emerged. The talks, which are understood to include the possibility of de-equitisations as well as demoting fixed-share partners to non-partner status, come after Legal Week on 20 January reported that Addleshaws had asked 19 partners from its London, Leeds and Manchester offices to leave the firm, citing economic conditions.The firm refused to be drawn on how many partners outside the 19 are involved in the latest discussions. However, the move represents a significant overhaul of the firm's partnership as the 19-partner group alone represents a cut of around 10% of the firm's 182-strong partnership. Of these, around 112 were equity partners and 70 fixed-share.

    1 minute read