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  • May 27, 2009 |

    Thomson vocal

    A year on from the merger between the Thomson Corporation and Reuters - which created the world's largest information multimedia news agency - and there has still been no review of the new company's fused panel of UK legal advisers. And according to Daragh Fagan, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) general counsel (GC) for Thomson Reuters Markets division, there are no plans for one.

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  • May 21, 2009 |

    Top 50 set for fee falls but City firms hold steady

    A substantial number of top 50 law firms will this year unveil falls in revenue despite many City practices maintaining fee income at 2008 levels.Initial indications for the 2008-09 financial year are that a slight majority of firms will see falls in revenue - comprising the first fall in legal service demand in recent memory - while profits will fall by more than 10% in many cases.However, a number of major City firms are on course to post broadly static revenues or modest increases, including Herbert Smith, Lovells, Simmons & Simmons and CMS Cameron McKenna. This group is, however, generally expecting falls in profitability.

    1 minute read

  • May 21, 2009 |

    Editor's comment: Blood from a stone

    If law firms' willingness to talk financial results is an indication of performance, then 2008-09 is certainly a very different year compared to what leading law firms have become used to. So while in a typical year, you have already seen a good selection of numbers by this point, this year it has taken Legal Week's entire news team to open the batting. Still, the general picture seems reasonably clear: major firms as a whole are set to be down in revenue against 2008, perhaps as much as 5%, while average profits will have fallen in the region of 10%-15%. That's dramatically down on the growth seen over the last 15 years, with top 50 firms even in their TMT-hangover of 2002-03 managing revenue growth of 5.1%.

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  • May 20, 2009 |

    CC, Slaughters and Davis Polk take on top roles on £510m Taylor Wimpey fundraising

    Clifford Chance (CC), Slaughter and May and Davis Polk & Wardwell have all won roles advising on troubled house builder Taylor Wimpey's £510m fundraising. The fully underwritten placing, which is subject to shareholder approval this month, will cut the company's debt by around one-third. Slaughters reprised its role for regular client Taylor Wimpey, with corporate partner Jeff Twentyman leading the firm's team. Davis Polk advised the house-builder on US aspects, with London-based corporate partner Nigel Wilson advising.

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  • May 14, 2009 |

    Slaughters partner joins Competition Commission

    Slaughter and May's head of competition, Malcolm Nicholson, has retired from the magic circle firm to join the Competition Commission. After 25 years at Slaughters - including 15 of as head of the firm's competition practice - Nicholson will now begin an eight-year, part-time post at the Commission. Nicholson had been re-elected as head of competition in March 2008, but has now been succeeded by Phillippe Chapatte, who will serve the remaining two years of the three-year term.

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  • May 13, 2009 |

    Offshoring - outside the box?

    During the past few months law firms have announced a raft of cost-saving measures, with hardly a day going by without news of job cuts, pay freezes or trainee deferrals. But increasingly the focus is turning to the long term - and with it the challenge of adapting to a harsher new economic reality. Last month, Simmons & Simmons announced a proposal to use external lawyers in jurisdictions such as India and South Africa for certain litigation-related and corporate due diligence tasks - following similar moves by Clifford Chance, Lovells and Eversheds. It is a trend that some expect to continue.

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  • May 11, 2009 |

    Arsenal to sign up full-time in-house adviser

    Arsenal Football Club has begun the hunt for its first-ever in-house lawyer. The Premier League club is currently scouting for suitable candidates to fill the senior-level role, which as yet has no fixed title.Senior City lawyers and leading in-house counsel have been invited to apply.The decision to recruit a dedicated in-house lawyer follows a recommendation from

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  • April 30, 2009 |

    US education provider floats £300m BPP acquisition

    The parent company of top UK law school BPP looks set to be taken over after a US education provider made a preliminary approach for the company worth £303.5m. BPP Holdings today (29 April) made a stock exchange announcement confirming a preliminary offer for the education and training business by Apollo Global, a subsidiary of US private equity house Apollo Group.Apollo Global - an education investment fund with a portfolio of around $3bn which is 20% owned by the Carlyle Group - has made a cash offer of 620p per share, representing a 70% premium on BPP's closing price on Tuesday (28 April).

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  • April 30, 2009 |

    Links boosts associate pay but cuts salary bands

    Linklaters has bucked the trend for associate pay freezes, with the magic circle firm announcing that its London lawyers will receive a marginal salary increase. The firm told lawyers today (30 April) that, in contrast to rivals such as Allen & Overy (A&O), they will progress through the associate lockstep bands as normal. However, Linklaters has cut the level of all of its pay bands, leaving associates with a pay rise of between 2% and 4%.

    1 minute read

  • April 29, 2009 | International Edition

    Legal Week Independent Law Firms Forum: Independently speaking

    Coming a day after the UK budget was announced, HSBC senior economist Mark Berrisford-Smith's economic forecast for independent law firms in the coming years could be forgiven for being a little gloomy.Speaking at Legal Week's annual Independent Law Firms Forum, Berrisford-Smith commended delegates for attending a session on the economy after a budget which "rammed home the message of how long it will take to clear up the mess" that the major economies are in.

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