All articles by James Dean – Page 13
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News
Insolvency practitioners overpaid £15m a year
Insolvency practitioners are overpaid £15m a year because unsecured creditors are unable to rein in their fees, the Office of Fair Trading reported last week. In its study on the market for corporate insolvency, the OFT recommended that the government create an independent complaints-handling body to ...
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Profits surge as A&O rides out recession
Magic circle firm Allen & Overy increased average profits per equity partner (PEP) by 10% in 2009/10 on the back of falling revenues, the firm reported today. The first of the magic circle to report full-year financials in 2010, Allen & Overy announced PEP up to ...
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Halliwells becomes biggest casualty of the recession
One of the UK’s biggest regional law firms is expected to disappear from the market shortly, after the economic downturn claimed its biggest victim so far in the legal sector. As the Gazette went to press, Manchester-headquartered Halliwells and its staff were in limbo as ...
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Call for EU to tighten intellectual property protection
Pressure is mounting on EU lawmakers to improve protection for trade secrets and intellectual property (IP) rights, after two business lobbies called for stricter enforcement. A coalition of seven international corporations told the Gazette this week that it has called on the European Commission to afford ...
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Herbert Smith sees rise in both income and profits
City firm Herbert Smith has increased both its turnover and average profits per equity partner (PEP) this year. Unveiling its 2009/10 financial results today, the top-10 firm (pictured) reported turnover up slightly to £450m from £444m in 2008/09, with PEP 2% higher at £862,000. ...
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International in-house pay survey shows that seniors are suffering
Senior in-house lawyers have fared much worse than their junior colleagues in the pay stakes over recent years, research has suggested. The average salary for a UK in-house lawyer with 10 years’ post-qualification experience (PQE) dropped 7% between 2004 and 2010, to £89,000 from £95,500, according ...
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Fees up at top 50 law firms
Solicitors at top 50 law firms are earning nearly 20% more in fees than they were a year ago, new research has found.On average, each fee-earner in the top 50 firms brought in £77,000 in the quarter ended 30 April, compared with £65,000 over the same period in 2009, according ...
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News
ABI launches third-party code for insurers
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) has launched a voluntary code of practice for insurers taking part in so-called third-party capture. The practice, referred to by the ABI as ‘third-party assistance’, involves an insurance company settling a claim directly with a personal injury victim of a policyholder, without the victim ...
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FSA chief warns over enforcement disruption
The scrapping of the Financial Services Authority must not disrupt a pipeline of pending insider dealing and market abuse cases, its enforcement chief warned this week. Margaret Cole (pictured), the FSA’s director of enforcement, said it is ‘vital that the momentum of enforcement activity is ...
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Former Mishcon partner in court
A former partner at City firm Mishcon de Reya last week appeared in court charged with using falsified bank documents to obtain a €22m (£18m) loan. The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) alleges that between 1 July 2008 and 22 August 2008, Kevin James Christopher Steele, 50, ...
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News
Courts report rise in personal injury claims
The number of personal injury claims filed in the High Court jumped 32% between 2006 and 2008, research has found. Claims relating to personal injury jumped 31.8% from 914 in 2006 to 1,205 in 2008, according to a study of the latest available figures by ...
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News
PII complaints initiative to cut premiums
A City law firm and an insurance broker are offering to take on complaints-handling work for law firms with a service that they claim could cut firms’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) premiums. Davies Arnold Cooper will provide 10 hours of free legal advice on internal and ...
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Insolvencies in Merseyside on the rise
Solicitor bankruptcies in the Merseyside area have risen sharply, the official receiver said last week.Ian Thomson, official receiver for Liverpool, said that there have been ‘more than the usual’ number of solicitors going bust over the last six months. Thomson estimated that in a normal year, between four and five ...
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Surge in Antipodean recruitment at UK law firms
Recruitment of lawyers from Australia and New Zealand has surged at UK law firms following the government’s relaxation of immigration rules for highly skilled workers. Associate solicitors from both countries are flocking to London to plug gaps in mid-tier City firms’ corporate practices, recruiters Badenoch & ...
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News
Partners approve US merger for Denton Wilde Sapte
City firm Denton Wilde Sapte and US firm Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal will merge to form SNR Denton this autumn, after partners approved the tie-up in a vote today. The new transatlantic firm, which will launch on 30 September, will comprise more than 1,400 lawyers spanning ...
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News
Jackson reforms ‘would benefit negligent corporations’
Negligent corporations and local authorities will have the scales of justice tipped in their favour if Lord Justice Jackson’s proposals on civil litigation costs are implemented in full, according to the firm involved in the case dubbed the ‘British Erin Brockovich’. Des Collins, senior partner at ...
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City firms look to spread financial risk
City firms are asking banks to devise special financial instruments to protect their income from unforeseen economic fluctuations, the Gazette has learned. The top 20 law firms have begun asking for bespoke exchange rate and interest rate products to manage financial risk, bankers said.
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‘Root-and-branch’ review of client financial protection
Solicitors’ professional indemnity insurance (PII) will be the subject of a ‘wide-ranging’ review by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, chair of the SRA board Charles Plant reveals in his Gazette column today. The PII review forms part of a ‘root-and-branch review of client financial protection’ also covering ...
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News
Coalition government to review legal services reforms
The coalition government is reviewing key reforms to legal complaints handling and the introduction of alternative business structures, as part of a wider review of regulatory measures inherited from the previous administration. Plans for a Legal Ombudsman service and ABSs have fallen under the scrutiny of ...
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Recession cuts are boosting profits – but at what cost?
As provisional financial results continue to roll in from big commercial law firms, a pattern is beginning to emerge: partners in these firms are, in the main, reaping healthy profits.