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  • April 8, 2009 |

    Bakers cuts 124 US jobs in third round of layoffs

    Baker & McKenzie has announced that it is laying off 38 lawyers and cutting 86 paralegal and professional staff positions across its North American offices, writes the Am Law Daily. The firm cited the adverse impact of the economic downturn as the principal factor contributing to the cuts. The announcement marks the third round of layoffs for the 3,600-laywer global firm.In January Bakers let go of six associates in its 140-lawyer New York office. Two months later, it announced a redundancy consultation which put between 60 and 85 jobs in its London office under threat. Around 30 of those positions are expected to be lawyers, with the review expected to completed by the end of this month.

    1 minute read

  • April 7, 2009 |

    Dentons offers £10k for deferring trainees

    Denton Wilde Sapte has asked its trainees to defer their start dates by a year, offering £10,000 for those who take up the offer. The City firm has offered its September 2009, March 2010, September 2010, March 2011 and September 2011 intake a cash incentive of £7,000 for the 12-month deferral, with an additional £3,000 on offer if they take up pro bono or charitable work during the year.

    1 minute read

  • April 1, 2009 |

    Major US firms' City partner promotions hit a four-year low as only 34 make the grade

    Partner promotions at some of the largest US law firms in London hit a four-year low in 2009, with just 34 lawyers making the grade compared to 54 the year before, according to research from Legal Week. A survey of promotion trends at 28 leading US firms in London found promotions had increased each year between 2005 and 2008, before this year's fall. In 2005, 36 lawyers were made up, with that figure increasing to 38 for 2006 and 48 for 2007, before last year's bumper haul.

    1 minute read

  • April 1, 2009 |

    Orrick and Arnold & Porter step up lateral hiring in London as partners move between US firms

    Mayer Brown, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe and Arnold & Porter were the most active recruiters of lateral partners among US law firms in London last year. Legal Week research has found that Orrick picked up seven new partners - with the most significant haul of five partners coming from collapsed firm Heller Ehrman, including venture law group partners Richard Eaton, Chris Grew and Struan Penwarden.

    1 minute read

  • March 30, 2009 |

    Dewey set to unveil plans for Madrid office launch

    Dewey & LeBoeuf is set to launch in Spain, with a Madrid office opening pencilled in for later this year. The US firm's New York-based corporate partner Berge Setrakian - who counts several large Iberian companies among his clients, including Telefonica and Iberdola - is leading the initiative, although it is understood that another Dewey lawyer will head up the base after its launch.The firm is planning to staff the office with internal relocations rather than local lateral hires. It is expected the plans will be finalised and unveiled in the coming weeks.

    1 minute read

  • March 19, 2009 |

    Students rate CC and A&O as most prestigious firms in new study

    Clifford Chance (CC) has inched past Allen & Overy (A&O) to be named the UK's most prestigious law firm in a major study of law student perceptions about graduate recruitment.The two firms emerge as clear brand leaders in the survey of more than 2,500 students at Russell Group Universities and Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) course providers.Predictably, magic circle rivals Linklaters, Slaughter and May and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer make up the rest of the top five in a league table dominated by international law firms, although the level of brand recognition enjoyed by firms in the bottom half of the table tails off significantly.

    1 minute read

  • March 19, 2009 |

    Editor's comment: A glimpse into the future

    Our table of the top 10 most prestigious law firms in the eyes of law students makes for interesting reading.Nobody is pretending that law students have a meticulous grasp of the relative merits of the leading UK firms but, once opinions are formed on the university campuses, one suspects that it takes a lot to change them. And we're not just talking about potential lawyers here, but also the businessmen and women of years to come.

    1 minute read

  • March 13, 2009 |

    Bakers to cut up to 85 jobs from London office

    Baker & McKenzie's London office has launched a formal redundancy consultation that will see the loss of between 60 and 85 jobs. The month-long review, which will kick off on 31 March, is expected to see between 20-30 legal jobs cut, around half of which will be in corporate. Trainees will not be affected.In addition, the firm's support staff headcount will be reduced by 20-25, while 20-30 secretarial jobs will be cut.

    1 minute read

  • March 12, 2009 |

    UK firms to miss out as Korea green-lights liberalisation

    UK law firms will not benefit from moves to open up the Korean legal market to foreign law firms due to the lack of a trade agreement between the two countries. The Korean authorities last week (2 March) gave a green light to the first step in a three-stage process to open up the local legal market. The process will effectively allow foreign law firms to set up representative offices in the country, however, it only applies to those countries with an active free-trade agreement (FTA) with Korea.

    1 minute read

  • March 11, 2009 | International Edition

    Trust & Estates Litigation Forum: Trust in business

    It is not often that a room full of litigators are likened to meek lambs. But Shan Warnock-Smith QC's description of how senior private client and family lawyers last year underestimated the impact of the financial turmoil was met with nods of agreement at this year's Trust and Estates Litigation Forum.As chair of the conference, Warnock-Smith described how the turn in the economy had had an unprecedented impact on trust and estates law, with negligence claims against advisers, trust disputes and insolvency all set to increase over the coming months.One of the key areas of discussion - both formally and informally - at the conference was the expected upturn in trust collapse and insolvency.Speaking at the conference, this year held at the Four Seasons resort at Terre Blanche, Provence, Carey Olsen pensions and trust partner Paul Buckle said: "It was not until comparatively recently that the idea of an insolvent trust was comparatively rare - with the possible exception of things such as certain types of pensions schemes and other trusts which may have been established to meet certain fixed liabilities."

    1 minute read