Sofia Lind

January 26, 2012 | International Edition

SJ Berwin saw staff numbers shrink by 9% during the last financial year, with the firm's 2010-11 limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts showing total staff fell from 1,002 to 914. The reduction, which saw the firm's support staff numbers reduce by 22, with lawyer count shrinking by 66 to 465, prompted total staff costs to drop by 5% to £69.5m.

By Sofia Lind

3 minute read

January 26, 2012 | International Edition

Bird & Bird has entered Denmark through a formal alliance with a local firm in a bid to expand its offering in the north European IT and media sectors.The strategic cooperation agreement with Danish boutique Bender von Haller Dragsted (BvHD) adds to the City firm's existing Nordic offering in Sweden and Finland.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

January 25, 2012 | International Edition

City media boutique Wiggin has become the latest law firm to confirm plans to take advantage of the Legal Services Act (LSA) with the addition of a non-lawyer CEO to its partnership. The firm has appointed longstanding COO John Banister as CEO of the firm and its first non-lawyer partner. The move, which has been approved by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA), saw Wiggin convert to a legal disciplinary partnership (LDP) on 1 December last year.

By Sofia Lind

3 minute read

January 24, 2012 | International Edition

CMS Cameron McKenna's 2010-11 limited liability partnership (LLP) accounts have revealed financial details of the City firm's controversial back-office outsourcing arrangement with Integreon, which went live in April last year. The accounts show Integreon is due to make an £8.7m payment to Camerons for taking on the service company housing virtually the whole of the law firm's back office support function last spring.

By Sofia Lind

3 minute read

January 20, 2012 | International Edition

Simmons & Simmons is set to make lawyer and support staff redundancies in the Middle East, with the firm's Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices affected due to tough market conditions. The firm declined to confirm how many people will be affected but said all were notified this week. The cuts will not affect the firm's Doha base or any of the staff in its Saudi affiliation office.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

January 19, 2012 | International Edition

Hill Dickinson and Kennedys have become the latest top 50 law firms to confirm plans to convert to an alternative business structure (ABS), as growing numbers of firms gear up for the 'Tesco Law' revolution. DAC Beachcroft, Field Fisher Waterhouse and Withers, as well as Keoghs, are all actively considering an ABS conversion, which permits non-lawyer ownership of law firms through either external capital injections or a float and allows law firms to tag on non-legal services.

By Sofia Lind

5 minute read

January 18, 2012 | International Edition

Bird & Bird has made a pair of lateral partner hires for its City base, including Olswang's former head of commercial litigation, Steven Baker. The top 15 UK firm has also hired a partner for its real estate practice, with Ed Cooke joining from DLA Piper. Both are already at Bird & Bird, with Cooke joining at the end of December and Baker in early January. Baker has been a partner at Olswang since 2002 and was head of commercial litigation until May 2010. He is also a former partner at Holman Fenwick Willan.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

January 17, 2012 | International Edition

HSBC has appointed a new chief legal officer ahead of the impending retirement of its managing director and general counsel, Richard Bennett. HSBC Holdings, parent company of the HSBC Group, has named former US Government lawyer and litigator Stuart Levey to serve in the post. He will work alongside Bennett until he retires at the end of 2012 after 33 years with the bank

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

January 17, 2012 | International Edition

Clifford Chance (CC) has clinched the key adviser role on the Royal Bank of Scotland's $7.3bn (£4.7bn) sale of its aircraft leasing business to Japanese banking giant Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation The deal, which has kept a large CC team busy for the last six months, is one of the biggest-ever corporate deals the firm has acted on for RBS.

By Sofia Lind

2 minute read

January 16, 2012 | International Edition

CMS Cameron McKenna has cancelled plans to move into a new City skyscraper still under development due to the ongoing problems in the global economy. Hammerson, the building's developer, issued a stock exchange announcement earlier this morning (16 January) stating that the firm had pulled out of discussions to take on around one-third of the space in its new Principal Place skyscraper in 2015.

By Sofia Lind

3 minute read