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  • May 3, 2007 |

    Beware those cap-wearing Trojan horses

    Interesting to hear of ‘revelations’ concerning the shock use of liability caps. Perhaps it was slightly less revelatory three years ago, when…

    1 minute read

  • May 3, 2007 | International Edition

    Half of law students expect 50-hour working week

    Almost half of all law students expect to work more than 50 hours a week after qualifying into the profession, according to new research, with just 1% of prospective lawyers targeting a career in-house. Forty-seven percent of law students intend to opt out of the Working Time Directive, which limits the working week to 48 hours, according to the Sweet & Maxwell survey. The study finds just 13% of law students expect to work less than 39 hours a week, while 5% said they were willing to work as many hours as necessary.

    1 minute read

  • May 3, 2007 |

    Half of law students expect 50-hour working week

    Almost half of all law students expect to work more than 50 hours a week after qualifying into the profession, according to new research, with just 1% of prospective lawyers targeting a career in-house. Forty-seven percent of law students intend to opt out of the Working Time Directive, which limits the working week to 48 hours, according to the Sweet & Maxwell survey. The study finds just 13% of law students expect to work less than 39 hours a week, while 5% said they were willing to work as many hours as necessary.

    1 minute read

  • May 3, 2007 |

    HBOS to kick off review of European advisers

    HBOS is set to review its European advisers with the banking giant expected to centralise its management of outside counsel. The banking and insurance giant refused to comment on the process, which is believed to be overseen by HBOS head of group legal operations Brian Fisher.

    1 minute read

  • May 3, 2007 |

    Associate salary hikes see City elite snapping at heels of US competitors

    A raft of firms confirmed their associate salary rises this week with the gap between City firms and some US rivals narrowing. Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Herbert Smith both increased rates by more than 15% to match the rest of the magic circle, while Shearman & Sterling, a benchmark 'mid-Atlantic-rate' firm, increased by 4%.The moves mean that, excluding bonuses, there is now £10,000 separating newly-qualified salaries at Shearman and those at the UK's top firms.

    1 minute read

  • May 2, 2007 | International Edition

    Path to partner at top firms gets longer despite booming City scene

    The wait for partnership is getting longer at the UK's leading firms, according to research by Legal Week, which shows it took 8.7 years on average for lawyers to make partner this year, compared with 8.1 years in 2004. The partnership track has increased in length each year for top City lawyers during the last four years, despite the fact that a number of firms, including Ashurst, Lovells and Herbert Smith, saw a significant drop in the time it took to make partner this year.

    1 minute read

  • May 2, 2007 |

    Path to partner at top firms gets longer despite booming City scene

    The wait for partnership is getting longer at the UK's leading firms, according to research by Legal Week, which shows it took 8.7 years on average for lawyers to make partner this year, compared with 8.1 years in 2004. The partnership track has increased in length each year for top City lawyers during the last four years, despite the fact that a number of firms, including Ashurst, Lovells and Herbert Smith, saw a significant drop in the time it took to make partner this year.

    1 minute read

  • May 2, 2007 |

    A&O bank links lead to new credit card client

    Allen & Overy (A&O) has won US credit card company CompuCredit as a new client, advising on its £390m acquisition of the Monument credit card portfolio from Barclaycard.

    1 minute read

  • May 2, 2007 |

    A&O bottles it

    No, not the pay rises, dummy. The Diary was wowed last week by the attention to detail at the new Allen & Overy (A&O) headquarters in Spitalfields.

    1 minute read

  • May 1, 2007 | International Edition

    Shearman City salaries up 4% as pay gap narrows

    Shearman & Sterling has announced an increase of 4% in its London associate salaries as the pay gap between City firms and their US rivals closes. The move, which takes effect from today (1 May), means a newly-qualified solicitor in the New York firm's City base will now get £75,000 a year, up from the £72,000 on offer previously.

    1 minute read