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  • September 16, 2011 |

    DWF agrees College of Law LPC deal as Pinsents widens access to legal career

    DWF has become the latest law firm to agree an exclusive deal to send all of its future trainees to study at the College of Law. The College will provide the Legal Practice Course (LPC) to all of DWF's future trainees from later this month, with the students able to study at any of the law school's eight UK locations.

    1 minute read

  • September 14, 2011 |

    BLP, LG and Macfarlanes head up £139m sale of Pinsents' London base

    LG and Berwin Leighton Paisner (BLP) are among a number of firms to have taken roles on the £139m sale of Pinsent Masons' City headquarters. BLP advised the purchaser, German fund manager Hannover Leasing, with a team led by commercial real estate partner Graham Lloyd-Brunt and real estate finance partner Jo Solomon.

    1 minute read

  • September 14, 2011 |

    Top firms break ground with project to boost access to law, but challenge has only begun

    Despite already being touted as a landmark for the industry, the law firms behind the initiative aimed at improving access to the profession are hoping to substantially expand the number of firms 
backing the scheme. The scheme launched with 23 major firms across the UK and Ireland but the backers of the project to hand work experience to under-privileged children believe it will be essential to secure the active support of more law firms before addressing the considerable challenge of building links and co-operation with a broad base of schools nationally.

    1 minute read

  • September 13, 2011 |

    DLA Piper and Olswang win roles as Vodafone confirms new legal panel

    Vodafone has completed a review of its group and UK legal advisers, with Olswang and DLA Piper winning first-time appointments. The panel is divided into two - a group panel which will handle the legal services for Vodafone's corporate centre and a dedicated UK panel.

    1 minute read

  • September 9, 2011 |

    23 major law firms come together for ground-breaking diversity initiative

    Twenty-three UK and Irish law firms have come together for a groundbreaking initiative to boost social mobility in the profession with a wide-ranging work experience scheme. The project, dubbed PRIME, will see the firms involved commit to provide significant work experience programmes for state school children from non-privileged backgrounds in a profession-wide bid to improve social diversity in law.

    1 minute read

  • September 9, 2011 |

    Ashurst's Cookson exits to join DLA Piper as London real estate chief

    DLA Piper has boosted its real estate practice with the hire of senior Ashurst partner Simon Cookson as the firm's new London real estate chief. Cookson was previously Ashurst's European real estate chief, and also held a position on the firm's board.

    1 minute read

  • September 9, 2011 |

    Pinsents set to relocate Bristol staff after closing down regional base

    Pinsent Masons is set to close its Bristol base next year with all lawyers to be relocated to the firm's other offices. The move, first reported on RollOnFriday today (9 September), will see the firm close its southwest office by the end of February 2012, after taking the view that it can sufficiently service its clients in the region from its other bases.

    1 minute read

  • September 7, 2011 |

    The merger master - how James Retallack's merger experience served him well on the board of takeover target

    Aggregate Industries' (AI's) former legal and compliance director James Retallack knows a thing or two about mergers. In the glare of the public eye he guided Birmingham and London law firm Edge Ellison through the rocky aftermath of dramatically collapsed merger talks with then Pinsent Curtis (now Pinsent Masons) in 1997 and, after an oft-challenging three years, into a union with legacy Hammond Suddards. Only four years later, at major heavy building materials company AI, he was part of the board guiding the FTSE 250 company through a £1.8bn merger with Swiss-founded aggregate and cement giant Holcim.

    1 minute read

  • August 31, 2011 |

    Pinsents and SJ Berwin consider merit-based partner pay shifts

    Pinsent Masons and SJ Berwin are reviewing partner remuneration, with both firms considering moves towards more performance-driven systems. Pinsents is considering extending its lockstep as well as increasing the performance-related element of equity partner pay, either by boosting the size of its discretionary bonus pool – which currently stands at 10% of the firm's total profits – or potentially by replacing it with another system.

    1 minute read

  • August 22, 2011 |

    Pinsents and Wragges freeze rates for newly-qualified London lawyers

    Pinsent Masons and Wragge & Co have become the latest firms to confirm details of associate salaries for 2011-12, with both firms freezing rates for newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers in London. NQs in Wragges' City base will continue to receive £58,000, while salaries for Birmingham-based NQs will increase by £1,000 to £38,000.

    1 minute read