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  • May 12, 2008 |

    Olswang ups pay but NQ rate stays flat at £62k

    Olswang has become the latest City firm to announce increases in its associate salaries, although rates for newly-qualified solicitors (NQs) at the top 30 UK outfit have been frozen at their current levels. Lawyers with one year post-qualification experience (PQE) will now pick up a minimum of £66,000 - up by £1,000 on last year and representing a hike of 1.5%.

    1 minute read

  • May 9, 2008 |

    A&O avoids associate raises for 2008

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has frozen its associate salaries for 2008 - becoming the first magic circle firm to hold back from handing pay-rises to its junior lawyers. Newly-qualified lawyers (NQs) at the City giant will again bank £65,000, the same as last year, while associates with one year post-qualification experience (PQE) will continue to pocket £71,500. Lawyers with two and three years' PQE will again earn £84,000 and £92,500 respectively.

    1 minute read

  • May 8, 2008 |

    Freshfields and Simmons review City pay

    News of the early financial results comes as both Simmons & Simmons and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer announced their associate salary rates for 2008. Freshfields has broadly matched magic circle rival Linklaters by upping its newly-qualified (NQ) rate to £66,000 from £65,000. The figure - on par with Link-laters - represents a 1.5% increase on last year's NQ rate, with those further up the bands receiving increases of around 2%.

    1 minute read

  • May 8, 2008 |

    A&O still on top in debt capital markets rankings

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has held onto the top spot in the latest quarterly international debt capital markets rankings, advising deal managers on 130 deals worth $54.6bn (£27.6bn). Thomson Financial's rankings show the firm held onto a 6.5% share of the underwriting market from January to April this year. Linklaters remains in second place having advised on 73 deals worth $49.3bn (£25bn), representing a 5.8% share of the market.

    1 minute read

  • May 8, 2008 |

    Clifford Chance's Asian team takes flight

    Clifford Chance (CC) has bolstered its Asian finance team with the addition of partner Simon Briscoe from City rival Norton Rose. Briscoe will join CC's Singapore asset finance team as a partner this autumn and will head up the magic circle law firm's Asian aviation practice. He joined Norton Rose in 1995 and became a partner at the top 10 City outfit in 1997.

    1 minute read

  • May 8, 2008 |

    Indian Bar to visit UK for reform talks as long-running foreign firm dispute delayed

    The Bar Council of India is set to visit the UK later this month, as the longstanding talks about opening up the country's legal market to foreign law firms continue. The news comes as it emerges that a crucial court case, scheduled to take place at the end of last month, has been pushed back until the summer.

    1 minute read

  • May 8, 2008 |

    Linklaters adds 4% to NQ pay despite sweeping predictions of salary freeze

    Linklaters has announced rises of nearly 4% for junior lawyers as several major law firms last week defied predictions that the slowdown would leave pay bands unchanged this year.A newly-qualified (NQ) solicitor at the magic circle law firm is now set to earn £66,600, up from £64,000 in 2007, as exclusively revealed on legalweek.com (30 April).

    1 minute read

  • May 7, 2008 |

    Walker Morris wins £200m role on subprime lender's rights deal

    Yorkshire leader Walker Morris has secured a lead role alongside Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer on a £200m rights issue for subprime lender Cattles as the credit squeeze continues to generate work for legal advisers.The rights issue, which was finalised on 23 April, will raise capital for the FTSE 250 company to support an application to the Financial Services Authority for a banking licence, which requires higher capital strength.

    1 minute read

  • May 7, 2008 |

    Phishers reel in A&O

    Those social-networkers who know their 'pokes' from their 'status updates' may remember the controversial Facebook ban briefly imposed by Allen & Overy last year - to such uproar in the ranks that the red-faced firm soon performed a Gordon Brown-style U-turn. Now the firm has been hit by another technological terror, becoming the latest City outfit to fall victim to the curse of the 'phishers' - including unscrupulous cyber-squatters who hijack respectable email addresses for their own illicit purposes.

    1 minute read

  • May 7, 2008 |

    A&O IP litigator in Rouse Legal switch

    Former Allen & Overy (A&O) intellectual property (IP) litigation partner Catriona Smith has joined specialist IP outfit Rouse Legal, formerly known as Willoughby & Partners. Smith retired from A&O on 30 April after practising with the magic circle law firm for more than 15 years and joins the UK legal arm of Rouse & Co International, an IP consultancy firm, on 12 May.

    1 minute read