All articles by James Dean – Page 26
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Deals or no deals?
You don’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to detect that mergers and acquisitions are a little on the sparse side at the moment, but for those in need of statistics to back this up, Thomson Reuters has obliged.
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Increased competition for trainee jobs at top firms
Competition for traineeships with the UK’s biggest law firms has reached a new intensity, with an average of 130 graduates applying for each trainee job, new research suggests today. As many as 78 more applications per place are being made this year than in 2007/08, when ...
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Profits down by a third at City outfit Nabarro
City firm Nabarro today reported profits down by 35% and revenues down by 10%, describing the result as ‘disappointing’ but ‘not surprising’. Profits per equity partner declined from £574,000 in 2007/08 to £375,000 in the year ended 30 April. Revenues fell by 9.7%, from £140m to ...
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Freshfields overtakes CC as top UK firm by size
Freshfields has overtaken magic circle rival Clifford Chance as the biggest UK firm by revenue, posting a 9% rise in turnover to £1.29bn for the year ended 30 April. Profits per equity partner (PEP) were static at £1.44m. Clifford Chance, which was the largest firm ...
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Linklaters pushes ahead with revenues increase
Magic circle firm Linklaters today reported a slight increase in revenues to £1.30bn, placing it ahead of fellow magic circle firms Clifford Chance and Freshfields. Linklaters profits per equity partner (PEP) stood at £1.30m for the year to 30 April 2009, a fall of 9.6% on ...
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Taylor Wessing hit by 14% profits fall
City firm Taylor Wessing today reported global profits down by almost 14% despite a small rise in turnover, with its UK business hit hard by the economic downturn. The firm estimated that profitability in the UK was down 30% on 2007/08, with UK turnover falling by ...
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Ashurst partner pay falls below £1m
Partner pay at City firm Ashurst has plunged below the £1m mark, after the firm today reported a 35% fall in profits. Profits per equity partner fell from £1.04m in 2007/08 to £673,000 in the year to 30 April 2009. Revenues fell 7%, from £323m to ...
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Clifford Chance posts sharp drop in profits
Magic circle firm Clifford Chance today reported a sharp fall in profit per equity partner (PEP) on top of declining revenues. PEP for the year to 30 April 2009 was down 37% on 2007/08, falling from £1.15m to £733,000. Revenues fell 5%, from £1.33bn in 2008 ...
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In-house counsel lobby for trade secrets protection
A coalition of major international corporations is to lobby the European Parliament and commission in an attempt to secure better protection for trade secrets, the Gazette has learned. In-house counsel from the 10-strong coalition of companies assert that trade secrets do not receive adequate protection in ...
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Top legal aid firm avoids closure by HMRC
Top London legal aid firm Duncan Lewis has avoided being shut down by HM Revenue & Customs after falling behind in tax payments because of delayed settlements from the Legal Services Commission. A petition to wind up Duncan Lewis, last year the highest earning civil legal ...
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Income rises but profits fall at Field Fisher Waterhouse
City firm Field Fisher Waterhouse today reported an 8% increase in revenues, but predicted that profits would be down on last year. The firm’s turnover increased from £88m in 2007/08 to £95m for the year ended 30 April 2009. The firm did not release a figure ...
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Private equity firms target legal sector
Private equity firms are in ‘advanced negotiations’ over taking short-term stakes in leading law firms once they are allowed to do so, according to the peer in charge of reviewing legal regulation on behalf of the Law Society. ‘The figures they are talking about are astronomical,’ said Lord Hunt of ...
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European corporate counsel told that the recession provides a ‘golden opportunity’
With impeccable timing, the European chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) convened in Switzerland for its annual conference on 8 June. A few weeks earlier, the Swiss government had released draft legislation that could give corporate in-house counsel in Switzerland a right to professional privilege that does not ...
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ECJ trademark ruling deals blow to ‘lookalike’ products
The European Court of Justice has extended protection for trademarks in the EU in a judgment in L’Oréal v Bellure today. The claimants, cosmetics manufacturers L’Oréal, Lancôme, and Laboratoire Garnier, accused the defendants, Bellure, Malaika Investments and Starion International, of ...
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Norton Rose looks east with Australia merger
City firm Norton Rose is to merge with Australian firm Deacons to create the 1800-lawyer Norton Rose Group, the firms announced today. Once the merger comes into force on 1 January 2010, the new firm will have an estimated combined turnover of £420m, with 29 offices ...
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Sentencing and the attorney general
Whenever the attorney general sticks a political oar into judicial waters, constitutionalists start to get a little bit edgy. Perhaps, then, they were thankful that Baroness Scotland chose not to intervene in the Baby P sentencing earlier this week, thereby preventing the old arguments being reheated.
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Global Managing Partners Summit - exclusive report
When times are tough, it’s good to talk – no matter how big or how tough you think you are. But the annual Global Managing Partners Summit in London, chaired by Law Society vice-president Robert Heslett and Gazette editor Paul Rogerson, kicked off with an observation that this year’s financial ...
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Counselling the counsel
At the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, one theme resonated the loudest – and surprisingly, it had nothing to do with slashing panel law firms and cutting external legal spend. Still, external counsel shouldn’t breathe a sigh of relief just yet.
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Wragge & Co to axe 85 after income falls
Birmingham firm Wragge & Co has announced that it will cut up to 85 staff, after its revenues fell by nearly a fifth last year. The firm’s turnover for the 12 months to 30 April was £104.3m, down by 17.5% on last year’s ...
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Equity partners’ earnings plummet
Equity partners at top law firms will earn £110,000 less on average this year, early figures have suggested at the outset of the City’s reporting season. To date, the three major firms that have released a figure for profit per equity partner (PEP) have seen a combined average fall of ...