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  • June 17, 2010 |

    Slaughters and Norton Rose head up Resolution's £2.75bn AXA bid

    Slaughter and May and Norton Rose have taken lead roles on the potential £2.75bn takeover of AXA's UK life assurance business by Resolution. Slaughters is advising Resolution, the owner of life insurance giant Friends Provident, on its bid for AXA's UK life and savings operations which, if it confirmed, will be funded in part by a pre-emptive £2bn rights issue by Resolution.

    1 minute read

  • June 16, 2010 |

    Mills & Reeve promotes barrister to partnership in LDP switch

    Mills & Reeve has added a barrister to its partnership in the firm's annual promotions round, becoming the latest UK top 50 practice to convert to Legal Disciplinary Practice (LDP) status. Richard Sykes, the head of the firm's public law and regulatory team, has become a member of the equity partnership after the firm converted to LDP status on 1 May.

    1 minute read

  • June 16, 2010 |

    Deloitte survey shows Q4 fee income upturn for UK firms

    The UK's top 100 law firms have seen an increase in fee income of 4.6% for the last quarter of the financial year compared to the equivalent period in 2008-09. The latest quarterly survey from Deloitte also shows that chargeable hours for Q4 2009-10 were up on last year, rising by 8.3% per fee earner.

    1 minute read

  • June 9, 2010 |

    Walker Morris secures lead role on £778m sale of Netto to Asda

    Walker Morris has taken a lead role on the £778m sale of Netto Foodstores to Asda. The Leeds-based firm advised Danish retail group Dansk Supermarked, a long-term client, on the sell-off of its Netto subsidiary to Asda, which is owned by US giant Walmart.

    1 minute read

  • May 26, 2010 |

    Norton Rose unfreezes associate salaries but holds NQ pay at £59k

    Norton Rose has decided against unfreezing pay for its newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers, while carrying out discretionary pay reviews for the firm's more experienced associates. Pay for first-year associates will remain at £59,000, while trainee rates have been increased from £35,700 to £37,000.

    1 minute read

  • May 26, 2010 |

    Simmons and A&O take lead on £2bn travel company refinancing

    Simmons & Simmons and Allen & Overy (A&O) have taken key roles on Thomas Cook's refinancing, as the travel company attempts to bolster its balance sheet. The process, which has taken almost six months to complete, has seen the company secure financing worth almost £2bn in total.

    1 minute read

  • May 26, 2010 |

    China: Years of the dragon

    On Tuesday 4 May at 7:30am a car arrived to pick up former Lovells Beijing managing partner Robert Lewis from his house in the Shunyi district of the Chinese capital, a part of town popular with expats. As it weaved its way off the estate and onto the traffic-choked main road leading to the city centre, Lewis thought about what lay ahead for him at AllBright Law Offices, the Chinese law firm where he was about to start his first day's work. His decision to join the firm, where his brief is to overhaul AllBright's structure and expand its Beijing office to match its market-leading offering in Shanghai, is one Lewis has been edging towards for years now, and he maintains it is unrelated to Lovells' recently concluded merger with US firm Hogan & Hartson.

    1 minute read

  • May 21, 2010 |

    Hogan Lovells unfreezes pay and announces new rates for year ahead

    Hogan Lovells has become the latest firm to restart lockstep progression and increase associate salary bands for the financial year ahead. The pay increases, first reported on legal blog RollOnFriday, will see newly-qualified (NQ) lawyers now take home £60,000, a small increase on last year's adjusted rate of £59,000, while first seat trainees will now be paid £37,000.

    1 minute read

  • May 19, 2010 |

    ITV in talks with other in-house legal teams to help drive down costs

    ITV has held discussions with a number of major legal teams in a bid to get the in-house community working together to drive down legal costs and secure more favourable panel terms. ITV group legal director Andrew Garard has held discussions with companies including Shell, JPMorgan and BT as well as other Fortune 500 companies, banks and public bodies after being approached to give advice on alternative billing arrangements.

    1 minute read

  • May 11, 2010 |

    Deutsche Bank names new general counsel for UK and Western Europe

    Deutsche Bank has appointed a new general counsel for UK and Western Europe for the first time in over a decade. Emma Slatter, who most recently held the position of head of legal for fixed income within the global markets division in London, has taken over the role from Simon Dodds. Slatter, who trained at Slaughter and May, joined Deutsche-owned Morgan Grenfell in 1994.

    1 minute read