Legal Week

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

Dundas & Wilson has asked its staff to consider taking unpaid leave after the firm posted an 11.8% drop in revenues for the financial year. Turnover at the big four Scots firm fell to £66m from the previous year's figure of £74.8m, while the firm's profits per equity partner dropped by 20% from last year's figure of £385,000 to a new mark of £308,000.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

A former corporate partner in the New York office of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge is suing the firm after it fired him for failing to meet revenue expectations. Stephen Connoni, who joined the US firm in September 2007 but left one year later, sued the firm in April for allegedly "unilaterally and improperly" firing him without a required vote of the partnership and without paying him all that he was owed.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

Legal Week takes a look at some of the bait law firms are using during vacation schemes to hook potential recruits - including treasure hunts, medieval banquets and trips to New York. Linklaters underlines its credentials as an employer of sophisticated people with a taste for the finer things in life by whisking off its vac schemers to the theatre.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

Clifford Chance (CC) has seen the departure of two partners in Milan, with corporate partners Ian Tully and Massimo La Torre both leaving last week after seven years in the firm's partnership. Tully will join US firm Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle at the start of September as a partner in Milan. He will focus on corporate energy work and M&A. He is the fourth lateral partner hire the firm has made in Europe since January.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

Allen & Overy (A&O) is to roll out a flexible working scheme in a bid to retain staff struggling to find work/life balance. The magic circle law firm is consulting on a new initiative that will allow all staff - including partners - to work reduced hours or part-time.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

CMS Cameron McKenna, Eversheds and Simmons & Simmons have launched reviews expected to usher in merit-driven pay for assistants. The trio are mid-way through consultations that could see new pay structures in place by the next financial year - joining the growing rank of firms moving away from assistant lockstep.

By Legal Week

3 minute read

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

"I am an associate working in a small team in a mid-sized firm. For the last three months I have been putting in long hours because the trainee in the department is loathe to learn how to do the work to the required standard.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

July 22, 2009 | International Edition

A trio of international firms have advised on private equity giant Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co's (KKR's) merger with its European affiliate KKR Private Equity Investors (KPE), reports The Am Law Daily. The transaction has been approved by directors at KKR and KPE and will be completed on 1 October if a majority of KPE unit holders agree to the merger during voting in the third quarter. The deal could bring KKR one step closer to a public listing in New York, which it delayed last year amid turmoil in the credit markets.

By Legal Week

2 minute read

July 21, 2009 | International Edition

Legal Week takes a look at some of the bait law firms are using to hook potential recruits...

By Legal Week

3 minute read

July 21, 2009 | International Edition

The second quarter of 2008 was the first period for 16 years when the UK economy failed to grow. Since then, the onset of global recession has affected the vast majority of law firms, but the extent of that pain is only now being revealed as firms report their results for the last year.

By Legal Week

8 minute read