Fergus Payne

  • Fergus Payne
    Feature

    LLPs catch their second wind

    12 October 2015

    It is hard to foresee rapid movement away from the LLP model in the short-term.

  • Fergus Payne
    Opinion

    The legal year ahead

    2014-12-26T09:00:00

    Alternative business structures? Mergers? Professional indemnity insurance? What will be the hot topics in 2015?

  • News

    Consolidation in the legal sector

    2012-12-18T00:00:00

    Recent times have given us two interesting announcements in relation to current merger trends. First, Norton Rose said that it will merge with the US firm, Fulbright & Jaworski. This is set to make the merged firm join the top 10 law firms globally, both by revenue and number of ...

  • News

    Direct age discrimination

    2012-10-09T00:00:00

    The recent Supreme Court decision in Seldon v Clarkson Wright and Jakes [2012] UKSC 16 – which found that direct age discrimination could be justified and clarified the test for justification that would have to be satisfied – continues to reverberate throughout the legal industry and fuel the debate over ...

  • News

    Changing law firms' culture

    2012-09-06T00:00:00

    Recently, the legal press has been full of reports of firms applying for alternative business structure (ABS) status. Notably, in the last couple of weeks we have learnt that Irwin Mitchell’s application has been granted and that insurance firm Parabis is set for a £50m cash injection after being granted ...

  • News

    ABSs and the potential lock-in of individuals

    2012-06-11T00:00:00

    The legal press is full of articles on the new alternative business structures (ABSs) and the so-called Tesco Law revolution of legal services. A number of major law firms have confirmed that they are seriously considering the option to converting to an ABS and we have already seen high-profile third-party ...

  • News

    LLPs 10 years on

    2012-05-08T00:00:00

    In fact, limited liability partnerships (LLPs) have been with us for just over 11 years since their introduction in April 2001. Although it was possible to operate a law firm as a limited company prior to 2001, an LLP has been viewed as a more obvious alternative to a traditional ...

  • News

    OFR: the first stumbling block?

    2012-04-11T00:00:00

    So where are we after six months of operating under outcomes-focused regulation (OFR)? Well the world hasn’t ended, the profession hasn’t imploded and we haven’t seen any public floggings. We have of course seen some high-profile criminal charges against individuals caught appropriating funds from their firms which hasn’t done the ...

  • News

    The current legal landscape

    2012-03-19T00:00:00

    To describe the current legal landscape as interesting would be a real understatement. You could say that a perfect storm is brewing. A variety of different factors mean that the legal sector is undergoing significant change and firms of all sizes need to rise to the challenges they are facing. ...