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  • June 13, 2013 |

    Arabian night – the Corporate Counsel Middle East Awards 2013

    The cream of the Middle East legal community gathered in Dubai last month for the second annual Corporate Counsel Middle East Awards. Three hundred guests attended the event on 16 May at The Western Dubai Mina Seyahi hotel to celebrate the achievements of lawyers, law firms and in-house legal departments working across the Middle East. Allen and Overy (A&O), Al Tamimi & Company and The Emirates Group were among the big winners at the awards – which were jointly held by Legal Week and the Corporate Counsel Middle East Group (CCME) – scooping International Law Firm of the Year, Middle East Law Firm of the Year and Legal Department of the Year (Large Team) respectively. The top individual award – General Counsel of the Year – was won by Aluminium Bahrain's Afshan Akhtar. Commenting on the award, chief executive Tim Murray said it highlighted "the priority the company gives to upholding the principles of corporate governance and transparency across the organisation".

    1 minute read

  • June 13, 2013 |

    The AXA man – AXA UK's legal head on getting tough on law firm fees

    Edward 'Ed' Davis is slimmer than his Google images – the result, no doubt, of a recently acquired obsession with cycling. "I'm absolutely passionate about it," he admits, his eyes glazing with thoughts of country lanes or aerodynamic handle bars or whatever it is about the sport that has him hooked. The self-confessed MAMIL (Middle-Aged Man In Lycra) is fortunately wearing a suit and tie and leads the way into a chilly, white-walled meeting room, sparsely decorated with clip-framed AXA promotional posters. He apologises for the temperature and smell of fresh paint as if he is personally responsible – the first indicator that this is a company man through and through. Davis has spent the majority of his career at AXA Group, the French global insurance and asset management giant boasting 163,000 employees in 57 countries. In the UK, the core businesses of AXA Wealth, AXA PPP Healthcare, AXA Commercial and AXA Personal Insurance employ some 13,000 people nationally.

    1 minute read

  • June 13, 2013 | International Edition

    All aboard – Scotland makes debut in near-shoring market

    As market speculation around the potential tie-up between SJ Berwin and King & Wood Mallesons went strangely quiet this week, attention instead refocused very much closer to home. Well, 400 miles away from London, but still distinctly closer than Asia. The reason? Ashurst's decision to build a low-cost back office and legal support centre in Glasgow, which puts the job security of some 350 support staff in London under threat but, at the same time, promises to bring roughly 150 new jobs to Scotland within the next 12 months. And, given the recent upheaval in the Scottish legal market, some might say this second point is no bad thing.

    1 minute read

  • June 13, 2013 |

    All aboard – Scotland makes debut in near-shoring market

    As market speculation around the potential tie-up between SJ Berwin and King & Wood Mallesons went strangely quiet this week, attention instead refocused very much closer to home. Well, 400 miles away from London, but still distinctly closer than Asia. The reason? Ashurst's decision to build a low-cost back office and legal support centre in Glasgow, which puts the job security of some 350 support staff in London under threat but, at the same time, promises to bring roughly 150 new jobs to Scotland within the next 12 months. And, given the recent upheaval in the Scottish legal market, some might say this second point is no bad thing.

    1 minute read

  • June 13, 2013 |

    Macfarlanes boosts real estate with Shearman partner hire

    Macfarlanes has strengthened its commercial real estate practice with the hire of Shearman & Sterling partner Clare Breeze. Breeze, who is due to join at the firm in the beginning of July, has been a partner at Shearman since 2009, and has acted for a range of developer and investor clients including Stanhope, AIG and Argent Estates.

    1 minute read

  • June 13, 2013 |

    US firm Seyfarth Shaw launches in Australia with eight partner hires from HSF, Ashurst

    Chicago employment firm Seyfarth Shaw has launched in Australia this week with the hire of eight partners from three firms. The US outfit took five partners from Herbert Smith Freehills, two from Ashurst and one from Arnold Bloch Leibler, for the opening of offices in Sydney and Melbourne.

    1 minute read

  • June 12, 2013 |

    Ashurst reviews 350 London roles in low cost Scots support base launch

    Ashurst is set to launch a new low cost centre in Scotland, in a move which will see London business support roles placed at risk of redundancy. The new Glasgow base, which will open later this year, will house 150 support roles, including 30 legal analysts and 120 business support roles, with the firm set to recruit heavily in the Scottish market.

    1 minute read

  • June 10, 2013 |

    Ashurst, A&O among advisers on Doughty's £935m Vue cinema sale

    Allen & Overy (A&O), Ashurst, Debevoise & Plimpton and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom have all taken roles on the £935m sale of cinema chain Vue Entertainment by private equity firm Doughty Hanson to two Canadian investor groups. The transaction, which is expected to close later this summer, has seen OMERS Private Equity and Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo) buy the business, which operates 146 cinemas in the UK and Europe.

    1 minute read

  • June 6, 2013 |

    BLP real estate team to feel brunt of cuts as partners predict sharp PEP dip

    Real estate is set to be heavily affected by Berwin Leighton Paisner's (BLP's) recently announced redundancy plans, with one third of the planned lawyer cuts set to hit the firm's property and planning teams. The UK top 15 firm last month put around 100 jobs at risk of redundancy, including 58 legal roles. It has now emerged that roughly 17 of the lawyer positions are in the real estate team, with a further three roles at risk in the planning department. It is understood that the firm may try to move some of the lawyers at risk of redundancy into its Lawyers On Demand service. Meanwhile, partners have said profits per equity partner (PEP) could be down by as much as 50% this year, against broadly static revenues. This could take PEP down to around £330,000, compared with a figure of £660,000 in 2011-12, when profits fell by 7%.

    1 minute read

  • June 6, 2013 |

    Off track – why associates face a long wait to break into the top ranks of UK law firms

    Junior lawyers may not be under any illusions about the challenges facing them on the track to partnership – but the size and scale of that challenge has been starkly illustrated by new Legal Week research that plainly sets out the increasing length of time UK associates are now required to put in before making partner. Analysis of this year's partnership data shows the average post-qualification experience (PQE) held by newly qualified UK partners at top 10 firms this year stands at 10.6 years – an increase of almost 30% on the equivalent figure of 8.2 in 2006. And the standard set by the country's largest firms has been broadly replicated by their smaller contemporaries, with the average partner track across the top 50 now standing at 10.5 years. One senior partner at a top 10 law firm commented: "It is undoubtedly taking people longer to make partner and I suspect it is the case at all firms. We need to keep promoting the best people to partnership, but law firms are changing after years of double-digit growth – fewer people are now getting through."

    1 minute read