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  • July 31, 2008 | International Edition

    MoJ India liberalisation spending totals £100k

    The UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has spent more than £100,000 over the last five years on trips to India, as part of its ongoing efforts to liberalise the local legal market.The government department has spent more than £75,000 sending representations to India over the period, according to figures released to Legal Week under a Freedom of Information Act request.

    1 minute read

  • July 31, 2008 |

    MoJ India liberalisation spending totals £100k

    The UK Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has spent more than £100,000 over the last five years on trips to India, as part of its ongoing efforts to liberalise the local legal market.The government department has spent more than £75,000 sending representations to India over the period, according to figures released to Legal Week under a Freedom of Information Act request.

    1 minute read

  • July 30, 2008 |

    Partners reject calls for pro bono ranking but believe it would help

    Senior lawyers remain deeply ambivalent regarding attempts to rank and disclose pro bono activity despite a clear majority believing such initiatives would boost commercial firms' non-profit activities.This is the key finding of the latest Big Question survey, which found that 63% of respondents believe that ranking firms' commitments to pro bono would increase the level of pro bono work undertaken. A further 9% said that such a league would 'greatly increase' pro bono activity, while 28% believed it would have no effect or a negative impact.

    1 minute read

  • July 30, 2008 |

    Eversheds freezes NQ pay in London and regions

    Eversheds has frozen its salaries for newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers in both London and the regions. The national law firm has frozen its NQ pay at £62,000 in London and £39,000 elsewhere, a move that follows the firm's decision last year not step back from a pay war involving rival firms.In 2007 Eversheds bolstered its City pay by 17% to move above the £60,000 mark, but failed to reach the £40,000 NQ pay benchmark set by rival firms outside London, with regional offices such as Birmingham, Cambridge, Leeds and Newcastle receiving an 11% increase to £39,000.

    1 minute read

  • July 24, 2008 |

    Energy giant United Utilities merges in-house teams in legal restructuring

    United Utilities general counsel Tom Keevil has overhauled the energy giant's legal function and made a number of senior internal appointments within the team. As part of the revamp Keevil has merged the FTSE 100 company's distinct regulatory and non-regulatory legal teams into a single unit, with four teams put in place to deal with commercial, litigation, property and environmental matters.

    1 minute read

  • July 24, 2008 | International Edition

    National firms unveil new NQ pay rates

    Pinsent Masons, Hammonds and Wragge & Co have become the latest regional outfits to unveil associate salary rates for the coming year, with differences between the firms' London and regional bases coming to the fore. Pinsents has raised its newly-qualified (NQ) rates in the City to £64,000, with a £1,000 increase on last year, equating to a 1.6% rise.

    1 minute read

  • July 24, 2008 |

    National firms unveil new NQ pay rates

    Pinsent Masons, Hammonds and Wragge & Co have become the latest regional outfits to unveil associate salary rates for the coming year, with differences between the firms' London and regional bases coming to the fore. Pinsents has raised its newly-qualified (NQ) rates in the City to £64,000, with a £1,000 increase on last year, equating to a 1.6% rise.

    1 minute read

  • July 24, 2008 |

    Cobbetts fights back after housing team loss with senior Pinsents hire

    Cobbetts has appointed a new social housing chief with the hire of Hugo Stephens - the head of housing at UK rival firm Pinsent Masons.Stephens joined the north-west firm's Birmingham arm last week (14 July) to bolster the firm's housing and regeneration team. He left Pinsents at the end of June with associate David Isaacson.

    1 minute read

  • July 23, 2008 |

    Scotland: Growing pains

    The Scottish National Party wants investment in Scotland to be delivered via the Scottish Futures Trust, replacing the public private partnership. Will this vision become a successful reality? David Nash weighs up the arguments for and against In the words of the Scottish Government's Finance Secretary, John Swinney, infrastructure investment lies at the core of the Scottish National Party (SNP) administration's policy of increasing sustainable economic growth. The £35bn investment programme planned for the next 10 years appears even more significant when the current economic slowdown is taken into consideration.

    1 minute read

  • July 17, 2008 |

    National firms lag behind UK average despite double-digit revenue growth

    Nationally-focused law firms have emerged as the weakest performers in the UK over the last 12 months, despite posting double-digit growth in revenues. Results drawn from the Legal Week top 50 show that the UK's top 10 national and regional firms increased their revenues by an average of 10.4% during the last financial year, while average profits per equity partner (PEP) grew by just 2.2%. The results, which come against a backdrop of redundancies at some of the major regional players, mean that average PEP for the biggest national firms now stands at £492,700, with average revenues per lawyer reaching £278,800.

    1 minute read